adieu spa

Houston's premiere performing arts purveyor announces new name and season

DIAVOLO will leap into Houston.

For more than 5 decades, Houston fans have flocked to Society of Performing Arts (lovingly known as “SPA”) Houston events, delighting in nationally and globally renowned dance, plays, music, author and celebrity visits, and more.

Now, the city’s premiere performing arts organization has a new name, look, and season lineup: SPA is now Performing Arts Houston. The organization teased the rebrand at its recent soiree, The Kaleidoscope Ball.

Why the name change now? “Dropping the word ‘Society’ from our name reflects our value of welcoming all Houstonians to participate in the performing arts,” notes a press release.

Whether locals found the name alienating or not, there’s no denying the organization’s appeal to audiences and performers and entertainers. CEO Meg Booth also cited another reason to reposition.

“We have a strong 55-year legacy of providing high quality artistic programming and arts education to the city of Houston,” she said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to carry this mission into a second half century with a new name and look. “It also lets us lose the acronym, SPA. As therapeutic as the arts are, we’re happy not to be confused in google searches with spa treatments.”

As for the highly anticipated 2022/2023 lineup, tickets go on sale July 12.

Dance highlights include Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan; Ragamala Dance Company, a classical Indian Bharatnatyam company; Dance Theatre of Harlem, a New York City institution; and Gregory Maqoma’s Vuyani Dance Theatre from South Africa.

Music fans will no doubt delight in New Orleans icons Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Grammy Award-winning gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama will perform a Christmas show with The Voice finalist and Houston’s own Sarah Grace & The Soul. Mariachi Herencia de México will take the stage with special guest Lupita Infante.

America’s Got Talent favorite, DIAVOLO, will perform Trajectoire plus a new work honoring veterans. Cirque du Soleil’s Cirque Dreams Holidaze, blends musical theater, holiday classics, and signature circus arts. Dog lovers shouldn’t miss Mutts Gone Nuts!, a family comedy act with supremely talented four-legged stars. Our Planet Live in Concert, reimagines the popular Netflix documentary series, featuring a live orchestra, and showcases the wonders of Earth. Local favorite, STOMP returns to kick it.

Making their Performing Arts debuts are hilarious motherhood YouTubers My Name is NOT Mom; stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host Tom Papa; and British cook, TV host, and writer Nigella Lawson, who has sold more than 12 million cookbooks worldwide.

For a full list of 2022/2023 performers and events, visit the new-look Performing Arts Houston site.

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a 14 minute tour

Museum of Fine Arts takes Houston to Paris cathedral with new virtual tour

Still image of digital rendering of Notre- Dame Cathedral, Ars Electronica.

Museum of Fine Arts courtesy image.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opens “Notre-Dame Immersive Experience.” (Still image of digital rendering of Notre- Dame Cathedral, Ars Electronica.)

Lovers of art and architecture around the world mourned when a 2019 fire destroyed significant portions of the exterior and interior of Notre-Dame Cathedral, one of the most beloved landmarks in all of France. After five years of intense rebuilding and repair, Notre-Dame is set to open again this December. For those who can’t make it to the reopening, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has a very special virtual trip planned this holiday season with their just announced monumental installation, the “Notre-Dame Immersive Experience.”

Set within the MFAH’s vast Cullinan Hall, this animated, 14-minute, immersive presentation will surround visitors with images of Notre-Dame, simulating the experience of walking through the medieval cathedral. Viewers will go on a virtual journey from the outside of Notre-Dame as day turns to dusk, then move into the candle-lite interiors and stained-glass windows. The immersive video will also replicate the fire and its aftermath before revealing the cathedral’s newly reconstructed spire, topped with a cross and a golden rooster, a national emblem of France and a symbol of Christianity.

“It is difficult to exaggerate the role Notre-Dame plays in the public imagination, from its iconic architecture, emblematic of the Northern Gothic style, to its magnificent stained-glass rose windows,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston director Gary Tinterow said in a statement. “When fire erupted five years ago, millions of people around the world grieved the loss of a monument that had personal significance to each of them. Happily, the cathedral has been restored, and now Houstonians will be among the first to experience the reconstructed building that rose from the ashes.”

“Notre-Dame Immersive Experience” was created by Ars Electronica Futurelab, in partnership with French start-ups Iconem and Histovery. To create a virtual 3D model of Notre-Dame, the installation uses point cloud data compiled by the late Belgian art historian and Vassar College professor Andrew Tallon, who created 3D laser scans of the cathedral in 2010 that proved instrumental in guiding the reconstruction of the cathedral as well as additional scans and 3D material by Histovery.

Over the years, we’ve come to expect perception-defying immersive artworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston every summer, but this “Notre-Dame Immersive Experience” November surprise looks to be a perfect place to take any visiting art, history, or Francophile friends and family for the holidays.

The "Notre-Dame Immersive Experience" will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from November 23, 2024, through January 5, 2025.

Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opens “Notre-Dame Immersive Experience.”

museum of fine arts houston museums notredame cathedral

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