Moody Center for The Arts | Rice.edu Moody Center for The Arts | Rice.eduAll building photos and staff portraits: Nash Baker.

What's Happening

All photos: Jeff Fitlow

Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate the Moody’s inaugural weekend February 24-26.  We were delighted to welcome more than 2,000 visitors from Rice University, the city of Houston, and beyond. In addition to opening the exhibition and performance spaces, we hosted the world premiere of Dušan Týnek Dance Theater’s Vespertine Awakenings, and an engaging panel discussion on art and technology with photographer Thomas Struth. We hope you’ll join us for our upcoming spring calendar:

An Iliad

Thursday, March 30 – Saturday, April 1
8:00 pm
Sunday, April 2
2:00 pm
Lois Chiles Studio Theater
Tickets

See the Houston premiere of An Iliad, a reimagining of Homer’s classic for the modern world. Leon Ingulsrud of NYC’s SITI Company plays The Poet, an ageless wanderer who is doomed to retell the story of Achilles’ rage again and again, until the world finally understands. Ingulsrud will participate in a post-performance discussion on Saturday, April 1.

Diana Thater

Artists in Dialogue Series

Friday, April 21
7:30 pm
Lois Chiles Studio Theater
Tickets

Join us for a conversation with Diana Thater, who since the early 1990s, has created pioneering film, video, and installation-based works. Her 9-monitor video installation The Starry Messenger (2014) is on view through February 1, 2018.

Summer Jam

Saturday, June 3
12:00 - 6:00 pm
Free

Come and hang out with us for a day of free family programming, including music, food trucks, a presentation by the artist, spoken word performances, and a film screening.

Olafur Eliasson

Artists in Dialogue Series

Monday, March 20
7:00 pm
Lois Chiles Studio Theater
Tickets

Internationally renowned artist Olafur Eliasson will discuss his participatory project Green light - An artistic workshop, a response to the current refugee crisis, on view at the Moody through May 6.

Grand Opening

Moody Center for The Arts: Grand Opening
Moody Center for The Arts: Grand Opening
Olafur EliassonOlafur Eliasson: Green light - An artistic workshop at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, 2017. Co-produced with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21), Vienna. Photo: Nash Baker

Olafur Eliasson

Green light — An artistic workshop

February 24, 2017 – May 6, 2017

The Moody is proud to feature the first installation in the United States of Olafur Eliasson’s Green light — An artistic workshop. Initiated by the Danish-Icelandic artist in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) in Vienna, Austria, in 2016, this project addresses the international refugee crisis and the current geopolitical issues surrounding global migration. It gives the green “go-ahead” light to asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants by inviting them to participate in a multi-faceted program of creativity and shared learning. This includes a workshop for the construction of stackable, modular green lamps, designed by Eliasson (b. 1967), as well as language courses, seminars, artist’s interventions and film screenings.

The lamps are available for purchase for $350. Proceeds will be donated to the Moody’s partner organization, Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston.

Join us for a conversation with Olafur Eliasson on Monday, March 20 at 7pm. 
Tickets

Thomas Struth

Nature & Politics

February 24, 2017 – May 29, 2017

Nature & Politics is an exhibition of color photographs depicting scientific research and manufactured landscapes by the Berlin-based artist Thomas Struth (b. 1954). The images bear witness to specialized imaginations. Whether it is the technological developments that make space travel possible or experiments in plasma physics, all owe their existence to the ideas and designs of experts and raise questions about the ramifications of scientific progress.

Thomas Struth participated in a panel discussion alongside Douglas Terrier, NASA Chief Technologist, and James Tour, the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and of Computer Science at Rice University, both of whom design and work in the spaces Struth photographs. The February 25 program served to inaugurate the Moody’s Artists in Dialogue series with an interdisciplinary conversation about technology and research —important and timely topics of global significance — and how our experience of them shapes our perceptions of the world.

