Preparation for a New Year – New Exhibits!

At HCCC, we are beginning our New Year with two exciting new exhibitions!  Lisa Gralnick: The Gold Standard and Inverted Harmony: A Handmade Environment by Jenine Bressner  open on Friday, January 21, from 5:30 – 8:00 PM.  If you visit our galleries before the opening reception, you will be greeted by a small sign asking you to “excuse our mess,” as we are in between exhibitions.  This doesn’t mean there isn’t anything happening in the galleries; our staff is busy behind closed doors getting the space ready for the new exhibits.

Two of our favorite staff members de-installing
Marianne McGrath’s piece, Yours, Mine & Ours…,
from the CraftTexas 2010 exhibition that just ended.

What happens behind those doors, you ask? At a larger institution, such as the MFAH, there is a preparation and installation department, often shortened to “prep department.” The department works tirelessly prior to exhibitions—painting gallery walls, installing complicated sculptures and making sure all the artwork is lit and ready to go.  Here at HCCC, we don’t have a separate prep department.  Instead, multiple members of our small staff pitch in to help take down and put up new shows. This means that one week, we could be researching and writing text panels, and the next week, we could be painting pedestals.

In the upcoming weeks, we will have posts about these two new exhibits, but for now, we are in the galleries getting the space ready for the opening reception—we hope to see you there!