LUBBOCK This week, the Museum of Texas Tech University announced its exhibitions and events for the fall semester.
Those exhibits include ‘A History of Walls: The Borders We Build,’ ‘South American Splendor: Highlights from the Thoma Foundation,’ Mountain Mist: Clever Marketing to Beautiful Treasures’ and ‘Student Attire: Prom Gowns, Letter Jackets and Beanies.’
The exhibits are currently on display.
In addition, the museum will also host two special events in the fall including Thoma Collection Gallery Lecture from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 7 in the Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court and a book signing from 7-9 p.m. Sept. 13 at the same location.
Communications and Marketing Director at the Museum of Texas Tech University Laura Ray says that these exhibitions and events from this fall semester shows how many different things the museum has to offer.
“The museum is such a special and great place here in Lubbock,” Ray said. “We have so many great diverse things that we can offer. That’s one of my favorite things about this museum. We offer so many different things. Typically, some museums have one particularly thing, like it’s just art or it’s just natural science. We’re able to offer all of those things. We’re able to offer a clothing and textiles portion. We’re able to offer a great art exhibition. We’re able to offer a natural science exhibition. We’re also able to offer some great educational activities that have art and have lectures. We’re able to offer all of those things that are free and open to the public.”
The ‘Student Attire: Prom Gowns, Letter Jackets and Beanies’ exhibition is from the museum’s Clothing and Textiles division and presents an examination of styles worn by students at Texas Tech as well as other pieces worn in local high schools and other colleges and universities across the state of Texas.
Included in this exhibit are three first-year student beanies, bearing the year the incoming students were to graduate, a pair of boots made specially to bring to Texas Tech by one of its first incoming students, high school letter jackets and a college letter sweater as well as beautiful prom and other gowns for the formal occasions.
Enhancing the exhibition are images of students from the 1920s to 2000s from La Ventana, the Texas Tech University yearbook which shows the hairstyles and activities of the eras.
“It details the fashions worn throughout the last one hundred years which coincide with the upcoming 100 year anniversary of Texas Tech University,” Ray said.
The exhibition will be running through Feb. 5, 2023.
‘A History of Walls: The Borders We Build’ is a traveling exhibition that features the infamous Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, the Israel-West Bank Barrier and the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall and examines their individual roles in historical, cultural and political contexts. Both inclusive and engaging, all text in the exhibition is provided in English and Spanish and includes an interactive element that asks visitors to consider the walls in their lives.
“It explores four major walls that were built around the world and have been explored what they mean,” Ray said. “They make you think what these walls were meant to do. The exhibit translates to what walls do you build in your own life which is kind of interesting.”
‘South American Splendor: Highlights from the Thoma Foundation’ features 11 works of art from the 17th to 19th centuries that are part of the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation Collection.
The Thoma Foundation’s “Art of the Spanish Americas” collection contains more than 175 works from the 17th to 19th centuries, principally paintings from South America.
The 11 works in ‘South American Splendor’ includes religious themes and portraits, primarily in the oil-on-canvas medium.
Sizes vary from 25-by-20-inches to 6.5-by-8.75 feet.
“This one is really exciting,” Ray said. “We have 11 works of art from 500-600 years ago which is really incredible. Some of them are bigger than six feet tall. They’re very large, life-sized pieces.”
The exhibit will run through Nov. 6.
In conjunction with the ‘South American Splendor’ exhibition, the Museum of Texas Tech and the Museum Association will host a gallery lecture from 6-9 p.m., Sept. 7 in the Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court.
The lecture is free to attend and will include wine and hors d’oeuvres.
“With this exhibition, we were able to put together some fantastic programming where we will have a gallery lecture that we brought in a curator from the Thoma Foundation to give a talk about the collection and explore more of the topic of these art works,” Ray said
Ray warned that space is limited.
“We need people to RSVP by Aug. 31 to attend that one,” Ray said. “We’re able to take a hundred people for that one. As far as I know, we have spots available so people are able to RSVP for that.”
The lecture will be presented by Rosario I. Granados, the Marilynn Thoma Associate Curator for the “Art of the Spanish Americas” collection at the Thoma Foundation. The topic is “Gleaming Garments for God and the King: Andean Colonial Paintings from the Thoma Collection.”
Mountain Mist is one of the few companies that produces and sells batting, which is used as the middle layer in the construction of quilts and sold wrapped in protective paper.
In 1929, the company began printing images of various quilt patterns on the outside of the paper wrapping and, on the inside, complete quilting patterns with full instructions for one of the quilts.
The exhibition features 38 quilts made using these patterns, along with printing plates, booklets and other promotional materials from the campaign and shows the history of a clever marketing tool that produced timeless treasures.
The exhibition will run through Jan. 15, 2023.
Another event taking place at the museum will be a book signing from 7-9 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Museum’s Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court and Auditorium.
The event will be held in collaboration with Texas Tech University Press, the Natural Science Research Laboratory.
The event will also include a presentation ‘Texas Natural history in the 21st Century,’ followed by light refreshments and a gallery tour of ‘Biodiversity on the Llano Estacado.’
The book “Texas Natural History in the 21st Century” was authored by David J. Schmidly, Robert D. Bradley and Lisa C. Bradley and will be available for purchase.
The Museum of Texas Tech is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays and closed on Mondays.
For more information, go to tinyurl.com/6mmnvsxn.
If you go
- What: “A History of Walls: The Borders We Build.”
- Where: Museum of Texas Tech University.
- When: On display through Oct. 16.
If you go
- What: “South American Splendor: Highlights from the Thoma Foundation.”
- Where: Museum of Texas Tech University.
- When: On display through Nov. 6.
If you go
- What: “Mountain Mist: Clever Marketing to Beautiful Treasures.”
- Where: Museum of Texas Tech University.
- When: On display through Jan. 15, 2023.
If you go
- What: “Student Attire: Prom Gowns, Letter Jackets and Beanies.”
- Where: Museum of Texas Tech University.
- When: On display through Feb. 5, 2023.
If you go
- What: Thoma Collection Gallery Lecture.
- Where: Museum of Texas Tech University (Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court).
- When: 6-9 p.m. Sept. 7.
If you go
- What: Book signing.
- Where: Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court and Auditorium.
- When: 7- 9 p.m. Sept. 13.
