HOUSTON — The Moody Center for the Arts is a relatively new addition to the Rice University campus, opened just five years ago.
"We are a place for arts and ideas," said curator Frauke Josenhans. "We really try to connect the visual arts with other disciplines with other fields, so we are a space for encounters around the visual arts."
The current exhibition starts before you even walk inside the Moody Center with a colorful and interactive sculpture.
"It’s an outdoor installation created by the artist for this site. It’s activated by light. So every time, depending on the time of the day, it looks different," Josenhans explained. "It’s also activated by our engagement with it. You can walk around it, you can walk through it."
The installation is part of an exhibition called Urban Impressions.
"This exhibition really focuses on our sensorial experience of the urban environment, of the life in cities," said Josenhans. "How does city life affect us in terms of how it impacts our bodies? How it impacts our thinking, how it impacts our social interactions with others."
She sourced pieces from all over the world, including here in Houston.
"Many of these artists have been on my radar for a long time," Josenhans shared. "It was really based on what artwork, what artists are really engaging with these questions about urban life and urban environment."
The Moody Center for the Arts is free to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. so anyone can connect with art and ideas.
"Since the beginning of civilization, people have created something, something they saw, something they felt," said Josenhans. "That’s true today. Artists are helping us to understand what we see, what we experience at this moment."
There’s always extra incentive to come back to the Moody Center because it has three different exhibitions throughout the year. Urban Impressions is slated to wrap up on Dec. 17.