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Lubbock, TX 79409-3191
806-742-0498
The Museum is an educational, scientific, cultural, and research element of Texas Tech University. It consists of several components: the main Museum building, the Moody Planetarium, the Ranching Heritage Center, the research and educational elements of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the Val Verde County Research Site, and the Goodman Cotton Gin.
The primary mission of the Museum is to collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate knowledge about natural and cultural material from the Southwest and other regions related by natural history, heritage, and climate. The collections in the arts, humanities, and sciences are held in perpetual trust for public education, exhibition, reference, enjoyment, and for research. Collection objects number in excess of 1.5 million. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums.
Temporary and permanent exhibitions in the social and natural sciences and visual arts are presented in the main Museum building. The Ranching Heritage Center provides both indoor and outdoor exhibits on the history of Texas ranching. The Lubbock Lake Landmark, a renowned archaeological site, contains a complete cultural record from the Clovis Period (12,000 years ago) through historic times, making Lubbock one of the oldest communities in the world! The Moody Planetarium offers public shows and specially designed school programs about physics and astronomy. The Natural Science Research Laboratory affords resources for scholarly studies in herpetology, mammalogy, ornithology, and vertebrate paleontology.
Operational costs of the Museum are provided by the State through Texas Tech University. Support for programs, exhibitions, and selected additions to the permanent collections is available, in part, from the West Texas Museum Association, and private and corporate contributors.
The first floor of the main Museum building is dedicated to public exhibitions including those drawn from the permanent collection and those on loan from other institutions.
Additional features include the Museum Shop, rooms for special events and student activities, and the Moody Planetarium.
The DeVitt Wing houses permanent galleries with exhibitions related to the West Texas region.
On the second floor are the Balcony Gallery, Museum Science Library, Kline Rooms, and the West Texas Museum Association, Administrative, and Museum Science Program offices. In the basement are classrooms, offices, work rooms, and collection areas which are not normally open to the public.
The Ranching Heritage Center consists of orientation building and 14 acre outdoor site. Exhibitions at the center interpret the history of Southwest ranching and life in the region. The outdoor site encompasses 33 historic structures illustrating Texas ranching from the 1830's to the 1920's. The orientation holds galleries, the McKanna Parlor, meeting rooms, Cogdell's Store, and the Ranching Heritage Association office.
Sept 10 - Oct 22, 1995 | Gallery 1
This print exhibition includes 50 works organized and presented by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Native American printmaking is largely a development of the past three decades. The mainstream art techniques taught at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, have strongly influenced Native American printmakers. Their chief printmaking techniques are lithography and serigraphy (silk screenings). The exhibit includes text and information panels.
Nov 12 - Jan 3, 1996 | Gallery 1
Since the Renaissance, artists have gathered in communities where costs were low and those with the same interests offered a stimulating atmosphere. Taos, New Mexico, provided such a haven for Russian-born Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin. Fechin lived in Taos from 1926 to 1936. The exhibit includes 39 works representing virtually the entire span of the artist's career, including drawings, paintings, bronzes, and rare wooden prototypes for his bronze sculptures. The dynamic and highly expressive aspects of Fechin's work are comprehensively represented by accompanying text panels, labels, and an illustrated gallery guide. Programs: A public opening/reception and presentation by the artist's daughter, Eya Fechin, of the Fechin Institute in Taos, New Mexico, are planned for November 12, 1995.
May 7 - Jan, 1996 | Gallery 2
On May 11, 1995, Texas Tech University will commemorate the anniversary of the Wind Engineering Research Center. In conjunction with a conference, the Museum will host an exhibition focusing on both the 1970 Lubbock tornado that inspired the Center's creation, and the development of the Wind Engineering Department, an internationally recognized authority on wind and its effects. The exhibition will include photographs, artifacts, models, interactive computer programs, and text.
July 18 - Jan 1, 1996 | Galleries Main, 3 & 4
The Museum will exhibit a collection of sculptures by Glenna Goodacre, Lubbock favorite-daughter and nationally renown sculptor. Ms. Goodacre is a native of Lubbock now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her rise to national artistic prominence is exemplified by such works as the newly installed Viet-Nam Women Veterans monument in Washington, D.C. The exhibition will include works in a wide range of sizes and subject matter. Ms. Goodacre is expected to be present for the opening of the exhibition.