Houston Museum District a Cultural Mecca for All Ages

Situated south of the downtown area, Houston's prolific Museum District boasts eighteen museums and cultural attractions that entice both locals and visitors to explore the vicinity. Located close to Rice University, the district's offerings range from art galleries and science museums to ecclesiastic architectural gems and even a zoo. Many of them are located within walking distance of one another.

The Buffalo Soldiers Museum is the only military-related museum in the collection. It offers displays and artifacts from the all African-American "buffalo soldier'' regiments, established by act of Congress in 1866. It is the only museum of its kind in the United States.

Two attractions in the museum district have religious ties. The first is a unique museum that houses the only intact Byzantine frescoes of their size and importance in the western hemisphere. Dubbed the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, the masterpieces inside this museum date from the 13th century and were rescued from thieves who stole them from Cyprus in the 1980s. The local Menil Foundation restored them.

The Menils also have a connection to the other religious site in The Museum District. Rothko Chapel, designed by Dominique and John de Menil, is considered a contemporary architectural masterpiece and serves both as a functioning chapel for believers of all religions and a museum for modern art lovers.

Art aficionados will want to visit the eight museums that fall specifically into the art category. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a non-collecting museum housed in a highly-unusual steel structure in the middle of the district. Designed by Gunnar Birkerts and opened in 1972, exhibits here include works by regional, national, and international artists created during the past 40 years.

Much larger in scale is Houston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). One of the most extensive museums of its kind in the U.S., it boasts 57,000 pieces in its collection and 300,000 feet of display space in two major museum buildings. Art works at MFA span the years and the globe, from ancient African and Asian pieces to an excellent Americana collection to modern and contemporary art, including photography, textiles, and costumes.

Smaller art-related museums in the Museum District include the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, which focuses primarily on objects made of clay, fiber, glass, metal and wood; and the Houston Center for Photography which, through its displays, classes, and lectures, promotes photography as an artistic medium. The Lawndale Art Center hosts displays of works by local and regional artists, housing four galleries within an historic Art Deco structure.

The Rice Gallery, a "site-specific museum'', displays five exhibits a year that are designed specifically for this gallery, which invites young, contemporary artists to create new installations onsite. In addition, the Menil Collection Gallery attracts art lovers to one of the most impressive private collections of artwork in the U.S., featuring an excellent display of Surrealist pieces as well as many other masterpieces spanning thousands of years.

The Czech Center Museum, housed in an ornate Baroque building, educates visitors on the culture and arts of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia through a variety of exhibits, especially jewelry, ceramics, toys, figurines, costumes, and furniture.

The Holocaust Museum of Houston, one of the most unique buildings in the Museum District, serves as both an educational center and memorial to the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis. The nearby Jung Center offers classes and lectures on a variety of teachings of psychiatrist Carl Jung.

Visitors traveling through the Museum District with children can choose from a number of kid-oriented offerings including The Health Museum, dedicated to teaching guests of all ages about health and lifestyle issues; Children's Museum of Houston, a hands-on museum geared towards younger children; the impressive Houston Museum of Natural Science, which includes exhibits on animals past and present, space, and minerals as well as a planetarium and IMAX Theatre; and the small but intriguing John C. Freeman Weather Museum, aimed at educating visitors about weather and weather safety. Finally, the Houston Zoo, situated inside Hermann Park, offers nearly 2 million visitors a year the opportunity to view 4,500 different animals of an amazing variety of species.

In addition to cultural and arts attractions, the Museum District of Houston is home to about 3,500 residents and numerous restaurants and shopping areas. It is easily reachable via the city's light rail system.