<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-1580324 size-full-width" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/CAMH_VincentValdez_20241118_001.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt=": A dark-painted gallery wall displays a large, hyper-realistic portrait of a tattooed man with red and blue lighting against a purple-pink gradient background, with smaller framed works extending around the surrounding walls." width="970" height="647" data-caption='“Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream…” at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2024. <span class=”media-credit”>Courtesy Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Image: Peter Molick.</span>’>
Houston is not often recognized for its art scene, largely due to outdated misconceptions that fail to reflect the city’s dynamic community of artists and formidable institutions. Between the Menil’s world-class collection, the rich programming of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the city has a vibrant and far-reaching network of cultural activity.
But with the launch of Untitled Art in Houston this week, the art world is finally redirecting its gaze toward the city’s creative momentum and rapidly expanding collector base—especially as major tech players like Tesla and SpaceX establish hubs there. Against this backdrop, we spoke with two Houston natives and central figures in its cultural scene, Ryan N. Dennis and Melissa McDonnell Luján, who have stepped up as co-directors of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Before CAMH’s announcement of this new collaborative leadership model, Dennis and Luján already held key roles as chief curator and chief officer, together bringing more than 20 years of experience within Houston’s arts ecosystem. “We were both hired as part of a larger initiative to expand the museum’s campus,” Dennis explains, noting that Luján’s deep experience with campus expansion—at the Menil Collection and beyond—has been crucial to the effort. Dennis, meanwhile, has focused on growing the curatorial program and extending exhibitions beyond the museum’s walls, building on her past work with Project Row Houses and other community-based initiatives across the South.
Since its founding in 1948, CAMH has embraced a rare and forward-thinking non-collecting model—closer to an ICA in spirit and well ahead of its time—focused on creating a responsive platform attuned to the needs of its community. Currently, the museum’s underground level is hosting an exhibition of teen-created art, spotlighting Houston’s young talent while introducing them to the many career pathways in the art and museum worlds. The entire show was developed collaboratively, with teens involved in everything from curating to writing captions and installing the work. “The Teen Council has been running for 25 years, which is something we’re very proud of,” says Dennis, noting how uncommon it is for museums to give such visibility and agency to teen programs, even if at CAMH, it has long been central to the institution’s programming. “The Teen Council offers young creative minds the chance to learn how a museum operates, from organizing a show to developing the didactic materials accompanying it.”
Luján points out that the Teen Council reflects a broader shift that began when museums started more intentionally integrating education into their core missions. “It reflects a long-standing interest in connecting education with curatorial practice,” she explains. The upcoming campus expansion is expected to deepen this integration by creating dedicated space that brings curatorial production into closer dialogue with public and educational programming.
CAMH has occupied its current building for 54 years, and while it still feels fresh and contemporary, Luján reminds us that it’s a historic structure shaped by a different era of museum design—one that doesn’t always align with the evolving role of institutions and the expectations of today’s audiences. At the time of construction, CAMH’s leadership worked closely with the architect to design a space that prioritized artists, with a focus on open and accessible exhibition-making. That original intent still holds: the building remains a highly adaptable venue, with two floors of open space capable of accommodating ambitious exhibitions and large-scale installations.
During Houston Art Week, for instance, visitors will encounter a survey of Tomashi Jackson’s decade-long, socially engaged practice, which fills the entire ground floor with a fluid display of works that guide viewers through the artist’s evolving visual language—at the intersection of formal abstraction and social justice.
Still, certain needs were overlooked when the building was first conceived, including social and green spaces that would position the museum not only as a container for culture but as a welcoming public platform. “Museums today are expected to be more than just places to look at art; they’re destinations where people spend time,” Luján acknowledges, pointing out that many peer institutions have since renovated or expanded to introduce visible education, collaboration and gathering spaces. “That’s something we’re actively thinking about: what’s missing in our building, and how we can address those gaps.”
<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-1580320 size-full-width" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/AR523927-1.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="Two large abstract paintings hang side by side on a white gallery wall, one in bright yellow and orange vertical stripes with blurred figures, the other layered with red, blue, and black diagonal patterns stretched and folded over its frame." width="970" height="647" data-caption='A view of “Tomashi Jackson: Across The Universe.” <span class=”media-credit”>Photo: Alex Barber</span>’>
Art beyond the museum’s walls
For more than 15 years, CAMH has grappled with the limits of its physical footprint. But over the past decade, Dennis and Luján have built a network of strong partnerships that extend the museum’s reach well beyond its walls. “Whether it’s working with HISD teachers or launching Rebirth in Action with the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy just a few miles away, these initiatives allow us to engage with the community without having to build a second museum… yet,” Dennis points out.
The Rebirth in Action initiative exemplifies how a contemporary art institution like CAMH can drive meaningful social impact, particularly for historically underserved communities. Rebirth in Action: Telling the Story of Freedom is a multi-year, community-led project focused on preserving the history, heritage and physical fabric of Houston’s Freedmen’s Town (Fourth Ward), supported by more than $1 million in funding and the involvement of internationally recognized artist and community organizer Theaster Gates. His 2024 CAMH exhibition, “Theaster Gates: The Gift and the Renege,” functioned both as a research platform and a public forum, spotlighting the material history of Freedmen’s Town—a 19th-century neighborhood built by formerly enslaved Africans in Texas after the U.S. Civil War. The exhibition brought national attention to this legacy while actively advancing preservation efforts, reflecting both the story and the future of Freedmen’s Town.
Gates, whose practice often explores community heritage reconstruction and socially engaged architecture, described the project as “my sculptural attempt to demonstrate the ways that industrial landscapes, displacement and the historical fight for land rights push the boundaries of modernist and formalist architectural approaches in my practice.” Freedmen’s Town remains the most intact community of its kind left in the U.S., though decades of disinvestment, policy failures and shifting socio-political dynamics—especially during the 1980s and 1990s—left it deeply vulnerable. Reversing that trajectory is both a political act and an affirmation of the importance of Black cultural preservation.