Thomas StruthThomas Struth, Z-Pinch Plasma Lab, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, 2011. Inkjet print. 132.2 x 158.5 cm. © Thomas Struth
Diana Thater, Starry MessengerDiana Thater, The Starry Messenger, 2014. 9-monitor video wall. Overall: 68 3/8 x 121 x 3 5/8 inches (173.7 x 307.3 x 9.2 cm). Monitors, each: 22 7/8 x 40 3/8 x 3 5/8 inches (58.1 x 102.5 x 9.2 cm). Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York/London

Diana Thater

The Starry Messenger (2014)

February 24, 2017 – February 1, 2018

The Starry Messenger (2014), a nine-monitor video wall by the Los Angeles-based artist Diana Thater (b. 1962), pays tribute to Houston’s renown as a city at the forefront of space exploration. This spectacular and encompassing work presents a changing vista of the Milky Way filmed in the Griffith Observatory Planetarium in Los Angeles, shot from below the massive Zeiss star projector. In partnership with the Rice Space Institute, the work will be at the center of a series of cross-disciplinary conversations about the technology of space exploration and the impact it has on life on Earth. Join us on Friday, April 21 at 7:30 pm for a conversation with Diana Thater. This program is generously underwritten in memory of Anne Cox Koehler '75. Tickets

teamLab

Flowers & People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together –
A Whole Year per Hour (2015)

February 24, 2017 – August 13, 2017

teamLab is a Tokyo-based collective operating at the frontier of art and technology. Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together — A Whole Year per Hour (2015) is an interactive installation: sensors respond to visitors’ movements, causing flowers to sprout, bloom and wilt in an ever-changing cycle. Neither a pre-recorded animation nor a continuous loop, the work is created in real time by a computer program and highlights the complex relationships between art, science, nature and technology.

teamLab, Flowers and PeopleteamLab, Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together – A Whole Year per Hour, 2015. Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi. Installation photo at the Moody Center for the Arts, 2017. Photo: Jenny Antill
David Scanavino© David Scanavino. Courtesy Moody Center for the Arts.

David Scanavino

Repeater (2017)

June 3 - August 26, 2017

Repeater is an immersive site-specific sculpture created by Brooklyn-based artist David Scanavio. Installed in the Moody’s Central Gallery, the design of the work playfully skews the shape of the floor and sends it up the walls to a height of 24 feet. The colorful sculpture is made of commonly available industrial tiles that create pathways that invite people to move in and around the artwork. Repeater is both a geometric painting and an architectural space that becomes an irresistible site for engagement. 

The Moody will host a day of free family fun on June 3, 12:00-6:00 pm to inaugurate the work. Summer Jam includes a set by DJ Flash Gordon Parks (12-2:30PM), food trucks, and a presentation by David Scanavino (2:30-3PM). Additionally, Houston’s own Outspoken Bean will hold a spoken word performance from 3-4:30PM that includes poets from Meta-Four Houston and Houston V.I.P. Poetry Slam. Aurora Picture Show will host a film screening in the Lois Chiles Studio Theater from 4:30-6PM.

Mona Hatoum

Leslie and Brad Bucher
Artist-in-Residence Program

March - April, 2017

The Moody is proud to announce that the first artist-in-residence will be Mona Hatoum, the internationally acclaimed London-based and Beirut-born Palestinian artist whose work in sculpture, performance, video and installation was recently the subject of a major survey exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. She will take up her residency in spring 2017, shortly after the official opening of the Moody. Underscoring the Moody’s collaborative goals within Houston’s rich cultural scene, Hatoum will return to Houston for a major exhibition, her first in the United States in 20 years, at the Menil Collection, in October, 2017.

Mona HatoumPhoto by Andri Pol
Dušan Týnek Dance TheatreDušan Týnek Dance Theatre, Dancers of Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre perform Vespertine Awakenings at the James Turrell Twilight Ephiphany Skyspace at the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion at Rice University, 2017. Photo: Lynn Lane

Vespertine Awakenings

Dušan Týnek Dance Theater

February 25 – 27, 2017

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre presented the world premiere of a new work created in response to James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace located in the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion on the Rice campus. Vespertine Awakenings was the result of a week-long residency and was performed together with an original score composed by Kurt Stallmann of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

An Iliad

Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare

Lois Chiles Studio Theater
March 30 – April 2, 2017
Tickets

An Iliad is a reimagining of Homer’s classic for the modern world. Leon Ingulsrud of NYC’s SITI Company plays The Poet, an ageless wanderer who is doomed to retell the story of Achilles’ rage and his confrontation with Hector again and again, until the world finally understands. The play wrestles with the horrors – and the seductive appeal – of war in a way that is both timeless and current. This production is a Houston premiere and will feature original music by Shepherd School composer Ben Morris and direction by Rice alumnus Rob Kimbro.

