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| Art Centers, Historic Sites & Museums
in Houston |
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 Houston
is full of historic sites and museums to offer its guests.
You will have art museums, historic museums, and even a museum
dedicated to the Holocaust to browse through. Below you
will find information about some of the museums Houston has to
offer. If you need help with your hotel, car rental or
airfare reservations please use the links to the left and save
up to 40%.
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Historical Sites & Museums
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Contemporary
Arts Museum
- This unique, silver-aluminum parallelogram presents
temporary exhibitions of modern art and industrial design as
well as films. The largest contemporary arts museum in the
Southwest, which completed massive renovations in 1997, focuses
on American works created in the past 40 years. (713)
284-8250
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George
Ranch Historical Park
- You can experience the life of four generations of
a Texas family on this 400-acre outdoor museum, a working cattle
ranch. Wander through a restored 1820s pioneer farm, an 1880s
Victorian mansion, an 1890s cowboy encampment, and a 1930s ranch
house. Savor Victorian-style tea on the porch of an 1890s
mansion, or sit around the campfire with cowboys during a
roundup and watch crafts demonstrations such as rope twisting.
Picnic areas are provided. (281) 545-9212
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Houston
Museum of Natural Science
- From the diplodocus to the space rocket, from oil
wells to artificial earthquakes, the cornerstone of this city's
Museum District is one of the largest and most impressive
natural science museums in the country. Special highlights
include the Hall of Medical Science with giant models of the
human body, the Burke Baker Planetarium, where visitors follow
the paths of comets and planetary motions, and the Cockrell
Butterfly Center, which houses 2,000 real butterflies in a
six-story glass cone. Ask about the planetarium's after-hours
Rock Laser Shows. (713) 639-4629
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Museum
of Fine Arts -
The museum is remarkable for the
completeness of its enormous collection; it is housed in a
complicated series of wings and galleries, many designed by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Renaissance and 18th-century art, and
Impressionist and Postimpressionist works are particularly well
represented. (713) 639-7300
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Sam
Houston Historical Park
- Part of the modern downtown area, this park holds
eight of the city's oldest structures, restored and furnished in
19th-century fashion. The buildings, open for guided tours,
reflect a range of styles and uses, and include an 1847 brick
house and 1891 church. The Heritage Museum features
permanent exhibits on texas history and a complete country
store. (713) 655-1912
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Byzantine
Fresco Chapel -
This museum houses two 13th-century frescoes stolen from a
church in Cyprus. When recovered, the frescoes, originally in
the dome and apse of the church's votive chapel, had been cut
into 38 fragments. It was the Menil Foundation of Houston that
undertook their costly restoration, which explains their display
here -- they are on long-term loan by the Greek Orthodox Church
and the Republic of Cyprus as a gesture of gratitude. Suspended
in a black reliquary box are frosted-glass panels replicating
the tiny chapel structure. (713)
521-3990
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Holocaust
Museum Houston -
Housed in a stark, cylindrical edifice, the Holocaust Museum
Houston is an education center as well as a memorial. The main
exhibit, "Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers," can
be viewed individually or by tour. The 30-minute film Voices
is a moving oral history by local survivors.:
(713) 942-8000
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Rothko
Chapel - In
a park next to the Menil Collection, the moody chapel is an
octagonal sanctuary designed by Philip Johnson. The 14 Mark
Rothko paintings that panel the chapel's walls at first glance
look like simple black canvases; only when you come close can
you see the subtle coloring. Outside the ecumenical chapel is
Barnett Newman's sculpture Broken Obelisk, which
symbolizes the life and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. :
(713) 524-9839
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Lawndale
Art Center
- is a non-profit alternative space for the
exhibition of contemporary works in all media, unique in its
focus on Houston area artists. Founded in 1979, Lawndale has
owned its present location on Main Street in Houston's Museum
District since 1993. With three galleries in its locally
significant Art Deco building, Lawndale includes close to 500
artists annually in changing exhibitions.
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