Meadows Museum gears up for its 50th anniversary next April
In April 2015, Southern Methodist University will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Meadows Museum, founded by the late Algur Meadows, a prominent collector of Spanish art.
By Michael Granberry
Arts and Features
In April 2015, Southern Methodist University will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Meadows Museum, founded by the late Algur Meadows, a prominent collector of Spanish art. Back then, the museum occupied a 20,000-square-foot space inside the Owen Fine Arts Center, which, like the museum, opened in April 1965.
It was a heady time on the University Park campus and in the world at large. Beatlemania had swept the nation, with the Fab Four having just released Beatles ’65, and through its football team, of all things, SMU stood on the forefront of social change by signing Jerry LeVias as the first black player to be awarded a scholarship in the Southwest Conference. The Mustangs ended LeVias’ first season by winning the SWC championship in 1966.
And now, even though the official anniversary is almost a year away, Meadows officials are prepared for a lavish celebration.
“We have started in many ways already,” says Mark A. Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum. Last fall, for instance, the Meadows acquired what Roglán calls “that wonderful” Portrait of Mariano Goya, the Artist’s Grandson, by the great Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, “that was bought in honor of the 50th anniversary, which set the tone for the whole celebration to start.”
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