It’s really summer at Rice now. That is, it’s very hot and quiet. It was twenty summers ago that two large Dorothy Hood paintings were quietly installed in the Brown Fine Arts Library in Fondren. Wisely, they decided to wait and hold the celebration in October:

I recognize Hood, of course, along with Rice Art Professor Bill Camfield, Librarian Chuck Henry, and to the right the estimable Sally Reynolds. I don’t know the gentleman on the right, however, so if you do please let me know.

These paintings are no longer up on the third floor but are (along with another Hood) featured prominently near the entries to the building. To find out more about them and about the rest of the art in the building, you need to go here — it’s a brand new Fondren Library Arts and Cultural Objects Tour, researched and written by Sheila Mayfield as her capstone project for the MLS program in the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. You can either read the text or listen to the audio version, which is charmingly narrated by Molly Crownover, wife of Jim ’65.

Bonus: I’d read the text of this tour before it was published but it wasn’t until I saw the pictures that I realized that something is missing. Ten extra credit points to whoever can name it. It’s pretty well hidden and not easy at all.

Extra Bonus: The athletic marketing people had Sammy out working despite the 99 degree heat. His task was to execute some sort of dance that has gone viral on the interwebs. That is one tough bird!