Thursday July 9, 2020
11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Dr. Mary Lee Webeck, HMH Holocaust and Genocide Education Endowed Chair

Take a virtual tour through our Bak Gallery and see a short video with our CEO giving a brief museum overview.

The Samuel Bak Gallery and Learning Center in loving memory of Hope Silber Kaplan is home to the nation’s only permanent Samuel Bak collection with 130 pieces rotated periodically. Holocaust Museum Houston is exceptionally honored that the Samuel Bak Gallery and Learning Center serves as a permanent, international gallery for his paintings, works donated directly to the Museum by the artist. The Bak Learning Center will help visitors understand the content of his works, as well as the rich symbolism used in his paintings. A rarity in the U.S., the gallery itself is circular, comprised of three intimate galleries.

Bak was born in 1933 in Vilna, Poland. His artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Vilna Ghetto when he was nine years old. Bak and his mother survived the Holocaust through the efforts of his father, his aunt and a Benedictine nun known as Sister Maria who gave Bak and his mother shelter in a convent in Vilna. While both Bak and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. Bak’s life-and-death experiences inspired his prolific collection of artwork.

The galleries will continuously display the exceptional work of the artist while teaching children and adults to apply an understanding of the events of the Holocaust and other genocides to their own lives and respond to them successfully by developing social resiliency.