 |
 |
Our third installment comes from Martha Gonzalez Palacios, currently at the University of Oregon, and formerly at the University of Texas at Austin: In the six years I spent in Texas I had the opportunity to visit Fort Worth several times and I can tell fellow ARLIS/NA members that it is absolutely worth it... no pun intended. It is not just the amazing art museums with world-class collections and striking buildings designed by renowned architects; Fort Worth has much more to offer: history museums, art galleries, gardens, and more. Two of my personal top picks are the Botanical Research Institute of Texas<http://www.brit.org/> (BRIT) and The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth<http://www.themodern.org/> (The Modern). The Modern is one of my favourite museum buildings, not just in Texas but anywhere in the world. Tadao Ando's masterful use of bare concrete and glass provide a perfect setting for modern and contemporary art, and, as in many of his buildings, natural light elevates circulation areas to spaces that do much more than connecting the exhibition rooms. This is a building that makes me fall in love with architecture all over again: it embodies both boldness and serenity. Make sure to make time to visit the Modern either during the Society Circle Reception<http://sched.co/27fi> or on your own. [IMG_1026] The BRIT was a wonderful discovery during the ARLIS/NA Texas-Mexico Chapter meeting in 2011. The BRIT campus includes a platinum LEED-certified building and grounds designed to showcase and test sustainable practices. The BRIT building holds an herbarium that contains more than one million plant specimens and a library with over 125,000 volumes that includes many rare books dating as far back as the sixteenth century. These collections support the research staff that focuses on projects related to biodiversity, botany, and sustainability, and complement their strong outreach and education program. If you haven't made plans yet for Friday morning, I highly recommend joining the BRIT: Sustainable Architecture in Texas<http://arlisna2015.sched.org/event/ec43f49eaa09fb44044c30df131e5b2a> tour. [IMG_1019] So if you haven't yet registered for the conference, now is the time! https://www.arlisna.org/fortworth2015/reg.php. See y'all in Fort Worth! Eric M. Wolf ARLIS/NA 43rd Annual Conference Publicity Co-Chair Eric M. Wolf Head Librarian The Menil Collection 1511 Branard Street Houston, TX 77006 (713) 525-9426 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~