Alexandra Irvine, standing in front of John Alexander’s landscape “Night Garden,” is the new director of Lamar University’s Dishman Art Museum.
Photo by Andy Coughlan
Alexandra Irvine is the new director of Lamar University’s Dishman Art Museum.
Photo by Andy Coughlan
Alexandra Irvine is the new director of Lamar University’s Dishman Art Museum.
Photo by Andy Coughlan
Alexandra Irvine has a long history in arts administration, from intern to curator to administrator. Now, the Beaumont native has returned to Southeast Texas as director of Lamar University’s Dishman Art Museum.
Irvine graduated from Kelly Catholic High School before heading to the University of Texas at Austin.
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“I started in communications, and then took an art history class and loved it,” Irvine said. “I also took studio classes and liked those.”
Irvine said she thought about becoming a studio art major but was persuaded to think again.
“My dad said, ‘You can’t eat paint,’” Irvine said with a laugh. “I remember very clearly. So, he was the one who pushed the museum administration line on me, because it had business acumen attached to it.”
Irvine returned home for the summer and interned at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. While she was there, then director Lynn Castle took her to the American Alliance of Museums conference in New Orleans where Irvine met Marti Mayo, who was the director of the University of Houston’s Blaffer Gallery.
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“She said, ‘Come to U of H. I’ll give you an internship,” Irvine said. “So, I transferred to U of H from UT just to be there to work with her.”
Irvine studied art history and interned at the Blaffer for the rest of her time in Houston. She decided to attend graduate school in Washington, D.C. but found she was homesick for Texas, she said. She went back to the Blaffer and when Mayo was appointed director of the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Irvine followed her as assistant curator.
While there, Irvine worked on the city-wide Robert Rauschenberg retrospective which was held across the city at the Menil Collection, CAMH and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“One of the most memorable exhibitions I got to be a part of was the big Rauschenberg retrospective that we held between the three museums,” she said. “I got to meet Bob. (It was) just remarkable to see all of that work in one place at one time — it was really special. For one thing, curatorial staffs would get together and have beer after work all together, and that was just a neat time to be part of that scene in Houston. It was a fun time in the city, because it was, was just a big celebration.”
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After a spell in Austin working with her sister doing interior design, Irvine took the job as director of the Galveston Art Center before heading up the Houston Center for Photography.
Irvine spent the past nine years doing a marketing and public relations for an investment management firm before seizing the chance to return to Beaumont in December.
“I was ready after a 40 year hiatus,” she said. “I liked the Dishman because I liked being in the university world when I worked at Blaffer Gallery. I liked having the university as a resource, and that appealed.”
Irvine said she wants the Dishman to be a resource for everybody, and to be seen as a learning and teaching tool.
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“I want to highlight work of the region, Louisiana and Texas, and give students access to those who are making the art,” she said.
Fundamentally, art is an important factor in the quality of life, Irvine said.
“Art makes life work worth living, and is something you can engage with,” she said. “It fulfills a need to have things of beauty around you and things that that make you think.”
While Irvine said she dabbles with making art — “I don’t call myself an artist, but I do make collages, and I like to put glitter on stuff,” she said — she does surround herself with art.
“My collection focuses on trees,” she said. “I’m not sure how that happened, but that’s the art I’ve got in my house. Landscapes are a good one. What else do I like? I like the art of our region.”
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It may have taken four decades of wandering for Irvine to return to Southeast Texas’ familiar landscape, but she brings wealth of experience back home.
The Dishman Art Museum is located at 1030 E. Lavaca on the Lamar University campus. Admission is free. Hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Saturday, noon-4 p.m. For more, visit lamar.edu/dishman.
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