{"id":922484,"date":"2026-07-09T05:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922484\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:28:20","slug":"exploring-african-representation-at-mfah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922484\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring African Representation at MFAH"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is home to an impressive collection of artwork and artifacts<\/a> from across the globe, representing Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. While many visitors come to admire its renowned exhibits, the museum also offers a meaningful opportunity to explore the rich artistic traditions and cultural heritage of the African continent. In a city as diverse as Houston, home to one of the largest African populations in the United States, this representation carries special significance. According to recent demographic trends, African-born immigrants are the fastest-growing Black immigrant group in the U.S., making spaces that celebrate African history and creativity increasingly important. Whether you\u2019re reconnecting with your heritage or discovering African art for the first time, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston provides an engaging way to experience the continent\u2019s stories through art. It certainly enriched my experience as an African living in Houston.<\/p>\n

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The Museum of Fine Arts is the oldest museum in Texas, making it an important landmark. The museum features over 80,000 works spanning 5,000 years of history from all six continents. Knowing the number of years of history I would be exploring, I knew I was about to see a substantial amount of African history.<\/p>\n

The beauty of African art, to me, has always been in its symbolism and utility, and I was not proven wrong as I went through each of the sections. The Museum of Fine Arts houses an extensive collection of African art, utility, and history, which I got to see. It includes textiles, jewelry, traditional masks, and statues that served both spiritual and decorative purposes, many of which date back to 500 B.C.<\/p>\n

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A common function of African art was to pay homage to elements of humanity and spirituality. For example, the Yoruba twins\u2019 \u201cibeji\u201d statue from Southwest Nigeria paid homage to twins and their birth. Here are two interesting facts: twins were quite common among the Yoruba, and even my dad is a twin. Another interesting fact is that the Yoruba believe the second-born twin is actually the elder one. They have a spiritual belief that the second twin sends the first twin into the world to see if it is suitable before following behind. This is why the first-born twin is called \u201cTayewo,\u201d which means \u201cto taste or see the world first,\u201d while the second-born twin is called \u201cKehinde,\u201d which means \u201cthe one who comes after.\u201d My dad\u2019s name is Tayewo and my uncle is Kehinde. This is a story I reminded myself of while visiting the museum. A story that is close to my roots and ancestry.<\/p>\n

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One thing that surprised me about my experience at the Museum of Fine Arts was how much I could connect with it. Growing up, I thought all the stolen African art was in the British Museum and that it would take me a long time to see any of it. Coming to the United States made it difficult for me to stay connected to my roots, especially because I had to create new relationships, something I wasn\u2019t completely comfortable doing, even with other Nigerians. I kept to myself. Experiencing African art made me feel at ease because a part of my history is here too.<\/p>\n

I always felt a strong connection to my culture back home, and seeing parts of it again in a different country gave me a sense of familiarity. Familiarity and similarity are two very different things. It took me a long time to finally visit the Museum of Fine Arts after thinking about it for so long. I believe that, just like me, other Africans can experience that same feeling of familiarity and be happy to share the parts of our history that the world often omits or overlooks. Diversity is an opportunity for us to learn about one another, just as I was happy to share a little known fact with you.<\/p>\n

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It also says a lot about the diversity of Houston and the people it serves. Houston is an incredibly diverse city, and the museum reflects that by displaying works from different parts of the world. In a diverse city, we all need something familiar to connect with. We all have a story to uncover about ourselves and our history.<\/p>\n

The Museum of Fine Arts is located at 1001 Bissonnet Street and is open Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors are allowed to take photographs and videos, as long as they do not use flash. Planning a visit is simple because tickets can be purchased online or in person. I recommend this mini adventure to whoever is curious about their roots, origins, and ancestry; and to learn about other cultures as well. The Museum of Fine Arts is diversified enough to share a lot of knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is home to an impressive collection of artwork and artifacts from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":922485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[295876,1037,19845,101707,372316,80291,4345,128746,358,3187],"class_list":["post-922484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-activities-in-houston","tag-art","tag-art-gallery","tag-art-museums","tag-art-tour","tag-fine-art","tag-houston","tag-houston-art","tag-texas","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116888373490995638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}