Welcome 2025! It is our privilege and pleasure to assume our new roles as Co-Directors of this vital and historic institution located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District. Before sharing all of the exciting exhibitions, programs, and partnerships on the horizon at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), we’d like to introduce ourselves.

I, Ryan Dennis, joined CAMH in 2023 as  Senior Curator and Director of Public Initiatives. In this role, I stewarded the Museum’s collaboration with Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy (HFTC), working closely alongside CAMH’s Partnerships team, and co-curated Theaster Gates’s blockbuster solo exhibition The Gift and The Renege (2024). I have a longstanding commitment to supporting artists of color and rethinking institutional practices to create spaces that are welcoming and reflective of diverse experiences. I love Houston and have worked intentionally to understand what can happen inside museums and beyond the walls to challenge our perspectives but also enrich the cultural landscape in a way that is enduring and equitable.

And I, Melissa McDonnell Luján, also joined the Museum in 2023 as the Deputy Director to oversee operations and long-range planning. With my background in architecture, I have led transformative building, landscape, and civic-scale artist projects for arts organizations. I position design to encourage iterative and inclusive collaboration, challenge assumptions, and solve problems in museums and public spaces. We are Texans who have collectively been a part of Houston’s vibrant and diverse arts community for over 20 years. Together, we bring a unique set of complementary expertise and a shared commitment to partnered leadership as a way to rethink how institutions can best serve their constituencies and communities, including their staff. We are eager to work with our dynamic team to shape the future of CAMH, together.

We began the new year with the continued presentation of Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream…, the artist’s first major museum survey exhibition co-organized by CAMH and MASS MoCA, where it will open to new audiences this May 2025. Building upon our fall and winter momentum, the spring will bring a celebration of the 25th anniversary of CAMH’s renowned Teen Council program through the Council’s biennual exhibition, OUT OF STOCK, featuring works by 32 teen artists from across the greater Houston area. Later in May, we will welcome Houston-born Tomashi Jackson into our Brown Foundation Gallery to present her multilayered and vibrant work in sculpture and video. Over the next year and a half our onsite exhibitions will have extended runs, emphasizing the centrality of providing our audiences with meaningful time to connect with, engage, and revisit the art on view in our galleries. 

This year also brings an exciting moment in our partnership with Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy as we enter the second phase of our multi-year collaboration, Rebirth in Action. During the first phase of this initiative, we were able to present two major exhibitions in our galleries, including Gates’s solo presentation and THIS WAY: A Houston Group Show; offer multiple local artist residencies; and host community and stakeholder meetings. These boomerang efforts helped successfully complete a comprehensive, community-approved Design Concept Report by Houston Public Works to preserve the long neglected brick streets within Houston Freedmen’s Town and address infrastructure upgrades. We  are thrilled to be beginning the brick preservation process but our work continues. We hope you’ll stay tuned as we share exciting updates in the coming months.  

In addition to our offsite work, we remain committed to CAMH’s campus. In 2023, the Museum acquired property adjacent to our historic Gunnar Birkert’s-designed building. While we’re continuing to develop long-term plans for future uses that benefit CAMH, the neighborhood, and our artist communities, we’ve welcomed several artists to work on-site including, Tay Butler, Lovie Olivia, and Vincent Valdez.

We hope we’ll see you at CAMH PARTY, our Annual Benefit & Art Auction on Saturday, April 26, 2025 in the Museum’s galleries. This beloved annual fundraiser and celebration brings together artists and art lovers from across Houston to toast CAMH’s successes and look towards the future over a night of art, music, dinner, and fantastic company.  We hope you join us for a memorable night!

CAMH offers a range of ways to get involved and strengthen your impact, through memberships, donations, and community programs. There’s a place for everyone at CAMH and we remain committed to ensuring there’s an entry point for engagement for any one who wishes to support the work we do here at the Museum. 

As leaders of this remarkable organization, we’re committed to strengthening the very best of CAMH: presenting groundbreaking exhibitions, amplifying artists and arts educators, sustaining long-term and transformative partnerships within Houston’s community, and expanding our impact through the lens of contemporary art. We appreciate the tremendous support we have received from our staff and board and look forward to meeting you in and beyond CAMH galleries!