An Iliad

Visit

Directions & Parking

The Moody Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Rice University, and is best reached by using Campus Entrance 8 at the intersection of University Boulevard and Stockton Street. As you enter campus, the building is on the right, just past the Media Center. There is a dedicated parking lot adjacent to the building. Payment for the Moody Lot is by credit card only. Maps are available at rice.edu/maps.

Hours & Admission

Summer Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Closed Sunday, Monday, Saturday, and holidays

The exhibition spaces are free and open to the public.

Building

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice UniversityBuilding Photos: Nash Baker

Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University

The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University was designed by renowned Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan. The architect’s striking contemporary design, with its bold geometric shapes and inviting transparency, will create a beacon on Rice’s campus while affirming the Moody’s mission to foster connections across disciplines.

The $30 million, 50,000 square-foot building will serve as an experimental platform for creating and presenting works in all disciplines, a flexible teaching space to encourage new modes of learning, and a forum for creative partnerships with visiting national and international artists.

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University

An experimental space for both fabrication and exhibition, with equal emphasis on process presentation.

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University

An extraordinarily flexible teaching space to encourage new modes of making, learning and presenting.

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University

A forum for creative partnerships with visiting national and international artists as well as the Houston arts community.

Connective Framework for Collaboration

At the heart of the Moody is a double-height space that anchors the building in plan and section. Imagined as a kind of interior quad, this flexible studio echoes the numerous quadrangles found across the Rice campus. Within the interior landscape of the building the flexible studio functions similarly, by bringing diverse programmatic functions into contact with one another and extending views out toward the campus. Arrayed around the flexible studio are galleries, a black box theater, shops, project studios and classrooms.

The space features a high degree of flexibility and is expected to serve as a platform for group collaboration, performance and art exhibition. The transparency of the space affirms the Moody’s artistic mission to foster connections between disciplines while leveraging the constant hum of activity to energize the core of the facility.

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University
Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University

Open Spaces for Creativity

The interior of the Moody as a whole is designed with the intent of creating a sense of openness and possibility. Sightlines transect through spaces, creating layered views of the myriad activities playing across the building’s production, instructional and exhibition spaces. Simultaneously, views extend along major corridors and out to the campus, enabling building users to easily orient themselves, and facilitating direct access to studios, classrooms and shops. Extensive interior glazing offers views into learning, production and exhibition spaces with the intent of highlighting artistic process as a complement to the exhibition of finished works. Along the building’s north façade, a set of wide stairs rises from the first floor and turns back toward the interior, creating an interior amphitheater that serves as an informal social space.

An Icon in Context

The emphasis on transparency extends to the building’s exterior, with the majority of the first floor along the principal elevations clad in floor-to-ceiling glass. Arcades by the cantilevered massing on the second floor create shaded walkways, with the overall effect of the building’s brick-clad upper story appearing to levitate. Large picture windows punctuate the articulated brick facade in a playful rhythm and bring light deep into interior spaces. Pedestrian paths cut across the site’s open lawn and into the building, simultaneously organizing key interior program areas and linking the new building to the broader campus. In doing so, the design creates an iconic home in the spirit of the Moody’s forward-looking vision that is equally at home on Rice’s historic campus.

Moody Center for The Arts at Rice University

What does the building contain?

A museum-quality art gallery

A gallery for experimental artwork, with a sprung wood floor for dance

A multi-media gallery for video and installation art

A flexible studio theater seating up to 150 people

A maker space, including a wood shop, metal shop, paint shop and rapid prototyping area

Studio classrooms designed to host a variety of activities from lectures to hands-on making

A tech-issue library for students to check out advanced equipment

Audio visual editing booths

Offices for visiting artists and scholars

A café

Michael Maltzan Architecture

Founded in 1995, Michael Maltzan Architecture is an architecture, landscape, and urban design practice committed to the creation of progressive, transformative experiences that chart new trajectories for architecture and the public realm. The Los Angeles-based practice, led by Michael Maltzan, FAIA, has designed award-winning educational and cultural facilities around the world including projects with the Museum of Modern Art, Art Center College of Design, UCLA Hammer Museum, San Francisco State University, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Kidspace Children’s Museum and Inner-City Arts.

