The Museum of Fine Arts Houston is the largest cultural institution in Houston. Its main campus includes the Audrey Jones Beck Building, Caroline Wiess Law Building, Glassell School of Art, and the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.
MFAH’s collections reflect the city’s diversity and culture. Exhibits like Kehinde Wiley’s Judith and Holofernes and Kara Walker’s Slaughter of the Innocents explore themes of oppression from multiple perspectives.
Museum Admission
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston has more than 64,000 works on its permanent collection from six continents. The collections reflect the museum’s mission, with strong holdings in Italian Renaissance paintings, French Impressionism, photography, Texas art, African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian artworks, and contemporary American and European painting and sculpture.
The MFAH campus includes 2 gallery buildings, a library, a bookshop, and a cafe. The museum also has 2 decorative arts house museums, a sculptural garden, a visitor center, a movie theater, and an art school.
The MFAH is dedicated to making its galleries and other social spaces safe, welcoming, and accessible for everyone. Visitors can use their phones to take photographs and videos for personal, noncommercial purposes in the MFAH galleries (except Rienzi and Bayou Bend) as long as they follow guidelines. For more information, see MFAH policies and guidelines. Inappropriate images, falsehoods, and hate speech are not tolerated. Visitors are encouraged to share their experiences and insights with other visitors through MFAH social media.
Sculpture Garden
The Sculpture Garden is a serene oasis of sculpture that reflects Isamu Noguchi’s ideas about gardens as “sculpture for sculpture.” Surrounded by concrete walls ranging in height, the garden features masterworks of modern sculpture from the late 19th century to the 21st. Greene says the garden’s layout allows for flexibility on campus that indoor galleries can’t match. Even pieces that appear anchored in place often move around, though some will soon be wrapped or de-installed until the new Kinder Building opens.
The garden’s simple palette of concrete and glass complements the MFAH’s neoclassical limestone buildings, as well as the Spanish-inspired Caroline Wiess Law and Audrey Jones Beck Buildings. It also complements architect Steven Holl’s Glassell School of Art, which he based on Noguchi’s angles and the garden’s sloped east roof.
Furthermore, the proximity of Hermann Park, a beautiful green space in Houston, Texas, complements the artistic atmosphere of the museum, creating a cohesive experience for visitors.
As MFAH’s main museum continues to grow, it’s joined by a host of other art-filled gardens throughout Texas. Some are affiliated with museums, while others are independent. Check out the International Directory of Sculpture Parks for a complete list.
MFAH Events
MFAH hosts world-class experiences amidst the oaks of our museum district. Its galleries showcase art from all over the globe, revealing the wide range of variation and commonality across human creation.
View ancient antiquities and Mediterranean pieces, classic European masterpieces, arts of Asia spanning five millennia, and a broad array of Latin American works. MFAH’s extensive collections also reveal a range of social and political issues throughout history, such as those addressed by the work of artists like Kehinde Wiley and Kara Walker.
MFAH gallery programs guide visitors to explore and interpret works of art using their senses of sight, touch, sound, and smell. For instance, blind and partially sighted people can participate in Art Beyond Sight to experience art with trained educators and hands-on materials. MFAH also welcomes people with early-stage Alzheimer’s or dementia and their care partners to a monthly Looking Together program.
MFAH Membership
MFAH membership gives patrons access to the Museum’s exhibitions, collections, and programs. Throughout the year, members can preview new exhibitions through lectures and events designed specifically for them.
Patrons can take self-guided tours of the galleries and exhibits, reading the curator’s notes on each artwork for added context. Or, they can join a museum-sponsored art or history class to further explore the works and their themes. Check out the MFAH calendar for more information.
The MFAH gallery buildings are home to the primary collections: the Caroline Wiess Law and Audrey Jones Beck building housing European art, Asian art, and African, Oceanic, and Mesoamerican Pre-Columbian art; and the newly opened Nancy and Rich Kinder building containing the Museum’s international modern and contemporary art collection. The Museum also has a sculpture garden and a facility for conservation, storage, and archives.
MFAH offers various membership options including individuals, couples, and families, as well as a student discount program for Houston area colleges and universities. College students can gain benefits like free admission, a bimonthly MFAH calendar and film calendar for distribution in campus student centers, and a complimentary MFAH patron membership.
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The Museum of Fine Arts Houston is a world-class institution displaying masterpieces from antiquity to today. Stunning sculpture gardens and galleries showcase diverse arts from across centuries and cultures. This magnificent museum enlightens visitors with the timeless creativity of humanity.
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