Houston Museum of Fine Arts

Museums in Houston Perfect for a Rainy Day

 

With so many museums available in nearby Houston, we’re sure you’ll find one worth exploring on your next visit to Bay RV. Houston is only a 40-minute drive away, and many museums offer free admission on Thursdays. There’s also a great range of food options providing plenty of variety. Houston is home to over 10,000 restaurants with over 70 different cuisines. You’ll find some of the best Mexican and Vietnamese eateries here, so combine your cultural visit with some fantastic food for a great day out!

Here is a list of some of our top recommendations.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science

5555 Hermann Park Drive, Houston / 713 639 4629

Opening hours
Monday – Sunday: 9 am – 5 pm (last entry 4:15 pm)
Thursday: 2 pm – 5 pm (last entry 4:15 pm)

Tickets
Adult Ticket: $25 (ages 12 and up) / Child Ticket: $16 (ages 3–11) / Children 2 and under: FREE
College Students with ID: $16 / Seniors (62+): $16 / Military (with ID): $10
Free entry on Thursdays. Some permanent exhibits may have additional entry fees.

Founded in 1909 on the premise that science can enhance everyone’s life, the museum now hosts over half a million school-aged children on field trips every year. This vast museum, which covers five floors of permanent exhibits, along with a regular rotation of traveling special exhibitions, provides a world of wonder and science for its visitors. It’s full of exciting information with a mission to advance everyone’s general knowledge of the natural sciences. It covers astronomy, space science, paleontology, chemistry, geology, energy, Native American culture, Texas wildlife, and even seashells!

Given the size of this museum and the many interesting exhibits on offer, we recommend setting aside at least two hours to explore the museum. Featuring a permanent butterfly center, a planetarium, and a giant screen theatre, there is plenty of variety for visitors to entertain you for an entire day!

Some of the permanent exhibits include:

Everyday Faberge

This exhibit features over 70 eggs, including the Imperial Diamond Trellis Egg, highlighting Carl Fabergé’s unique ability to create mundane items into stunning ornamental accessories. Fabergé items were the desired gifts for royalty, dignitaries, and the worldwide elite. 

Morian Hall of Paleontology

This exhibit is full of prehistoric beasts and allows visitors to go on a ‘prehistoric safari.’ All the predators and their prey are in action, eating, chasing, and escaping the struggle of life that dinosaurs would have experienced during their time on Earth. 

Special exhibits 

Check the museum website for upcoming special exhibits. Some recent examples include Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs, one of the world’s greatest collections of Ancient Egypt, providing visitors with a snapshot of the life of Ramses the Great. The exhibit featured 181 priceless artifacts, including Egyptian treasures and one-of-a-kind relics.

The Museum of Fine Arts

1001 Bissonnet St, Houston / 713 639 7300

Opening hours
Wednesday – 11 am to 5 pm / Thursday – 11 am to 9 pm / Friday – 11 am to 6 pm
Saturday | 11 am to 6 pm / Sunday | 12:30 pm to 6 pm
The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Tickets

Adults – $19 / Senior – $16 / Youth (13 – 18) – $12 / Children under 12 – free
Free entry on Thursdays

There may be additional admission fees for special exhibits. Check the website before visiting to find out more information.

The Musem of Fine Arts features exceptional exhibitions and virtual programming.It houses an incredible collection of almost 70,000 works of art from around the world, from antiquity to the present. All of the collections are available to search via the online database, so you can explore different cultures, classifications, and periods before visiting the museum to see the artwork first-hand.

