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    CultureMap Video

    Houston's own It's A Small World ride: The Hermann Park train gets a new magical tunnel

    Joel Luks
    Feb 16, 2014 | 11:03 am
    Houston's own It's A Small World ride: The Hermann Park train gets a new magical tunnel
    play icon

    "That's you?" I asked.

    "Yes, that's me. Can't you see the resemblance?" he laughed.

    I could. No question. There he was in the center panel of the latest installation at Hermann Park, amid a cacophony of jovial pop culture-esque cartoon characters and animals that compose a new "happiest place on earth." Trenton Doyle Hancock's self portrait hugs a baby elephant, showing off a smile as big as as the many he hopes to inspire in those that are surprised by this wonderland of colors.

    Titled Destination Mound Town — commissioned as part of Art in the Park, the park's centennial public art project — the large-scale vinyl piece engulfs what was formerly a dull amusement on the Hermann Park Railroad route. The metal building known as the tunnel can finally honk its own horn.

    Hancock wasn't offended at the suggestion that Destination Mound Town reminded me of Walk Disney World's "it's a small world" ride — minus the music and moving parts, although much, much artsier.

    "I just want people to have a sense of wonderment, especially the little ones, small children who may or may not have gone to a museum."

    Anchoring the panorama of alligators, owls, tigers, horses, rabbits and an assemblage of many other characters is the "Mound," a plump feathery mutant creature that's responsible for ingesting the woes of the world to transform them into positive energy. The more negativity he consumes, the bigger the Mound becomes.

    All that's left is a joie de vivre that's contagious, fitting for a public space surrounded by the Texas Medical Center, Houston Museum of Natural Science and Miller Outdoor Theatre.

    "Mounds emerged when a cave man procreated with wild flowers," Hancock explains. "The mounds are ancient and have a deep connection to nature. In essence, they represent the spirit of the earth."

    Hancock's sci-fi milieu appears in many of his painting and written works. He created the alternate universe while he was a student at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. In his early images, there was an inherent storyline that carried through from piece to piece with a tone that addressed social issues. This personal mythology is sometimes autobiographical, sometimes biblical. These symbols are influenced by his religious upbringing.

    Born in Oklahoma and raised in Paris, Texas, Hancock's style has garnered considerable attention from national and international institutions. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea in Trento, Italy; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

    Last year, Hancock was awarded the $30,000 Greenfield Prize by the Greenfield Foundation. His work will be shown once again in the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as part of a retrospective titled Trenton Doyle Hancock: Skin & Bones, 20 Years of Drawing, on view from April 26 through July 20.

    Yes, Hancock is a big deal, although he doesn't take himself too seriously.

    On the deeper side of the tunnel, the space is divided into three segments to aid viewers in focusing in one panel at a time. The opposite wall will display the mirror image outlined in black and white, a characteristic that he hopes will demystify the process of putting together such a display.

    "I just want people to have a sense of wonderment, especially the little ones, small children who may or may not have gone to a museum," he says. "Oh, this is art that I'm ridding through right now.

    "I want them to know that it's possible to do something that big and be that expressive and actually have fun with making art."

    ___

    Watch the video (above) for CultureMap interview with Hancock and a preview of the installation in progress.

    On the deeper side of the tunnel, the space is divided into three segments to aid viewers in focusing in one panel at a time.

    Trenton Doyle Hancock Hermann Park train art in the park
      
    Photo by Joel Luks
    On the deeper side of the tunnel, the space is divided into three segments to aid viewers in focusing in one panel at a time.
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    A Roman Holiday (Season)

    All roads lead to Houston museum's blockbuster exhibit of Imperial Rome

    Tarra Gaines
    Jun 11, 2025 | 3:15 pm
    ​The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times"
    Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
    The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

    Houston's holiday season will have a distinctly Roman feeling this year, as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is bringing the glory of the Gladiator era to Texas. On November 2, 2025 through January 25, 2026 the MFAH presents the monumental new exhibition “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times.”

    Featuring 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and exquisite bronze artifacts, the exhibition will transport visitors back in time to the Roman Empire during a flowering of art and architecture. The MFAH partnered with the Saint Louis Art Museum to organize the exhibition, which will showcase many pieces that have never been on view in the U.S.

    While Emperor Trajan might not be the most famous — or in some cases, most infamous — of the Roman emperors, he ruled between 98 and 117 C.E. during the empire’s height and was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. He was also the first emperor born outside of present-day Italy, in what is now Andalusia, Spain. During his reign, he granted citizenship and rights to some peoples from conquered lands. The exhibition will explore how this time period expanded what it meant to be a Roman and how art reflected Rome’s power and promoted the empire’s values and ideals.

    \u200bThe Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times"
      

    Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

    The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

    From statues of prominent men and women of the era, including Trajan, to vivid frescoes and furnishing from the villas of Pompeii, the objects in the exhibition will tell fascinating cultural and political stories of life in imperial Rome. To add context to the artworks and objects of antiquity, the MFAH will recreate a section of Trajan’s Column, which was a towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze, one of the few monumental sculptures to have survived the fall of Rome.

    “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” brings such a wealth of objects to Houston thanks to unprecedented loans from the renowned antiquities collections of Italian museums including Museo Nazionale Romano, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Ostia, and the Musei Vaticani. It would would likely take months of travel across Italy to see this much art.

    “This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, in a statement. “We are enormously grateful to our colleagues in Rome, Naples, and Vatican City for lending these treasures to us and broadening the appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage.”

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