At the heart of this effort are the historic brick streets, purchased and laid by Freedmen’s Town residents themselves, which stand as enduring symbols of self-determination. CAMH has partnered with the City of Houston, neighborhood residents, Gates and the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy to preserve these bricks. As Gates notes, to honor them—“laden with complex American historical narratives”—is already an act of recognition and understanding. “Ultimately, they will be ceremoniously returned to the neighborhood and housed within this new public artwork,” Dennis explains. “It’s a beautiful project: one we often call ‘the gift that keeps on giving’ because it will continue to serve the community over time.”
CAMH’s work in preserving Freedmen’s Town’s legacy also continues through CAMHLAB, an artist residency program created to generate research, offer historical context and connect artists and audiences to the neighborhood’s stories. Each month-long residency culminates in a public presentation of the artist’s work within Freedmen’s Town itself.
For CAMH, Rebirth in Action has also reshaped how the institution conceives of public art. “It’s not just about producing an object but about creating meaningful engagement and activation spaces in collaboration with local residents and partners,” says Luján. “While this type of public art initiative may not become a regular part of our programming, our intention is to continue exploring ways to make public art a vehicle for connection—not just display.” This ethos extends to other partnerships as well, including collaborations with Houston First and TAG (Teaching Artists in the Classroom). “Together, these initiatives allow us to extend CAMH’s reach beyond the museum’s walls and engage with the city in new, community-centered ways,” Dennis explains, noting that many of these collaborations emerge directly from artists’ exhibitions.
For Dennis and Luján, these projects are not peripheral—they are integral to CAMH’s mission and programming. Dennis emphasizes they are “much more than just a side public program.” Rather, they see them as forms of public art that emerge organically from exhibitions and the ideas embedded in artists’ work. “It’s often a collaborative process—a conversation between the artist, the museum and the community—that leads to an extension of the exhibition beyond the gallery walls,” Luján explains. “Rebirth in Action is a perfect example of how that can happen.”
Focusing on meaning and impact rather than volume, CAMH has recently scaled back the number of exhibitions it presents. “Typically, we rotate between four and six exhibitions a year. Right now, though, we’re experimenting with longer presentation periods,” explains Luján. The current Tomashi Jackson exhibition, for example, is on view for 10 months.
Part of this shift reflects the broader moment, Dennis notes. “It’s a challenging time globally, with shifting financial realities—so we’re being thoughtful about how we program,” she clarifies. Extending the run of key exhibitions not only eases financial pressure but also allows more visitors to experience the work and gives the community deeper opportunities for engagement. For Dennis and Luján, longer durations also enhance accessibility. “We’ve found that having longer exhibition durations allows for more to happen and creates a bigger impact—both for the institution and for young audiences or school groups.”
Houston’s overlooked art scene
When asked why Houston’s art ecosystem has historically struggled to gain recognition compared to other cities or rising art hubs, Luján describes the past decade as “more like an ebb and flow rather than steady growth.” “There’s been a sense that growth hasn’t been linear,” she reflects. “Many institutions in Houston have experienced similar shifts in leadership and organizational change. First-generation directors who shaped these organizations are retiring or moving on, which naturally creates fluctuations.” Even now, she adds, many of her peers are focused on maintaining stability amid federal funding uncertainty and changes in state-level philanthropy.
Still, the city’s cultural depth may come as a powerful and engaging surprise to those making the trip during Houston Art Week. “People often look to the coasts, but Houston has a wide range of arts organizations and world-class institutions, and then there’s this network of smaller organizations doing remarkable work, which makes the city truly special,” Dennis notes.
That breadth, however, can also pose a challenge. Luján points out that Houston has struggled to tell a cohesive story about its institutions and cultural resources. “The arts community here is spread out; there isn’t a single, concentrated area where someone can easily engage with everything,” she says. “For those who aren’t insiders—particularly people not working directly in arts and culture—it can be difficult to navigate and discover what’s happening.”
Yet for Dennis, the lack of media attention isn’t unique to Houston but rather part of a broader Southern blind spot. “This is why writing about Houston—its initiatives, artists and cultural spaces—is so important,” she says. “It helps decentralize the narrative and highlight all the activity and creativity happening here.”
One of CAMH’s ongoing goals is to better communicate this network—not just for its own visibility, but to strengthen the city’s arts ecosystem as a whole. “We want to highlight how interconnected these spaces are and help audiences understand the depth and breadth of Houston’s cultural ecosystem.” The launch of Untitled Art in Houston could catalyze that effort, drawing new attention to what’s already happening in the South while uniting the city’s diverse cultural players under a shared spotlight.
During Houston Art Week, CAMH will host special programming both inside and outside the museum, including guided tours of its current exhibition and the launch of a new award created in collaboration with the fair. The award will fund the creation of new work to be presented at Untitled Art, Houston in 2026. To support the initiative, limited-edition prints of Vincent Valdez’s It Was a Very Good Year (1986) will be sold through Gary Lichtenstein Editions. The original work was created by Valdez in Houston while working out of CAMH Studio during his recent exhibition “Just a Dream…” and is part of a larger series reflecting on formative moments that unfolded on American television screens during the 1980s.
Looking ahead, the museum will open an extensive solo exhibition of Mario Ayala in November. His airbrushed compositions will take over the space, celebrating the vibrancy of Latino pop and urban subcultural vernacular. Playful as much as critical, Ayala’s work will directly engage Houston’s communities through humor, saturated pop references and incisive commentary on displacement, labor, race and cultural survival.
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