Museum Quarter Houston, Texas – Top Engineering Schools

Houston Museum Quarter (Houston, USA) – expositions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.

20 museums, galleries and cultural centers on an area of 2 km² – all this is the Museum Quarter of Houston, located on the site of a former wasteland of the 1970s. A tourist who finds himself in the space capital of the United States will find here everything necessary for an exciting cultural leisure in the city: “lyricists” are invited by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art, “physicists” will appreciate the Museum of Natural Sciences and the Weather Museum, and the smallest by the ears will not pull it out of the Houston Children’s Museum and Zoo. An additional pleasant moment: admission to 11 museums is free, so the love of tourists and locals for the Museum Quarter is justified – more than 8 million people visit it a year. And here, a lot of cultural and educational events take place daily, there are cafes and restaurants, and you can take a walk in well-groomed gardens and parks. See topschoolsoflaw for brief history of Montana.

The Museum Quarter Houston Pass provides free admission to the Museum of Natural Science, the Children’s Museum, and a choice of the Houston Zoo or Museum of Fine Arts.

Museums

For the convenience of visitors, 4 walking routes have been developed in the Museum Quarter, along which you can literally “flow” from one museum to another (although this will require a fair amount of physical fitness).

Zone #1 includes the Houston Photo Center, the Rothko Chapel, and the Menil Collection. The exposition of the photo center contains more than 400 works by contemporary photo artists. In the Rothko Chapel, visitors of all faiths contemplate the paintings of the American artist Mark Rothko. And the Menil Collection houses more than 17,000 works of art from antiquity to the present, including the world’s largest collection of surrealism.

Route number 2 brings together museums dedicated to the history of mankind, nations and religions, as well as the history and art of Texas. At the Asian Society Center, you can learn about the enslavement and discrimination of national minorities during military operations. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum tells about the military service and exploits of Africans in the American army, and their work is presented in the Museum of African American Culture. The Czech Museum Center immerses you in the history of the Czech community in the United States, while the Holocaust Museum will show you the horrifying evidence of Nazi war crimes. The Divers Works Museum and the Lawndale Art Center showcase the work of contemporary artists.

Zone 3 includes the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Yun Center for Oriental Practices and Arts. The first contains paintings, sculptures and installations from the last 40 years, the second needs no introduction, and the Yun Center offers more than 200 self-development courses.

Zone 4 is for the little ones: The Children’s Museum and Zoo, Health Museum, Natural Science Museum and Rice Gallery will keep your kids busy all day long.

Practical Information

Address: Texas, Houston, area bounded by National Highways 288 and 59, Texas Medical Center, and Herman Park. Website.

There are 3 MetroRail stations on the block: Museum District, Wheeler and Hermann Park.

Menil Collection

Menil Collection (Houston, USA) — expositions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.

The Menil Collection is a gift to Houston from the extravagant philanthropist couple John and Dominique de Menil. These are more than 17 thousand items of fine art, covering the period from the 3rd millennium BC to the 20th century: painting and graphics, sculpture and archaeological finds, photography and decorative art from different countries.

The famous collection is housed in a modernist building built by Renzo Piano, near the very center of Houston. Solid capital and love for beauty made the Menils the owners of one of the best private art collections not only in the United States, but throughout the world, and the desire to share their impressions with the residents and guests of Houston gave the city, perhaps, the best art museum.

According to the will of the spouses, the entrance to the museum will always remain free.

A bit of history

The creators of the collection and the museum are the French Baron John de Menil, who emigrated to the United States during World War II. The heir to a huge fortune, he soon married a compatriot Dominique Schlamberger from a well-known oil family. Passion for art ruled the life of the couple: the beginning of the collection was laid in the 1940s. buying a Cezanne painting. The collection quickly expanded, and in 1972 the couple decided to create an open museum where anyone could be inspired by immortal works of art. The first visitors crossed its threshold in 1987, and in 1997, after the death of Dominique, the museum was taken over by the city of Houston.

What to watch

The Menil collection is located in a large two-story building and occupies about 10 spacious rooms, smoothly passing one into another. The exhibits are displayed in chronological and geographical order.

The art of antiquity and antiquity is represented by archaic images of animals, Greek and Roman artifacts, amphorae and vessels. In the halls of the Middle Ages and Byzantium, it is worth seeing early Christian icons, religious objects and frescoes of the 14th-15th centuries. The collection of paintings of modernity and surrealism includes works by Matisse, Dali, Klee, Warhol, Miro, Ernst, Rothko…

The pearl of the exposition is a wonderful collection of works by Rene Magritte.

The Hall of African Art introduces masks, sculptures and objects of ritual cults of numerous tribes of the Black Continent: there are mysterious Dogon symbols, exquisite Edo figurines, and outlandish Baman head ornaments of the 17th-20th centuries. The art of the Americas and the Pacific Northwest is represented by pottery, jewelry, and masks from Indian peoples, including the Maya and Olmecs. And in the Pacific Islands section, you should pay attention to curious Maori household items.

The cultural route can be continued at the Rothko Chapel and the Museum of Photography – they are located next door. Be sure to check out the Menil Collection bookstore for a great selection of art books.