"A Common Language," the Menil series that made its debut last year, brings together artists and arts professionals from different disciplines, inviting them to share their ideas about art and artistic practice. Speaking first as individuals and from individual experiences, each then engages the other — and the audience — by considering particular works of art in the museum's collection: Works that may reveal what artists, from all fields, have in common.

Architecture should be a learning tool that inspires creativity, engages users and promotes a healthy and happy life. That enlightened view is held by Nicola Springer, vice president of Kirksey Architecture and the 2009 recipient of the Ben Brewer Young Architect Award, recognizing excellence in the first decade of practice.

Named America's Best Curator by TIME, Anne Wilkes Tucker founded the Photography Department at the MFAH in 1978. Some 29,000 photographs are now held by the museum, where Tucker has organized more than 40 exhibitions.

Rebecca Greene Udden is a founding member of Main Street Theater. Artistic director since 1978, she has championed the work of female playwrights and directed more than one hundred productions, including many Houston premieres.