Located on the University of Houston campus, Blaffer Art Museum hosts a variety of free exhibitions, events, and programs centering on contemporary art. It seeks to ignite the public’s interest in the arts by designing its immersive exhibitions with an eye for promoting compassion and a better understanding of how the artistic process works.

As of press time, the Houston Maritime Center and Museum remains office-only as it undergoes a refresh, though it plans to reopen in late 2024. However, we would be remiss to not include this glimpse into the essential role that the Ship Channel and maritime activity play in the local economy. Local Houstonians and tourists alike can learn so much about an aspect of the city that often goes overlooked by those who don’t have an immediate connection to it.

The Lone Star Flight Museum features over two dozen permanent and on-loan aircraft in its 60,000-square-foot display hangar—and most of the aircraft are actually in good enough repair to still be flown. Its mission combines lessons in the history of humanity’s pursuit of the skies as well as the physics and engineering principles underpinning it.

Unless you already possess (pun intended) spooky inclinations, you may not know about the eclectic array of permanent and temporary exhibitions at the National Museum of Funeral History. Come here to learn about funerary rites from around the world, the art behind designing and building burial containers, the history of mortuary work, and other marvelously morbid lessons you can’t find anywhere else in Houston.

The Orange Show’s main attraction—a fantastical creation of steel and ceramics—is currently closed for renovations until 2025, but it’s still one of the load-bearing pillars of the Houston arts community. Even with the temporary shuttering, the organization is still heavily active, hosting events like the Art Car Parade, preserving local artistic works like the Beer Can House and Bob Wade’s towering Smokesax sculpture, and teaching classes in the whimsical mosaic-decorated Smither Park.

The Orange Show is also significantly expanding its campus, and recently acquired the Art Car Museum, which closed back in April. We’re excited to see how they bring one of the city’s iconic cultural institutions back to prominence. 

Listen and learn about a major moment in Texas history at the memorial commemorating the Battle of San Jacinto—the conclusion of the Texas Revolution, when General Sam Houston forced General Antonio López de Santa Anna to surrender. Make sure to check out the 567-foot-tall San Jacinto Monument while you’re there, too. The San Jacinto Museum and Battlefield team claims it’s the tallest war memorial in the world, 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument.

Space Center Houston remains a popular destination for tourists, field trips, and locals fascinated by space; that it also happens to serve as the official public face of the NASA Johnson Space Center certainly helps, too. The museum features a diverse selection of interactive exhibits on humanity’s forays into the stars, including the podium where President John F. Kennedy first announced the space program, a space suit collection, spacecraft artifacts, and others. Make sure to sign up for the tram tour and go behind the scenes at Mission Control or the astronaut training grounds.

Tucked away inside a corner of Game Over Videogames, the value of the tiny Video Game Museum is not to be underestimated. After all, video games have played a critical role in pop culture since their advent, and this collection of classic consoles shows us how long we’ve come since the 8-bit days...and how future gamers will look to today’s platforms and think the same thing. We’d love to see this collection expand into its own space someday.