People

Alison Weaver

Alison Weaver

Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director

Alison Weaver was named founding executive director of Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts in July 2015. Prior to her appointment, Weaver was the director of affiliates for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. At the Guggenheim, Weaver led its programs and operations in Berlin, Bilbao, Venice, and Las Vegas, while managing its departments of Exhibition Management, Registration, Art Services and Library/Archives in New York. Together with her curatorial colleagues, she implemented a wide range of exhibitions from historical loan shows to commissions by leading contemporary artists. Weaver has a Master of Arts degree from Williams College and an MPhil in art history from the City University of New York. She also holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. cum laude from Princeton University.

aweaver@rice.edu

Kimberly Davenport

Kimberly Davenport

Chief Curator

As Chief Curator, Kimberly Davenport is responsible for conceiving and implementing creative exhibitions at the Moody. She brings more than two decades of curatorial experience from her tenure at the Rice Gallery, where she established the program in 1994. The Moody will continue the Gallery’s impressive tradition of site-specific installations by inviting living artists to create work within the walls of the new architecturally distinctive galleries designed by award-winning architect Michael Maltzan. Davenport holds degrees from Yale University and Maryland Institute College of Art.

kdaven@rice.edu
713-348-4736

John Bradshaw

John Bradshaw

Director of Development

John Bradshaw comes to the Moody via Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, where he provided leadership for fundraising activities as the Director of Development. At the Moody, Bradshaw will be responsible for all fundraising activities, including plans to build a $10 million endowment, oversee procurement of programming grants and underwriting, development of patron groups, and the launch of all donor engagement programs. Previously, he was Deputy Director and Senior Director of Development at Asia Society Texas Center, where under his direction, fundraising revenue increased from $800,000 per year to over $3.2 million. A fifth-generation Houstonian, Bradshaw holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and a Master of Arts in modern German history from the University of Southern California.

bradshaw@rice.edu
713-348-8068

Connie McAllister

Connie McAllister

Director of Marketing and Communications

Connie McAllister joins the Moody as Director of Marketing and Communications and will oversee all external and internal communications, from media relations and marketing to social media engagement. Previously she was at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), where she served as the Director of Community Engagement since 2012. In this role, she oversaw the public face of the Museum, including areas of education, public programs, visitor services, retail operations, public relations, and marketing. She originally joined CAMH as the Marketing Manager in 2008. McAllister has also held positions at Artpace, an internationally recognized artist residency program in San Antonio, TX. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from The University of Texas at Austin and was recently appointed Councilor-at-Large to the Texas Associations of Museums.

cmcallister@rice.edu
713-348-4115

Joel Thompson

Joel Thompson

Director of Budget and Operations

As the Director of Budget and Operations, Joel Thompson oversees the business and day-to-day operations at the Moody. Previously, Thompson served as the Director of Ticket Operations at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts from 2001 to 2016. He also worked with Ticketmaster and various Buffalo venues, including the Key Bank Center and Coca-Cola Field. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from the University at Buffalo.

jpt4@rice.edu
713-348-4841

Ian Cion

Ian Cion

Exhibition and Program Manager

Exhibition and Program Manager Ian Cion coordinates and develops the programmatic initiatives of the Moody Center and supports the implementation and development of its exhibitions. He joins the Moody from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Children’s Cancer Hospital where he served as the founder and Director of the Arts in Medicine Program. At MD Anderson, Cion implemented a series of large-scale public works in collaboration with patients, families, staff, and community partners. His final work at the Hospital was the Space Suit Art Project, a partnership with NASA which resulted in the first art exhibition on board the International Space Station. An artist and writer, Cion has taught, lectured, and exhibited internationally for the last 20 years. He earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Columbia University.

