Reflections on a visit to the San Angelo Museumof Fine Art
Yesterday, we drove to San Angelo, Texas to visit the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art. The visit was arranged by my Museum Education professor who truly goes above and beyond what the course catalog for the class asks of her. I wish there was a place on her evaluations for us to relay this information, but I guess I’ll have to write it in myself. I’m sure I’ll reflect more on this trip later in the form of topical musings on the different ideas I picked up there, but for now I just want to say that the trip was really excellent.
The museum sits on the river in a really hip, new building reminiscent of a warehouse. The architect is quite fond of masonry so the interior and exterior feature raw limestone from different depths of the quarry. It really adds for a nice affect as the museum building is an asset to the educational mission of the museum. Or at least, it could be. And given that on the tour of the director, the relationship of the limestone to the region and the design was explained to me, I believe it must be. As you may have been able to guess in the measly two posts featured so far on this blog, I love architecture. Love, love, love architecture, especially in the context of museum design. If done correctly, the museum building can be the first object in a museum’s collection. At SAMFA, this is accomplished really well.
I also love how the museum functions within the community. It provides, with the city of San Angelo, a beautiful river walk near an amphitheater. They have event space that overlooks the walk, a kitchen, and a strip of storefronts that offer an education center and a community gallery. The two spaces in between the education center and the gallery will soon be an apartment and studio for an artist-in-residency. Also on the museum campus, a building with a larger education studio, a clay studio and kilns for San Angelo State’s ceramics.
San Angelo is located directly between two interstates, about one-hundred miles from either, but it’s certainly worth the visit. I’m sure future exhibits will be great, but I’m fond of the ones I saw yesterday and may be coercing my friends into a trip back where we can spend more time looking at art and less thinking about The Museum in theory.