Museum City

Houston is usually called Space City thanks to the Johnson Space Center, and this is a great place to visit if you are ever in Houston with some time on your hands, but I think you might be more impressed with all the museums. The fact is, there are a lot of rich people in Houston and they have given a lot of money to create or endow some of the best art collections in the country. The good news is all the museums are relatively close to each other in a very nice part of the city, and the Houston Museum District website lists all the shows and other info in one place.

I recommend starting with the Menil Collection. John de Menil, a successful businessman and diplomat, moved to Houston after he married the heir to the Schlumberger fortune, Dominique Schlumberger, and together they amassed over 17,000 works or art and artifacts. They built a beautiful building to show a small rotating portion of the art in 1971 and it still stands as one of the best museum spaces in the country. While we were there they had a small, but very powerful collection of civil rights photos from the 60's as one of about eight different exhibits. If you have a particular interest and you can convince them you are an art scholar, you can access any part of the larger collection stored in a separate warehouse.


Across from the Menil is my favorite place in Houston, the Rothko Chapel. In 1971 the Menil's commissioned an intimate sanctuary where people of every belief could go to meditate and be inspired by the mural canvases of Russian born American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970), who incidentally grew up in Portland. At first the canvases seem like simple, although huge, black panels, but the more time you spend with them the more the subtleties are revealed. The building also has amazing natural light that can have a big effect on art and the mood of the room. In 2001 the Chapel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and is a featured entry in National Geographic's book Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations. I would suggest spending a little time to allow the vibe of the place to settle in, you don't want to rush this visit.

When you come out of the Rothko Chapel, on the plaza, you will see Barnett Newman's sculpture, Broken Obelisk, which was created in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A short drive down the street is the Houston Museum of Fine arts, the Contemporary Arts Museum, the Center for Contemporary Craft, the Center for Photography, the Houston Zoo, The Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural Sciences and several other small gems.

One of the gems I wanted to visit was the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, but it looked like it was closed so we went to the Holocaust Museum. For such a downer subject this is a really nice place. They have authentic film footage, artifacts, photographs and documents that depict life in pre-war Europe, the Nazi move toward the “Final Solution” and life after the Holocaust. The tour takes about an hour and a half if you go with one of the guides or you can get around in half an hour on your own.



The most striking part of the museum is the 1942 Holocaust-era rail car where you can stand inside and imagine yourself with 130 others, packed like sardines on the way to a German death camp. It is a chilling experience. On the positive side they also have a 1942 Danish rescue boat that ferried 7000 Jews out of Denmark to neutral Sweden. On the way out I was amazed to see the list of holocaust survivors in Houston, the list was easily over 200 people.


So next time you are Houston, don't complain that there is nothing to do.