imc1@rice.edu
713-348-4117

Rob Blumrick

Rob Blumrick

Production Manager

Rob Blumrick is the Production Manager at the Moody where he will oversee the technical needs of the facility alongside those of visiting artists, students, faculty, and the general public. A native Houstonian, he moves back home from Madisonville, Kentucky, where he served as Production Manager at The Glema Mahr Center for the Arts. Blumrick is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and has a Bachelor of Theatre Technology and a Master of Business Administration from Murray State University in Kentucky.

rblumrick@rice.edu
713-348-4041

Robert Purvis

Robert Purvis

Workshop and Makerspace Director

Robert Purvis is the Workshop and Makerspace Director for the Moody where he fosters thinkers, makers, and artists by providing tools and resources to encourage and cultivate new ideas and to promote interdisciplinary collaboration. Purvis has more than 15 years of industry experience as an engineer across a variety of fields. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering from Texas A&M University.

rpurvis@rice.edu
713-348-4034

Evan Garda

Evan Garza

Director of Rice Public Art

As Director of Rice Public Art, Evan Garza oversees public art initiatives on the Rice University campus, including oversight of the university’s collection of public artworks and the management and programming of James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion. A Houston native, Garza served as Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin from 2014-2016 and is co-founder of Fire Island Artist Residency, a New York nonprofit and the first LGBTQ artist residency in the United States.

evangarza@rice.edu
713-348-4758

Courses

Moody Center for The Arts | Courses

Creativity Up Close

Designed by associate professor of musical composition and theory Anthony Brandt, this course explores creativity as a universal feature of human cognition and examines its role in human behavior and society. Each week, seminars will focus on the neuroscience, psychology, sociology and economics of creativity through readings and discussions spanning both the arts and sciences. Concurrently, hands-on workshops taught by visiting artists and scholars will allow students to develop independent projects in oral history, musical composition, industrial design and video art. Evening lectures on innovation by leading researchers including Robert Bilder, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Keith Sawyer, free and open to the public, will complement the course.

Visualizing Nature

Visualizing Nature is an experimental course studying the natural landscape and ecosystems of the Houston area. Taught by earth science professor Adrian Lenardic and visual art professor Geoff Winningham, the course combines classroom lectures, laboratory demonstrations and extensive field trips. Professor Lenardic lectures on the geoscience of the area and leads experiments in the field; Professor Winningham uses laboratory demonstrations to build students’ skills in landscape photography and delivers illustrated lectures on achievements in landscape photography through the history of the medium. Students then produce their own landscape photographs and scientific graphs which explore the intersections between fine art and the visual display of scientific information.

Monster - Conceiving and Misconceiving the Monstrous in Fiction and the Biosciences in Medicine and Art

The monsters that inhabit our world are products not just of nature but of human conception. They wander forth out of evolution and language, out of brain physiology and prejudice, out of the pages of fiction and the corridors of art. It is this variety that humanist Deborah Harter and bioscientist Mike Gustin endeavor to capture as they ask how our notions of the monstrous help us to understand who we are, what we fear and with what consequences we perceive and misperceive human variation. It is a variety, moreover, that will be broadened and enriched as we invite our students, in their final projects, to complete creative works of art under the guidance of artist/photographer Paul Hester.

Art and Environment Reef Ecologies

This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art and science. Marine biologist Dr. Adrienne Correa and artist and anthropologist Dr. Lina Dib will co-teach the course in partnership with Fossilized Houston, a group of Houston-based artists, scientists and thinkers who raise awareness about climate change and species extinction through community art projects. Students will discover and experiment with environmental art practices, as well as learn about a complex, dynamic and sensitive ecosystem: coral reefs. Students will design and create works that highlight our relationship to local and global reef ecosystems and provide new ways to rescript our interactions with our environment.

Medical Media Arts Lab

Taught by English professor Kirsten Ostherr in collaboration with physicians from the Texas Medical Center, visual artists, industrial designers and creative writers, this course enables students to develop projects that help medical professionals communicate information to patients. Outputs include short videos, info-graphics, virtual models and web applications about issues such as patient enrollment in clinical trials, diabetes treatments, and education for ICU doctors.

Leadership Through The Arts

This course enables graduate students to develop and perform their own creative projects that will be showcased in “pop-up” locations across Rice’s campus. Working with music professor Janet Rarick, theater director Christina Keefe and mindfulness-based coach Elizabeth Slator, students receive individual training in performance methodologies and gain practical experience in creative production and arts leadership.

