Arts Picks: Children's Museum of Houston reopening a highlight this week

Eyeball model, its iris, and lens at the Children's Museum of Houston’s exhibition called Sights unseen, Friday, May 21, 2021, in Houston.

Photo: Marie D. De Jesús, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

1. Astor Piazzolla

The Houston Symphony will play its Summer Symphony Nights at Miller! next week, with a wonderful and far-reaching program that includes Astor Piazzolla’s “Suite from Maria de Buenos Aires.” Also on the bill: pieces by Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev and Valerie Coleman’s blues-informed chamber work “Red Clay and Mississippi Delta.”

When: 8:30 p.m. June 10

Where: Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive

Details: free; reserved seats available at Miller box office; milleroutdoortheatre.com

Andrew Dansby

2. Brie Ruais

Brooklyn-based artist Brie Ruais brings her new large scale ceramic pieces to Houston for “Movement at the Edge of the Land,” the artist’s first instititutional solo exhibition. Ruais creates each piece from her body weight in clay, but the range of expression is abstract, physical and gripping. Some pieces almost resemble scraps found after a fire, with the cuts and gouchings and twisted shapes offering a twisted beauty rather than sleek contours. Ruais created the pieces specifically for the exhibition space, which enters the Moody Gallery at Rice University this week.

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. June 5 - Aug 28 (Tuesday-Saturday)

Where: Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, 6100 Main

Details: free; moody.rice.edu

Andrew Dansby

3. ‘Specters of Noon’ Community Day

There are three reasons to pencil the Menil Collection’s “Specters of Noon” Community Day into your weekend calendar. On Saturday, Da Camera presents a Caribbean-inspired jazz concerto by Will Cruz and Quattro; Writers in the Schools will host a personalized poem pit stop by an Emerging Writer; and students of the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program will read a selection of poems by the poet Aimé Césaire. The trio of happenings celebrate Allora & Calzadilla’s must-see exhibition; picnic blankets are encouraged, as are trips to the onsite food trucks.

When: 3 p.m.-5 p.m. June 5

Where: Menil Collection Main Lawn, 1533 Sul Ross

Details: free; menil.org

Amber Elliott

4. ‘Sights Unseen’

Children’s Museum of Houston reopens on June 8 with a new exhibition, “Sights Unseen.” The highly Instagrammable, glow-in-the-dark experience explores the anatomy and physiology of the eye, what makes up visible light and how animals see compared to humans.

When: June 8

Where: Children’s Museum of Houston, 1500 Binz

Details: Tickets start at $12 for non-members; cmhouston.org

Amber Elliott

Andrew Dansby
Follow:

Andrew Dansby
Andrew Dansby covers culture and entertainment, both local and national, for the Houston Chronicle. He came to the Chronicle in 2004 from Rolling Stone, where he spent five years writing about music. He'd previously spent five years in book publishing, working with George R.R. Martin's editor on the first two books in the series that would become TV's "Game of Thrones. He misspent a year in the film industry, involved in three "major" motion pictures you've never seen. He's written for Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Texas Music, Playboy and other publications.

Andrew dislikes monkeys, dolphins and the outdoors.
Amber Elliott

Amber Elliott
Amber Elliott covers arts and society for the Houston Chronicle.

Arts Picks: Children’s Museum of Houston reopening a highlight this week

Here are the fine-arts events our critics are excited about.