Serving as CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS), Joel A. Bartsch leverages his experience as a curator in presenting compelling exhibits. One unique offering running through mid-2023 is Dreher Masterworks, which brings together 120 carvings spanning three generations of Germany’s Dreher family.

From the Idar-Oberstein region, the Dreher family carves unique, accurate, whimsically rendered animals and plants out of gemstones such as sapphire, ruby, topaz, and aquamarine. This family tradition extends back 15 generations, with current carvers Gerd Dreher and his son Patrick seeking new ways of bringing complex anatomies to life in stone.

Patrick is also an avid scuba diver, and this has opened up new avenues of expression focused on marine life. Studies undertaken prior to any carving comprehensively examine the movement and silhouettes of animals being portrayed. As Patrick Dreher eloquently describes it, “perpetuating one part of nature in another is an exciting symbiosis.”