Exhibits Opening This Week

The Grace Museum will be proud to open two new exhibits on our Second Floor this week. Opening on November 29 will be Friends, Fauna and Facades in Gallery B, featuring artwork from Mary Motz Wills, Mary Eula Sears, and Elsie Motz Lowdon. And opening in Gallery C on December 3 is Hats: Hallelujah!

Come by The Grace and check out these great new exhibits.

Thanksgiving Hours

The Grace Museum will close on Wednesday, November 23 at 5pm and reopen at 10am Friday, November 25. The Grace will maintain normal hours (10am-5pm) on Saturday, November 26.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving from The Grace Museum staff.

Podcast Recording Today

Today we will record a podcast with Houston photographer Ray Carrington to accompany his exhibit "Heart and Soul: The Photographs of Ray Carrington, III." The exhibit, currently in Gallery A, focuses on life in Houston's 3rd Ward district. Check out the MuseCast with Mr. Carrington this afternoon on the MuseCast page of The Grace's website.

DL Programs today

The Distance Learning team will be pretty busy today as we have two virtual field trips scheduled for the 5th Grade Reading Roundup program to Region 14 schools DeLeon and Aspermont. We offer six programs via virtual field trip and videoconferencing. Check out what we offer on our Education Dept's website. And download the promo, it's pretty good.

The Grace receives Conservation Assessment Program grant

The Grace Museum is excited to announce that it recent received funds from Heritage Preservation to participate in the Conservation Assessment Program! Heritage Preservation describes the program best as:

CAP provides a general conservation survey of your museum's collection, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professional conservators who spend two days on-site and three days writing a report. The report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fund-raising.

Since the Grace Museum is housed in a registered historic building, one of the two conservators to visit will be a preservation architect. The other conservator will carefully review the museum's are and history collections, with total over 8,500 tangible objects and over 10,000 pieces of archive material. With such a huge collection and a 95 year old building, it gets to be a daunting task for the small curatorial and maintenance staff of three. Participation in CAP is an essential step in the continual care and maintenance of Abilene's art and historic treasures. It will be a year long process to complete, but well worth the time and effort as The Grace Museum continues to uphold and excel in standard museum practices. Since a museum holds its collection in fiduciary trust, (that is, on behalf of the public) it is the museum's responsibility to care for the collections in its possession for the public.

It is our goal to use the culminating reports from the conservators to help develop a conservation plan for the items we hold, as well as for the building. The 1909 structure is nearing its 100th birthday, and we are so blessed to work in such a grand building. Those of us who work at The Grace Museum truly believe the Hotel Grace is the jewel of downtown. (Some would say we are a bit partial.) With an active conservation plan, the Curatorial and Operations staff can set in motion and solidify preservation measures that we expect to maintain the life of Abilene's history for generations to come so that these treasures can be enjoyed then just as much as they are now.
If you have any question about collections care at The Grace Museum, please post questions or contact me at any time.

Holly B. North
Curator of Collections/ IT Director
Distance Learning

Sound Wall Repaired!

Those of you who have been to The Grace in the last 10 days may have noticed that our Sound Wall has been closed - well, never fear, because the Sound Wall is back up and running.

Due to the efforts of our fearless Children's Museum Manager, Preston Gardner, the Sound Wall is open and ready for visitors. Thanks, Preston!

ArtWalk this Thursday!

Remember that this Thursday, November 10, is the monthly ArtWalk night. Admission is free from 5pm-8pm. Showing in the Main Gallery is the ACU Centennial Alumni Art Exhibition, Gallery A shows Heart and Soul: The Photography of Ray Carrington, Gallery B features Bhutan: Land of Shangri-La by Alice Wright, and in Gallery C we have Following Brightness, paintings by Juanita Tittle-Pollard.

And don't forget the kids! In the Diner on the 2nd floor (outside the Children's Museum), kids can make Tom Turkeys for the Make and Take.

Hope to see you there!

Welcome to The Grace Museum's Blog

Welcome to the official blog of The Grace Museum.


The Grace houses three museums in the historic Grace Hotel -- The Art Museum, The History Museum and The Children's Museum. It is located on the corner of North First and Cypress Streets in downtown Abilene, Texas. Across the street is the restored Abilene Texas & Pacific Railroad Station, which is now the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Built in 1909, The Grace is on the National Historic Register. It is a four-story, 55,000 square foot, missions-revival style building, representing the hopes of the western frontier. The first floor of The Grace Museum includes an elegant, historic marble ballroom, a glass loggia, a large enclosed brick courtyard, and a restored lobby. The rooftop has a large, open-air terrace. Many weddings and other parties and functions are booked into the museum spaces. The Grace Museum enriches and enhances the cultural life of Abilene and the West Texas region through its permanent collections, special exhibits, classes, seminars and special events. In the heart of Abilene's beautifully restored downtown, The Grace serves as a cornerstone for cultural arts and education in West Texas.

The Blog will serve as an online mouthpiece for The Grace. Updates on exhibits, educational programming, MuseCasts, and special events at The Grace can be found in a quick and user-friendly format on The Blog. Bookmark us and check back often for updates!