Beginning Tuesday, March 16, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will open its doors for special activities, tours and creativity for spring breakers of all ages. Docents and staff will showcase the very best of sketching in the galleries, storytime tours, family tours, creation stations and more.

When: Tuesday, March 16- Sunday, March 21

Where: The museum’s Audrey Jones Beck Building and Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street.

Activities: Spend your spring break at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston with activities for families and kids of all ages. Become an art detective and uncover works of art from around the world with Gallery Investigations, enjoy interactive tours designed specifically for kids and family, create your own art with creation stations, sketch in the galleries with an MFAH teaching artist, or borrow a Family Pack or Five Paintings to See with Your Little One and enjoy the MFAH at your own pace. Visit Mfah.org for more information. The top activities10 include:

1) CELEBRATE AN AMERICAN SEASON - See incomparable works by John Singer Sargent and Maurice Prendergast, FREE with museum admission.

2) BECOME AN ART DETECTIVE- Stop by for Gallery Investigations and discover symbols in ancient Egyptian art, learn how colors communicate ideas in a kente cloth from the Ewe community in Africa or explore traditional and contemporary art from India with an MFAH educator at this interactive experience. Drop in any time.

3) ENJOY GUIDED ART ACTIVITIES WITH THE WHOLE FAMILY –Enjoy Creation Stations, Family Tours, interactive tours and Sketching in the Galleries.

4)SEE TWO GREAT FILMS AND MEET TWO FILMMAKERS -
Meet two documentary filmmakers on March 20. Andrew Neel, grandson of artist Alice Neel, will present his film about his mom one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century. And Emily Kunstler presents a film about her father, William Kunstler - a crusading civil rights lawyer who later defended a host of characters while working for the American Civil Liberties Union.

5) CHECK OUT A FAMILY PACK – The MFAH Family Pack is a fun way for adults and children to learn about art together. Each pack includes hands-on activities and tools to explore the art and theme in the museum. Buildings and Beyond features activities and materials that teach you about architects and architecture, buildings IN art, and the MFAH architects and architecture. Family Packs are available at Membership Services in both museum buildings (Law Building and the Beck Building); they are free to check out with general museum admission and used within the museum. The packs are ideal for adults with children ages 4 – 12 years.

6) ENJOY THE MFAH AND CAFE EXPRESS COMBO DEAL FOR 10 OR MORE - Bring a group of 10 or more to the MFAH during March 16-21 and receive two free additional tickets with advance reservations. Make it a combo deal with a purchase of a lunch entrée at Cafe Express and receive a free appetizer and/or dessert and large cool drink. Call MFAH group sales at 713.639.7878 and make your spring break plans today.

7) ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL SPRING WEATHER IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN

8) PERUSE THE SELECTION OF NEW SPRING ITEMS IN THE SHOP - Find great gifts and rare art books and exhibition catalogs in the MFAH Shop and Bookstore.

9) BECOME A MEMBER THIS WEEK - and get a free glow ball with any membership purchase and enjoy a free art-making activity for members only.

10) EXPERIENCE THE GARDENS OF BAYOU BEND IN FULL BLOOM An amazing day of fun and entertainment awaits visitors with a full line-up of activities, demonstrations, and performances throughout the home and gardens at Bayou Bend Family Day. Tours of the home’s first floor are hosted by volunteers of the Houston Junior Woman’s Club. Stationed docents will be available for tours throughout the day. Refreshments will be served. Admission is FREE; (no reservations required).

Schedule: Tuesday, March 16
12:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Sargent and the Sea
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Explore Sargent’s artistic process and his passion for the sea on this 45-minute talk.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Gallery Investigations
Law Building, Gallery 205
Become an art detective with Gallery Investigations! Discover Pre-Columbian art with an MFAH educator at this interactive experience. Drop in any time.

Wednesday, March 17
12:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Art in the Afterlife
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Explore works in the MFAH collection that were created for use in the afterlife on this 45-minute talk.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Gallery Investigations
Beck Building, Gallery 200
Become an art detective with Gallery Investigations! Discover symbols in ancient Egyptian art with an MFAH educator at this interactive experience. Drop in any time.

Thursday, March 18
10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Family Tour
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Designed just for kids and families, this interactive tour includes hands-on activities and looking games. Tour length: 30 to 45 minutes. Recommended ages: 4+.

11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Creation Station: Flying Flags of Venice
Lower level Beck Building, Farish Classroom
Create your own art inspired by the colorful, waving flags in works from the Prendergast in Italy exhibition at this art-making workshop. Drop in anytime. Recommended ages: 4+.

