Dr. Joe Barnhart of Houston bought the property for use as a museum in 1981.
I’ve been a Houstonian since Dad and Mom moved me here on my fifth birthday, December 31, 1942. Coming from the little town of Beeville, about 180 miles southwest of the city down Highway 59, and about 50 miles beyond Victoria. I remember getting here, even at that early age. The lights blew me away. Even the very outskirts of Houston at South Main and OST appeared on fire with excitement. Of course, what I was mainly seeing were all the neon lights of Prince’s Drive In. After we checked into the Alamo Courts, Dad drove us over to Prince’s for our first Houston meal. They were showing Laurel and Hardy movies on an outdoor screen that faced the cars. Man! Was that ever impressive to this kid from the sticks!
I wanted to stay here the rest of my life – and so I have. Except for a brief period during my young adult years, when I did post-graduate work at Tulane and UT, and then did some clinical faculty work at Tulane Med School, Houston has been my home and the only place on earth that could ever feel like my home town.
That being said, I still hold a special place in my heart for Beeville, where my family came from, and where my sister still lives. The little oil and gas, cattle-agricultural town is holding its own at 14,000 citizens. Coastal Bend College, where my sister teaches history, and a TDC maximum security penitentiary help support the local economy.
Culturally, I’m happy to say, the Beeville Art Museum (BAM) stands in my old birthplace today as a striking blow for certain aspirational points of view that are not commonly associated with historically cowboy towns. Chicken fried steak, homemade tamales, and yoga classes on Tuesday evenings are not a usual combo, and probably still are not, but you may now have both in Beeville, Texas, even if choosing the first two leaves you out of the loop for best benefits from the last-mentioned item in this trio of local choices.
On the grounds of the Beeville Art Museum.
My grandfather started the town’s first newspaper, The Beeville Bee, in 1886. As a classically educated young man of his times, he always spoke in behalf of the town’s needs to grow in its appreciation for history, literature, music, and the arts. He would be very happy today to know that a later like-minded, but richer, former Beevillian had purchased the old Hodges homestead in 1981 and then converted the building property and ample grounds into the magnificent service to the community that it has become. It was Joe Barnhart’s legacy gift to his original hometown and, today, this inspired program continues to grow in support of its mission as a teaching museum through the support of the Joe Barnhart Foundation.
Here’s a link to the BAM’s own website. They’ve done a nice job of explaining on the website – their mission, what they have to show you, and what they offer to teach you.
The Beeville Art Museum is free to those care to visit. They also offer training courses in the arts, including group instruction in yoga, I’m not sure what the pricing structure is on these special educational features, but I doubt it’s much.Dr. Barnhart’s mission here was making cultural exposure accessible and affordable to everyone who finds the willingness to drink it in.
Most of you know of my interests in history. As such, you already understand why the work of a place like the Beeville Art Museum is important to me, as I hope it is to you.
So much of small town Texas life is about daily survival for all those with little education and really good job opportunity. As long as that’s the daily grind, it’s hard for people to get excited about the lessons of history and how these impinge upon community improvement when we aren’t even conscious enough to learn about what’s really holding us back.
The Beeville Art Museum is one of those “points of light” that former President George H.W. Bush used to talk about. It exists to awaken all people to the larger possibilities of life and culture – and to the spiritual process that derives from our active involvement in the search for what we each want to do with our lives.
If you are ever traveling through Beeville on Highway 59, just take a right on Adams Street when you reach it inside the city. Keep driving north on Adams until you can’t miss the same view of the BAM that’s featured in our first photo at the corner of Adams and Fannin.
Tracy Saucier is the Museum Director. In my view, Saucier and staff are running a frontier play of culture that is every ounce as important to the discovery and preservation of perspective on past and future as Fort Davis once was to the preservation of life itself.
We need to give credit where credit is due.
Tags: Beeville Art Museum
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 28, 2011 at 2:22 pm |
Bill –
outstanding piece – keep up the good work
regards to all
Callahan
June 28, 2011 at 4:45 pm |
Bill:
Dr. Barnhart was the longtime chairman of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, where I have worked since 1986. He was a wonderful person and unsurpassed as a surgeon. He operated on my mother’s back around 1962, and she never had another day of trouble. When I met Dr. Barnhart in the 1980s, I told him my mother had been pain free since he had performed the surgery 25 years earlier, and that she still told everyone what a wonderful doctor he was and how much she appreciated him. While listening to me, Dr. Barnhart practically beamed. As with all great doctors, that was the greatest compliment I could have possibly given him.
June 28, 2011 at 7:01 pm |
Good Job!!!!