Peter Marzio

Marzio
Peter Cort Marzio, visionary director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, dedicated his career to making the art of world cultures accessible to all. He often recounted how art had changed his life. As a freshman on an athletic scholarship at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, he took a course in art history. A class assignment sent him to the Frick Collection in New York, where he was inspired by a Goya painting. This first museum visit was the beginning of his belief that art had the power to enrich life. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in art history and American history. He began his career at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., as a curator of prints and drawings. There, his prolific exhibitions and publications were innovative and celebrated for their democratic spirit and broad appeal. In 1978 he became director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, where he worked to expand the audience base, strengthen its art school, and promote its famous permanent collection of American and European art.
In 1982, he was recruited by the trustees of the MFAH. Houston and Peter Marzio were a perfect match. He loved the city's entrepreneurial spirit, "can-do" attitude, and diversity. Houston welcomed him, and he embraced the city and museum. As MFAH director, Peter Marzio was the maestro. He directed major expansion and construction projects, including the Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi; the MFAH Administration and Junior School Building, by Carlos Jimenez; the Beck Building, by Rafael Moneo; and the Kilroy Education Center for Bayou Bend, by Leslie Elkins. He also led capital campaigns and served on many boards and advisory councils. He was a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and its president from 1988 to 1989. From 1997 to 2000, Peter Marzio was chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities in Washington, D.C. He became a member of the Wallace Foundation board in New York in 2001. He was also president of the Houston Museum District Association from 2001 to 2005. At the MFAH, he was the author of several important books, including "American Art & Philanthropy: Twenty Years of Collecting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston" (2010), "Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Director's Choice" (2009), and "A Permanent Legacy: 150 Works from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston" (1989).
During Peter Marzio's 28-year tenure, the museum's collections grew from 13,000 artworks to 62,172. Annual attendance soared from 380,000 to more than 2 million. Exhibitions proliferated, and grew from 26 in 1983 to 41 in 2009. He established departments for Renaissance and Baroque art, American painting and sculpture, antiquities, prints and drawings, film and video, modern and contemporary art, modern and contemporary design, the Glassell Collections, Latin American art, and art of the Islamic world. But these remarkable statistics cannot convey the institution's exciting chemistry and interaction of ideas, programs, and people that Peter Marzio inspired.
His vision and leadership brought extraordinary, diverse, and original exhibitions to Houston. They included "Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art," "Fresh Paint: The Houston School," "Frederic Remington: The Masterworks," "Rediscovering Pompeii," "The Quilts of Gee's Bend," "Splendors of Ancient Egypt," "Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures of the Russian Imperial Court," "The History of Japanese Photography," "The Heroic Century: The Museum of Modern Art Masterpieces, 200 Paintings and Sculptures," "Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America," "Singular Multiples: The Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980-1994," "The Masterpieces of French Painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800-1920," "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul," "Old Masters, Impressionists, and Moderns: French Masterworks from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow," and "Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria."
Peter Marzio developed a multitude of programs to serve the diverse Houston communities he loved. In 1986, he initiated a policy of free admission on Thursdays. In 1993, the 10-year Wallace Foundation-funded education program, "A Place for All People," was launched. It was followed by the 2004-2008 "Gateway to Art/De Puertas al Arte" program for the Latin American communities and collections, also funded by the Wallace Foundation. As an educator of the first order, Peter Marzio was most proud of the museum's outreach to schools and students through the Kinder Foundation Education Center; the Kilroy Education Center for Bayou Bend; and the Glassell School of Art.
Major collections entered the museum during Peter Marzio's tenure: the John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection; Rienzi, the house museum donated by Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III; the Caroline Wiess Law Collection; and the Glassell Gold Collections. Under his direction, an unprecedented partnership was forged with the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Cornelia Long, chairman of the MFAH board of trustees, described him: "Peter was a visionary leader. He believed the museum was a place for all people, and he worked tirelessly to make the collections accessible and the educational and exhibition schedules exciting. He embraced diversity and the public. The trustees of the MFAH will continue to do so as well."
Peter Marzio died a proud Houstonian whose legacy will enhance the lives of generations to come. A memorial, to be announced at a future date, will be held at the museum to celebrate his 28 years as director of the MFAH.