The Houston Museum of African-American Culture recently appointed Christopher Blay as chief curator. After a nationwide search conducted by an independent search committee, Blay joins HMAAC from Glasstire magazine, where he previously served as the publication’s news editor and art critic.
Members of the search committee included Community Artists’ Collective co-founder and CEO Michelle Barnes, writer and curator Lise Rigbar, and Vicki Meek, Art League Houston’s Artist of the Year 2021.
“Christopher Blay was the first, best and most exciting choice emerged from our selection process,” Barnes said in a statement. “His skills and diverse experiences will find a welcome home at HMAAC and enrich our cultural community beyond measure.”
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For a decade earlier, Blay was the curator for the Art Corridor Galleries at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth. He also created The Ark on Noah Street, a two-year community project, in the Historic Tenth Street District of Dallas, a local Freedman town. Near Fort Worth’s Evans Avenue – another Freedman town – Blay’s public arts initiative, which tells the story of transit buses during the civil rights movement, is almost complete.
He received the Moss / Chumley Award in 2013 and was named one of four Carter Community Artists by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in 2018. Blay has received arts grants from the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Museum of Art. He received the Mastermind Award from the Dallas Observer in 2015 and a prestigious alumni award from Tarrant County College the previous year.
His upcoming exhibition “Power, Traps, and Targets: New Work by Christopher Blay” opens on September 10th at the Big Medium Gallery in Austin.
amber.elliott@chron.com
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