11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Sketching in the Galleries

Beck Building – Gallery LL1
Let an MFAH teaching artist guide your sketching experience in the galleries as you draw art from the museum’s collections. Materials provided.

12:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Sculpture: Art in Three Dimensions
Meet in the Law Building lobby.
Explore the rich tradition of sculpture on this 45-minute talk.

7:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Fashion Forward
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
View works of art that have fashion at the forefront, from paintings where clothes make the person to jewelry that expressed far more than a great wardrobe ensemble, on this 45-minute talk.

7:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Spotlight on Two Views of Venice: Canaletto and Prendergast
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Examine divergent views of the “City of Canals” from the perspectives of an 18th century Italian and a turn-of-the-20th century American on this 20-minute talk.

7:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Spotlight on Contemporary Photography
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Discover a wide-ranging, global selection of post-1960 photographs — many of which are on view for the first time — on this 20-minute talk.

Friday, March 19

12:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Women and the Arts
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Discover the roles women have played in the arts — from artists to patrons — on this 45-minute talk.

1:30 p.m.
Friday Afternoon Lecture: The Lens of Impressionism: Art Along the Normandy Coast
Presented by David E. Brauer, Senior Lecturer, Glassell School of Art, MFAH
Discover the profound contribution of France’s Normandy Coast to the evolution of early Impressionism.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Gallery Investigations
Law Building, Gallery 204M
Become an art detective with Gallery Investigations! Learn how colors communicate ideas in a kente cloth from the Ewe community in Africa at this interactive experience. Drop in any time.

6:00 p.m.
Fine Arts Fridays Pre-Event Lecture: Alice Neel and the Photographic Image
Brown Auditorium Theater
Presented by Jeremy Lewison, independent curator, an advisor to the Estate of Alice Neel, co-author of the exhibition catalogue, and co-curator of the exhibition.

Saturday, March 20
11:00 a.m.
Members’ Tour: Americans Abroad: Sargent and Prendergast
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Explore the exhibitions Sargent and the Sea and Prendergast in Italy on this 1-hour tour. Reservations required. RSVP to 713-353-1550.

12:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Spotlight on Prendergast in Italy
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Discover works in the exhibition produced by American artist Maurice Prendergast while on trips to Italy in 1898 and 1911 on this 20-minute talk.

1:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Architecture of the MFAH
Meet in the Law Building lobby.
Explore the architecture of the MFAH as a work of art — from the original 1924 building to the Beck Building addition which opened in 2000 — on this 45-minute talk.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Spring Break Family Activity: Gallery Investigations
Law Building, Gallery 106M
Become an art detective with Gallery Investigations! Discover traditional and contemporary art from India with an MFAH educator at this interactive experience. Drop in any time.

2:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Line versus Color
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
See examples of how the stylistic competition between line and color played out over centuries of European painting on this 45-minute talk.

3:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Spotlight on Houston’s Sargents
Meet in the Beck Building lobby.
Explore a sample of John Singer Sargent’s ouevre— from views of the Rockies and Cairo to the society portraits for which he is so well known — on this 20-minute talk.

4:00 p.m.
Saturday Afternoon Lecture: The Lens of Impressionism: Art Along the Normandy Coast
Presented by David E. Brauer, Senior Lecturer, Glassell School of Art, MFAH
Discover the profound contribution of France’s Normandy Coast to the evolution of early Impressionism.

Sunday, March 21
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Creation Station: Colors on the Water
Beck Building – Southwestern Bell Studio
Create your own water scene using bright colors, inspired by a work of art in the Prendergast in Italy exhibition, at this family-friendly workshop. Drop in anytime.

1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Sketching in the Galleries
Beck Building – Gallery LL1
Observe, learn and create! Let our teaching artist guide your sketching experience in the galleries. Drop in anytime.

1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Family Tour
Meet at Southwestern Bell Studio.
Explore a different work of art each week on this interactive tour for kids and families. Tour length: 30 to 45 minutes. Recommended ages: 4+.

2:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Architecture of the MFAH
Meet in the Law Building lobby.
Explore the architecture of the MFAH as a work of art — from the original 1924 building to the 2000 Beck addition — on this 45-minute talk.

3:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Art and Ancestry
Meet in the Law Building lobby.
Discover works of art that were created to worship, honor, or venerate ancestors on this 45-minute talk.

1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Bayou Bend Family Day
FREE
Envelop yourself in the splendor of Bayou Bend in springtime and learn about nature too. Among the spectacular blooming trees and azaleas enjoy the nature-inspired crafts from local groups. Explore the movements of birds and insects through dance and take a tour of the collection specializing in works inspired by nature itself. Make time to visit with the many animals in our petting zoo and even create your own flowers and crawling creatures.