February 21, 2009: Texas History Museum’s “Forgotten
Gateway” and
Blanton Art Museum’s “Birth of the Cool”
Friday was a
whirlwind, with three major events and our apartment ceiling
being ripped out and replaced - all simultaneously. We
made it to the Washington Wine Commission tasting event (see
below) before heading to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum for the
VIP opening of the new “Forgotten
Gateway: Coming to America Through Galveston Island”
exhibit.
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As I mentioned
earlier, my mother’s family immigrated from Sweden
through Galveston, and my mother and I contributed a video
presentation of our family history for the exhibit. So we
met Mom and Dad at the reception, which featured exceptional
eats by local ethnic restaurants.
We visited the Bob
Bullock on Tuesday night for the media preview of the exhibit,
but only about 50% of the exhibit had been installed. Our
personal tour with guest curator Dr. Suzanne Seriff and
marketing expert Christian Scarborough made for a fun night,
but we were anxious to experience the completed exhibit.
The exhibit itself turned
out quite exceptional, with almost one hundred artifacts and
extensive media usage to tell the story of American migration
through Texas. The exhibit represents the first time that
Galveston’s legacy as a port of entry has been fully
explored on a national scale, and the first time the Bob
Bullock Museum has created an exhibit of this
scale in-house. Following its
Austin run through October 2009, the exhibit will tour museums
throughout the nation, with an expected stop at the Smithsonian
in Washington, DC.
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We rushed across the
street to the Director’s Circle Preview Partyopening of
“The Birth of the Cool” at the Blanton Art Museum,
but we only had 15 minutes to make our greetings and tour the
exhibit. Since a whirlwind tour of the exceptional
exhibit could not do it justice, we'll honor the personal
invites from Blanton Director Ann Wilson and Public Relations
and Marketing Director Brady Dyer, and return next week for a
proper tour and report.