A closer look
Located in the heart of the Cypress Creek Cultural District in Spring, the Pearl Fincher MFA offers visitors free entry to its exhibits, which are curated to appeal to various age groups and often consist of diverse art mediums, Aguilar said. The museum is “noncollecting,” meaning there are no permanent exhibits. New art pieces or culturally or historically significant artifacts—some of which are shipped from across the country and others that staff drive up to five hours to retrieve—are rotated through seasonally.
“We never want to be an organization where you come, you visit once, and then you feel like you've already been there, done that,” Executive Director Nicole DeGuzman said. “That is a death stamp to a museum.”
The Pearl Fincher MFA offers low-cost classes for children—that cover skills such as illustration, ceramics, bookmaking and fashion design—as well as for adults and even infants. Other museum programs include free weekend “family day” crafting events, seasonal children’s camps, teen nights, culture events and after-hours tours for Alzheimer's patients through a partnership with the Houston Alzheimer’s Association.
The museum also hosts students for field trips, Director of Education Rebecca Burns said. In 2023, the museum hosted almost 5,000 students visiting from Klein, Spring and Cy-Fair ISDs as well as private, charter and home schools.
“You'd be pretty surprised how many kids don't have access to museums or haven't up until this point,” Burns said.
The inspiration
On March 29, 2008, the museum—named for community activist Pearl Fincher—opened in the former Barbara Bush Branch Library building, according to documents provided by museum leaders. The museum was a product of efforts by founders of the Cypress Creek Cultural District, The Cypress Creek Fine Arts Association, Harris County and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Having an institution like the Pearl Fincher MFA continues to be important for the community because art can help people connect, DeGuzman said.
“Art can be a medium to express your ideas, your emotions, your values in ways that you can't do it in written form, in spoken form,” DeGuzman said. “It's just another avenue for expressing yourself and learning about yourself and learning about others.”
Looking ahead
The Pearl Fincher MFA is run by a team of four full-time staff, eight to 10 art instructors, 20 regular volunteers and the museum’s Volunteer Guild, which provides docents for the exhibits, Aguilar said. Together, the team brainstorms ideas for exhibits, classes and events, taking community feedback into account.
Museum leaders are working on “some really exciting” exhibitions for next year—including tactile displays where visitors can touch the art, Aguilar said. New classes and events—such as an Indigenous art market —are also upcoming, Burns added.
“We've really gotten into this mindset of thinking outside the box lately, of trying to find those fresh ideas to achieve the same mission,” Aguilar said.
- 6819 Cypresswood Drive, Spring
- www.pearlmfa.org
