Our Mission
The mission of the Moody Center for the Arts is to encourage creative thinking and original expression, enrich curricular innovation, and promote cross-campus and community collaboration through transformative encounters with the arts. We are a public-facing institution designed to connect Rice to the greater Houston community through the creative intersection of art and ideas.
The Moody mounts three exhibitions a year in its galleries, curates numerous temporary and permanent public art installations throughout Rice's campus, and hosts performances, conversations, classes, and hands-on workshops. All of these programs are free and open to the public. By centering these efforts on generative partnerships with artists, scholars, and students from various disciplines, the Moody presents unexpected and everchanging entry points into the arts, bridging communities and areas of interest in support of its mission.
You can stay informed about exhibitions and programs by signing up for our newsletter and find information about supporting the Moody here. Please visit our rental page to explore hosting your next event at the Moody.
Vision + Core Values
Our Vision
The Moody Center for the Arts is a beacon of art and ideas for Rice University and the broader community, drawing on Rice’s interdisciplinary resources and making them accessible to diverse audiences through innovative exhibitions, classes, performances, and programs.
- We believe art has the power to foster innovation across disciplines, inspire creative problem-solving, and transform lives.
- We believe the Moody is a dynamic forum for student learning and community engagement, and an experimental laboratory for new ideas.
- We believe the access to art and ideas should be available to everyone, without barriers or restrictions.
Our Values
The Moody's core values shape the pursuits of its leadership, guide staff, and unify its stakeholders. Those values include Excellence, we offer transformative encounters with the arts through thought-provoking exhibitions and programs that aspire to the highest standards of quality; Innovation, we seek to inspire new ideas and foster creative problem-solving through interdisciplinary experiences with the arts; Education, we support engagement with students and faculty to create meaningful encounters with the arts an contribute to new forms of pedagogy; Collaboration, we cultivate and establish partnerships, both on- and off-campus, as a foundation of all of the Moody's work; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, we aim to reflect Rice's commitment to these principles by welcoming and celebrating all voices; and University Engagement, we invest in Rice's values and strategic priorities through all of the Moody's efforts.
A forum for creative partnerships with visiting national and international artists as well as the Houston arts community.
A welcoming and accessible facility that offers world-class art exhibitions and innovative programming.
A flexible and fully-equipped learning environment that supports students, faculty, and the public.
Our Programming
Furthering its commitment to education and engagement, the Moody offers two signature programs each season: Dimensions Variable, a series that invites artists and partners of various disciplines to respond to the exhibition on view, and Artists-in-Dialogue, an open and public conversation between artists, practitioners, and researchers in disparate but complementary fields. The organization is also host to the Leslie and Brad Bucher Artist-in-Residence, inviting a living artist to engage with the campus and community each .
In addition to regular performances in the Lois Chiles Studio Theater, there are three community events each year: Spring Fling, an outdoor concert featuring live music; Summer Jam which offers games, refreshments, and an indoor farmers market; and Moody Movie Night presenting a popular film screened outdoors on our lawn. These open and free programs are complemented by ongoing workshops in the Moody's Makerspace that support the research of Rice students, faculty, and staff.
Outside of our slate of seasonal exhibitions and programs, the Moody curates, facilitates, and maintains the permanent Rice Public Art collection, now featuring more than 85 works installed across Rice's 300-acre campus. Temporary public art interventions include Off the Wall, a yearly installation in the Brochstein Pavilion; the Moody Project Wall hosted in the building's flex space; Platform, a global invitation to artists to create an installation in response to the architecture and areas of study found on Rice's campus; and the Tent Series.
About Our Building
The 2017 opening of the Moody inaugurated a new arts district on Rice’s campus that both anchored various departments and created a public gateway. The building conceptually and geographically connects the nearby Shepherd School of Music, Brockman Hall for Opera, and James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion. The Moody also directly neighbors the future site of the Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall, home to Rice University’s Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts.
The Moody's emphasis on connectivity extends to the building’s architecture with the majority of the first floor along the principal elevations clad in floor-to-ceiling glass and large picture windows punctuating the articulated brick facade in a playful rhythm that brings light deep into interior spaces. The $30 million, 50,000 square-foot building was designed to support 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. Due to the success of architect Michael Maltzan's vision, the Moody received the 2017 Design Honor Award from the AIA California Council. The American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIACC) Design Awards Program strives to recognize projects that have inspired architectural design thought and exhibit formal, technological, and spatial innovations.
What does the building contain?
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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.