Severe damage to the roof of the Museum's special exhibition gallery during the April 12 hailstorm has forced the Museum to close its exhibition Corita Kent and the Language of Pop three weeks early. It was originally scheduled to close May 8, 2016. Fortunately, no art was harmed during the storm.
The Museum staff has worked tirelessly with contractors and roofers to see how quickly the roof could be replaced and the damage repaired. "We had hoped this would be a temporary closing, but unfortunately it was not possible to re-open," said Director Katie Luber.
The Museum has another exhibition—Highest Heaven—opening the first week of June, and repairs will not be finished before the third week of May. "It left us no turnaround time," added Luber. Highest Heaven: Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Art from the Collection of Roberta and Richard Huber travels from San Antonio to two other art institutions, so it was not an option to open that exhibition later. "We have tried to think about this from every angle. It is breaking our hearts to have to close Corita Kent early. We thank the community and the Harvard Art Museums for their great support and understanding."
For those whose interest may have been piqued by the Corita Kent feature on CBS Sunday Morning on April 3, 2016, the Museum will continue to present four videos from the exhibition that show the artist at work. They will play on a continuous loop in the auditorium during Museum hours. This is free of charge.
Thomas Crow, PhD, professor of Modern Art at New York University will give a lecture on the role of religion in Corita Kent's work at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6. Free with admission.
This exhibition was organized by the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The exhibition was funded in part through an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and major corporate support from National Grid. In San Antonio this exhibition was generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Helen and Everett Jones Exhibition Endowment, the Nathalie and Gladys Dalkowitz Charitable Trust, the Daniel J. Sullivan Family.
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The San Antonio Museum of Art is housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery on the Museum Reach of the San Antonio Riverwalk. The collection contains more than 25,000 works representing 5,000 years of history and cultures from around the world.
