2 Museums to Visit this Weekend in Houston, Texas
Houston has an entire museum district dedicated to sharing works of art and science with the public. Here are two of the establishments you should visit on your next trip!
EXPLORETRAVEL
Museum #1 - Houston Museum of Natural Science
My favorite part of visiting Houston has been enjoying the Houston Museum of Natural Science. My friend is an official HMNS member, meaning I receive all kinds of discounts when accompanying her.
My first stop at this museum after tickets is always going to be Zoltar. I’ve seen mechanical puppets like him on television shows and movies so many times, it’s lovely being able to experience his fortune telling for myself! And dare I say, he is quite accurate.
When I visited the museum this year, the special exhibition was of the Terracotta Warriors, and it was such an amazing sight to see. They were so tall and imposing, I kept trying to imagine them all set up in a forgotten tomb and it’s rather difficult to imagine the time and labor that went into creating this replica of a lost city. The intricate details on each of the pieces, the lifelike resemblance of every single officer and member of the army, it really is uncanny. My favorite details were how you could obviously tell which soldiers were high ranking and which weren’t because of their outfits. I also adored the fact that you could see how their hair was braided and plaited, and how every solder had a slightly different style!
The most mystifying and rather fun part of the exhibition, to me, was the long sculpture showing how the warriors were created. You could get a few memes out of that. The exhibition itself was also interactive with a movie showing the history of the warriors and a motion-sensor guide describing the different types of warriors depicted.
After the special exhibition had wowed us well enough, we continued to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When I last came to the museum I was calm, polite, an observer of the mystical artifacts. But on this trip, I realized you could touch almost everything here! And then I went for a sensory experience and touched all the items I could. Part of me always gets a little sad seeing the gorgeous animal pelts and bones, but at least they are displayed for educational purposes and to expand the minds and ideas of all who visit.
The Paleontology section of the museum is so large and imposing, entirely fitting for the creatures kept within. All the dinosaurs are strategically posed to look moments away from a fight, and we appreciate the drama. I had an especially fun time around the fossils after making an absent-minded comment because of meme that was prevalent on Tumblr at the time:
“Fossilizing with mama!”
This led me to search for all the baby dinosaurs who were now fossilizing with their mama, and there were actually quite a few! It’s sad if you think about it for too long, but super cute and educational otherwise!
The regular gem exhibition was unfortunately shut down with only a few pieces available. But to temporarily replace it was the Fabergé eggs exhibition! I always associate Fabergé eggs with the movie Anastasia (1997), as I believe that is the first place I’ve ever seen one of the decorated eggs. I know that these are very well crafted, expensive, and carefully made gifts, but I always thought it would be fun to include them in a lavish Easter egg hunt. It would be quite the decadent prize! If anyone out there wants to give me a very fine and expensive gift, this was my favorite decorated egg from the museum’s collection~
The fun part about visiting one place over and over again when you’re in the city is the fact that you’ll eventually get to explore everything, and you’ll always have a fun time seeing how things have changed and what exhibitions have been moved or replaced. Museums of all kinds are always worth revisiting time and time again.
Museum #2 - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
While it’s possible to enjoy one museum for an entire day, we had a limited amount of time in Houston, so we decided to enjoy two museums in one day! This was my first time at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. We went specifically for the Louvre Couture exhibition with gorgeous dresses posed throughout the museum. Not only could I definitely see myself in some of these dresses, but I got to explore the entire museum while engaging in a dress scavenger hunt.
This museum holds sculptures, artifacts, and so many gorgeous paintings I could keep staring at for hours. My favorite paintings are always the ones those of flowers with paint so thick you could feel the groves in the art if you were allowed to touch them. They look so plastic yet alive, completely frozen in time by the artist.
I also really enjoyed the paintings with so many little details that you could spend a whole essay dissertation pointing out the themes and metaphors, like in this Momento Mori piece, or the odd creatures in this surrealism voyage.
But I have recently learned that my favorite style of painted art is Pointillism, and the Museum of Fine Arts had a whole room dedicated to it! The dots are so tiny but compose a detailed final picture full of colors.
I love museums of every kind, and I’m certain that revisiting them will only lead to new discoveries and reignited passions at the sight of old favorite pieces of art. Museums stand the test of time, combining the old and ancient with the new and modern in one location for others to explore and discover. It’s wonderful.
If you’re ever in Houston and want to visit way more museums than I did on this trip, consider purchasing a Houston CityPass! You’ll pay a flat fee for access to your choice of five attractions, with five museums, a zoo, and an aquarium to choose from, for up to nine days while you’re in the city!
A museum trip also demands a trip to a few bookstores, so feel free to read about my bookstore experience here! Or check out the whole Houston trip itinerary here.
