Tom served on the Board of Directors of the Cypress Creek Fine Art Association as the Chair of the Renovation Committee during the design and renovation of the former Barbara Bush Library owned by Harris County. The naming rights to the museum was acquired by the Pearl Fincher Foundation and the museum was named in Pearl’s honor. The museum today is affectionately known as The Pearl.
Tom’s role was:
- Organizing the Renovation Committee and leading the committee to issue and RFP to selected architects, conducting interviews and selecting one;
- Leading the design phase of the museum and working through the dialog with Board members to find compromises between budget; realistic potential improvements to the old structure and desires and dreams.
- Working with The Museum of Fine Arts Houston who was our mentor and who would be loaning fine art to show. MFAH had not supported another museum in that way and so building out the facility to provide adequate climate controls and security was very important.
- Delivering the ren
ovated building ready for it’s first art patron’s wine party and most importantly its first bus load of students that had never been to a fine arts museum as MFAH is too far away for the ISD to take them.
In addition to the project management role Tom also created and maintained the internet site for the development. The web site was built on the Joomla Content Management Platform