Harvest in Houston

When the first art museum in Texas swung open its doors 29 years ago, a stampede of 10,000 curious Texans wore the varnish off the floors in four hours. The excitement wore off almost as fast. Only 20,000 more visited Houston's Museum of Fine Arts all the rest of that year, and part-time Director James Chillman knew that he had a big job ahead of him transforming the museum from a one-day novelty into a permanent addition to Houston's cultural life

From Rome to Remington. For a foundation, Chillman decided to concentrate on the classics instead of modern or regional art. "The children here had never seen the important examples of the art heritage in any way but reproduction," he says. "Egypt was a book to them; so was Europe." The museum began collecting samples from the great periods in history: Egyptian art back to 3,000 B.C., a richly-tooled gold funeral wreath from ancient Greece, a Chinese urn from the Han dynasty, a fine green glaze beaker from the 15th century Persia. In painting, Chillman stuck to such safe and sure old masters as Fra Angelico Bellini, Rembrandt, such French impressionists as Cezanne and Renoir, and a gallery of popular Americans from John Singer Sargent to Cowboy Artists Frederic Remington.

The next step was to get Houston to look at the museum's collections. "It has been a question of encouraging people," says Chillman, "not forcing them by saying 'You'd better like this.' " Dividing his time between his museum work and teaching architecture at nearby Rice Institute, Chillman over the years laid out art courses for Girl Scout leaders and public school teachers, gave youngsters guided tours of the museum. Houston heard Chillman talk about art over the radio, saw the museum's masterpieces on TV.

Plowing the Ground. Through Houston's advance guard sometimes argues with Chillman's conservative taste, no one argues with his results. The museum collections have grown to a solid $3,500,000 worth of treasures. Manhattan's Samuel Kress Foundation will soon add another 33 old masters. And work is going ahead on a new wing to the white limestone building that will provide 3,000 sq. ft. more of exhibition space when it is finished this fall. Best of all, says Chillman, Texans are using the museum; the 1952 attendance was more than 100,000.

By now, the museum has grown too large for only part-time attention, and last week Chillman was geting ready to turn it over to a full-time director. The new head man, who will take over in May: Lee H. B. Malone, 39, director of the Gallery of Fine Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Chillman figures that 2,000,000 Texans have already learned about art from Houston's museum. And, says Chillman, "Up to now, we've just been plowing the ground."

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