Last November, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, pulled off the nearly impossible: Despite a global pandemic, an economic recession, and even a hurricane scare, the grand opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building went off without a hitch. The building’s hollow glass exterior—set against a dramatic backdrop of skyscrapers—was a testament to the 10 years and $450 million it took to complete the museum campus’ expansion.
With Harris County counting thousands of COVID-19 cases every day, Gary Tinterow, the MFAH’s director, enjoyed the accolades that the museum was receiving from the Houston Chronicle, New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, and Town & Country. “You name it, it’s been covered,” he said in a staff meeting in early December, which the Observer obtained a recording of. The Wall Street Journal called the new building a “triumphant and user-friendly addition.”
“That’s all I needed to see, the rest of it is just, blah blah,” he said in the meeting. To hear Tinterow tell it, the museum was fulfilling its public service, and its staff was now on the frontlines of the pandemic in an effort to keep a beloved institution open through tragedy. Many of its staff felt otherwise.
