Charitable Donation

For the longest time I never really understood the time-honored practice of rich people giving away their art collections to museums. But then I got older, moved a couple of times and helped clean out my grandparents' house. Translation: Some people, like myself, tend to accumulate a lot of crap over the years. Rich people, luckily for them, have some nice, highly coveted crap,..which they can donate to a museum, write off on their taxes and still get to see once or twice a year. I, on the other hand, have the kind of crap that still won't sell after three or four garage sales. Nona and Richard Barrett are two of those lucky, newly minimalist philanthropists, inviting the Dallas Museum of Art and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to clean house for them last January. Lone Star Legacy II: The Barrett Collection of Contemporary Texas Art shows off the DMA's new acquisitions--including works by Jesse Amado, Al Souza, Kermit Oliver, Dick Wray and others--through September 14 in the Museum's Tower Gallery. Call 214-922-1200 or visit dallasmuseumofart.org.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Aug. 22. Continues through Sept. 14, 2008