Houston’s beloved Menil Collection has a gift for art lovers this holiday season: a brand-new exhibition honoring one of the most imaginative curators of the 20th century. How to Make an Exhibition: The Story of Jermayne MacAgy opens on December 11, 2026, in the Main Building and runs through July 18, 2027, as part of the museum’s joyful 40th anniversary year.
Jermayne MacAgy (1914–1964) was a San Francisco- and Houston-based curator, art historian, and museum director whose dynamic, groundbreaking installations changed the way people experience art. She belonged to a vanguard that turned the art museum into a place of conversation and learning, and her influence is woven into Houston’s cultural DNA: working closely with Menil founders John and Dominique de Menil from the mid-1950s, she encouraged them to build a teaching collection, display art in ways that spark curiosity, and ultimately helped shape the creation of the Rothko Chapel. Her untimely death even inspired some of Andy Warhol’s first silkscreen portraits.
Organized chronologically, the exhibition guides visitors through groups of works inspired by — or included in — some of MacAgy’s most influential shows of the 1940s–1960s, from the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to the University of St. Thomas and the Contemporary Arts Association in Houston. As Menil director Rebecca Rabinow notes, MacAgy’s imaginative displays once “knocked my socks off” — and now a new generation can discover why her vision still shines.
As always, admission to the Menil Collection is free, so bring the whole family to celebrate a woman who taught museums — and Houston — how to make art talk. More details at menil.org. Happy City News will keep you posted as opening day approaches.
Photo: The Menil Collection
