The MFAH opened in 1924 with 60 works and the words "Erected by the people for the use of the people" over the door. Today its 14-acre Sarofim Campus holds nearly 80,000 works, and the buildings are half the show. The Caroline Wiess Law Building pairs the original neoclassical museum with Cullinan Hall and Brown Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe, the only museum he designed in the United States. Across Main Street, Rafael Moneo's limestone Beck Building, opened in 2000, holds European and American art, including Van Gogh's The Rocks. Walk between them underground through James Turrell's The Light Inside, a tunnel of slowly shifting color. Another tunnel, Carlos Cruz-Diez's Cromosaturacion, carries you to Steven Holl's Kinder Building, wrapped in translucent glass tubes and devoted to art after 1900. Save time for the Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi, across Bissonnet.
What to expect
- Bags must be under 11 x 6 x 15 inches; no rolling luggage or long umbrellas.
- Strollers and front-facing baby carriers are fine; wagons and scooters are not.
- The METRORail Red Line's Museum District stop sits right next to the museum.
- Garages: Beck at 1144 Binz, Glassell at 5101 Montrose and Kinder at 5500 Main.
- Cafe Leonelli in the Kinder Building serves coffee, pastries, pizza and sandwiches.
What to do
- Walk James Turrell's The Light Inside tunnel between the Law and Beck buildings
- Find Van Gogh's The Rocks (1888) in the Beck Building's European galleries
- Stroll the free Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden designed by Isamu Noguchi
- 1924, with 60 worksOpened
- nearly 80,000 worksCollection
- 14 acres, three gallery buildingsCampus
- opened November 21, 2020Kinder Building