Houston’s World Renowned Museum Is Closing for Eight Months

But Its Celebrity Devotees Get a New Building to Ooh Over

By Jailyn Marcel // Jun 14, 2017

Photography Don Glentzer

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The Menil Collection celebrates 30 years this fall, and has just announced it will get a facelift in early 2018 for its next decades.

The Menil Collection celebrates 30 years this fall, and has just announced a facelift in early 2018 for its next decades.

The Menil Collection's serene modern and contemporary galleries will temporary close.

The Menil Collection's serene modern and contemporary galleries will temporarily close.

Renzo Piano's The Menil Collection, opened 1987, is among the 20th-century's most significant buildings.

A visitor strolls through the modern and contemporary galleries of the museum that has always been free.

A view down the museum halls into the galleries; the Menil is set for a refurbishing of its floors, closing next February, 2018, for eight months.

Patron Dominique de Menil worked with Renzo Piano on perfecting the design for the at-that-time privately funded museum, which was Piano's first ever commission in America.

The Menil's African art galleries, one of four collecting areas of focus

The quiet Montrose neighborhood that envelopes the museum makes it unique among art institutions in the world.

Even one of the world’s most vaunted museums needs a facelift from time to time. The Menil Collection — one of the city’s most famed art destinations (even Beyoncé is a fan) — revealed today that it will close its Renzo Piano-designed main building for eight months to execute necessary repairs.

The Houston museum, which touts one of the world’s most significant architecture designs of the last 50 years — as well as fabled holdings of Surrealism, ancient art, modern and contemporary painting and sculpture, and African art — is set to undergo floor restoration as well as an update of its fire detection system.

Following 30 years of wear and tear, the renovations will include sanding, staining, and sealing the building’s entire floor — a process that must be completed all at once given the floor spans the full length of the building, all of which is being funded by The Menil Collection’s $115 million Campaign for the Menil.

But don’t grieve just yet. Patrons still have time to traipse through the art-filled venue as the Menil’s official closure won’t begin until February 26, 2018. The date follows the conclusion of the museum’s “Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma” exhibit, which launches October 13 and lasts through February 25, 2018.

The much-anticipated Menil Drawing Institute, which is set to make its debut on the expansive grounds this October 7, will luckily provide some solace while the museum’s main attraction temporarily closes its doors.

The eagerly awaited Drawing Institute will be among the few institutions in the world devoted to the study, exhibition, and conservation of modern and contemporary drawings. Designed by L.A. boutique architecture firm Johnston Marklee, the intimate, 30,000 square-foot building, promises to be a pilgrimage site for art and architectural acolytes. Its price tag? A modest $40 million by modern museum standards.

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The Cy Twombly Gallery, Byzantine Fresco Chapel, Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, Menil Bookstore, Menil Park, and Bistro Menil will remain open throughout the renovations.

Expect the Menil’s main building to be back in action Fall 2018, in time for its 31st year.

PaperCity arts editor Catherine D. Anspon contributed to this report.