The ARLIS/Texas 1998 conference attendees enjoyed a tour of the main building of the Museum of Texas Tech University (Lubbock) on Friday afternoon, Oct. 16. Elizabeth Locke was our guide for the tour. The museum is an educational, scientific, cultural and research element of Texas Tech University and includes the Moody Planetarium, the Ranching Heritage Center, the research and educational elements of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the Val Verde County Research Site and the Goodman Cotton Gin.
Highlights of the tour included an exhibition of the strikingly unique nature-inspired paintings of Robert Bissell and an exhibition on the tradition of landscape photography featuring the work of Ansel Adams and Laura Gilpin. The museum’s main gallery also has on display beautiful life-size casts of specimens of a Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex in an encounter that may have occurred 65 million years ago. Also of interest were the galleries of Pre- Columbian Art, Ethnohistory, African Art, the Taos Art Gallery, the Lubbock Gallery and the Paleontology Hall.
Of special interest was the “Diamond M” Fine Art Wing. This wing houses the collection of C.T. and Claire McLaughlin of Snyder, Texas, which was donated to the museum in 1993. The Diamond M collection represents diverse themes, with an emphasis on the art of the American West, and includes works by both historical and contemporary artists in the mediums of painting and bronze sculpture. Apart from setting off a few alarms in this gallery, the group was well behaved.
The Museum as a whole houses a stunning variety of art objects, artifacts, and natural and scientific specimens from around the world and is definitely worth a visit or re-visit.