The museum offers a range of guided tours, gallery talks, films, workshops, concerts, readings, performances, and symposia throughout the year. It also features a range of special exhibits that change frequently. Check out the museum calendar to learn more about what’s on when you’re in town. Previous exhibits include:

Incomparable Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts lent approximately 100 of the most significant paintings and works on paper from its Impressionist collection for an exclusive exhibition in Houston. The collection included French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work, including naturalistic landscapes created by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Charles Francois Daubign; to the early “optical color” experimentations by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley; to the honest depictions of modern urban life created by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Hockey – Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature

This exciting exhibition saw two visionary artists united by a shared fascination with nature. This exhibition examined the similarities of British artist Hockney (born 1937) and Dutch artist Van Gogh (1853–1890). Both had a profound love of nature, used brilliant colors and a held a unique world perspective. The exhibit selected carefully selected landscape paintings and drawings.

The Health Museum

1515 Hermann Dr, Houston / 713 521 1515

Opening hours
Tuesday to Saturday – 10 am to 5 pm / Thursday – 2 pm to 7 pm / Sunday 12 pm – 5 pm
Monday – closed

Tickets
Adults – $10 / Seniors (65+) – $8 / Children (3 to 12) – $8 / Children under 3 – FREE
Free entry on Thursdays

The Health Museum aims to inspire curiosity in health, the human body, and medical science and offers a range of interactive displays for visitors. This hands-on learning center usually experiences over 2.5 million visitors annually, and provides a one of a kind experience for science lovers. 

If you are visiting with kids or teenagers who are interested in learning more about the human body, there are a range of programs that provide some great educational activities. For example, their Discovery Camps program provides a range of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities that help participants learn more about medical science and the body. Many of the activities are highly interactive and allow kids to explore all the museum offers. 

The museum hosts several different exhibits, so there’s always something new and exciting to explore each time you visit. 

Holocaust Museum Houston

Lester and Sue Smith Campus, 5401 Caroline, Houston / 713 942 8000

Opening times
Tuesday to Saturday – 10 am to 5 pm / Sunday – noon to 5 pm / Closed most Mondays

Tickets
Adults – $19 / Seniors (age 65 and above) – $15 / AARP Members $15 / Active Duty Military $15
Ages 0 – 18 – Free
The museum is free on Thursdays from 2 pm to 5 pm

This museum, which opened in 1996, is dedicated to educating visitors about the Holocaust, remembering the six million Jews and other innocent victims, and honoring survivors’ legacies. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, the museum teaches the dangers of prejudice, hatred, and apathy.

The museum underwent a $34 million expansion in 2019, doubling in size to 57,000 square feet. It’s rated the nation’s fourth-largest Holocaust museum and information and tours are available in English and Spanish. The new structure includes:

  • four permanent galleries
  • two changing exhibition galleries
  • classrooms
  • a library
  • a café
  • an indoor theater
  • an outdoor amphitheater.

The museum offers four different tour experiences, including docent-led tours, virtual tours, audio-guided tours, and self-guided tours. It features artwork, poems, impassioned notes, and other gifts from visitors who have experienced life-changing thoughts by visiting this unique facility.

Children’s Museum Houston

1500 Binz St, Houston / 713 522 1138

Opening times
Monday/Tuesday/Friday/Saturday – 10 am to 6 pm
Thursday – 10 am to 8 pm
Sunday – closed

Tickets
Adults and children (ages 1+) – $12 / Children under 1- FREE
Senior citizens (65+) – $11 / Members of Military with Active ID – $10

If you’re traveling with young kids, then a trip to The Houston Children’s Museum is a brilliant choice. The museum receives over one million children and families every year and is also a non-profit organization that relies on private and public contributions. The museum offers an enormous range of exhibits. 

Here are some examples of the exhibits on offer that provide an interactive, educational, and, most importantly, fun experience for kids of all ages:

Cyberchase – The Chase Is On

Based on the cartoon Cyberchase, this exhibition presents math in an action-packed and fun way where kids need to use critical thinking skills to save the day! It’s suitable for kids aged three and over.

The Kids All

 

Suitable for all ages, this exhibit is an excellent choice for kids who love to imagine, explore, make, and create. The hall hosts several cultural and art shows that inspire creativity while learning about other cultures.

 

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