Art & Activism

This course explores art and social change in times of mass displacement, racial oppression, and war. It surveys the efforts involved in achieving justice and the possible implications of remaining historically mute. Taught by Rice’s post-doctoral fellow in Jewish Studies Yehuda Sharim, the class will host contemporary activists and artists concerned with radical visions of hope, and will collaborate with Olafur Eliasson’s Green Light workshop//to engage in a semester of conversation about the political, social, economic and artistic implications of displacement and relocation.

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Thank you for your interest in the Moody Center for the Arts. Online gifts are made through a secure server; if you would prefer to speak with someone about your intended gift, please contact John Bradshaw, 713-348-8068 or bradshaw@rice.edu. To mail in a contribution, please send payments payable to Rice University at the following address:

Moody Center for the Arts
Rice University
6100 Main Street, MS-480
Houston, Texas 77005-1827

Donor Contact Information

Donor Information

Arts Gallery Guide Program

Moody Gallery Guides have the opportunity to participate in the life of a vibrant new arts organization and to contribute valuable visitor services to Rice University. Gallery guides are Rice undergraduate and graduate students who, as paid docents, will safeguard the art on view, as well as engage visitors in conversation about it.

Qualified candidates should possess a love and appreciation of the arts, a flexible attitude for dealing effectively with the public, and an understanding that reliability is critical. To be a Gallery Guide at the Moody, candidates must make a commitment of one-academic year and be available for four shifts each month.

Gallery Guides
Gallery Guides will both explain the art to visitors and provide gallery security, ensuring that the art is protected and safety procedures are followed. Their responsibilities include:

  • Answering questions about Moody’s programming, and engaging visitors in conversation about the art and artists on view
  • Maintaining a comprehensive knowledge of current exhibitions and programs (training will be provided at the beginning of each semester)
  • Ensuring that safety protocols are followed such as no photography and no touching of artwork, when appropriate to the exhibition (training will be provided at the beginning of each semester)
  • Upholding the Moody’s standards for creating a warm and welcoming environment by actively engaging visitors in a friendly manner
Critical skills required:
  • Friendly, welcoming and proactive attitude
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Ability to memorize and convey exhibition details to visitors
  • Comfort in interacting with visitors of varying ages and backgrounds
Program Schedule:
  • The Moody is open to the public year-round, Monday through Saturday 10AM-5PM
  • Volunteer shifts are 3.5 hours per day, up to once per week
How to apply:
  • Applications are accepted at all times
  • Please fill out the online application

Volunteer Greeter Program

Moody volunteers have the opportunity to participate in the life of a vibrant new arts organization and to contribute valuable visitor services to Rice University.

Qualified candidates should possess a love and appreciation of the arts, a flexible attitude for dealing effectively with the public, and an understanding that reliability is critical.

To volunteer at the Moody, candidates must make a one-year commitment and be available for two to four shifts each month.

Volunteer Greeters
Volunteer Greeters act as the first point of contact to visitors as they enter the Moody Center for the Arts. Their responsibilities include:

  • Welcoming the public, answering questions about Moody’s programming, and directing visitors to various spaces in the building, including exhibition areas, café and restrooms
  • Maintaining a comprehensive knowledge of current exhibitions and programs (training will be provided at the beginning of each semester)
  • Answering questions about the Rice University campus, offering maps and using the Rice website to assist with information
  • Upholding the Moody’s standards for creating a warm and welcoming environment by actively engaging visitors in a friendly manner
Critical skills required:
  • Friendly, welcoming and proactive attitude
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Ability to memorize and convey exhibition details to visitors
  • Comfort in interacting with visitors of varying ages and backgrounds
Program Schedule:
  • The Moody is open to the public year-round, Monday through Saturday 10AM-5PM
  • Volunteer shifts are 3.5 hours per day, up to once per week
How to apply:
  • Applications are accepted at all times
  • Please fill out the online application
Rice University

Moody Center for the Arts

Rice University
6100 Main Street, MS-480
Houston, TX 77005-1827
(713) 348-ARTS

Hours

Summer Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Closed Sunday, Monday, Saturday, and holidays

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