Museums, Galleries & Culture in Austin
90 places
Museums, galleries, tours and historic Austin, including the free ones and the ones that are better with kids.
Blanton Museum of Art
UT's art museum anchors the south edge of campus with Ellsworth Kelly's Austin chapel, a strong Latin American collection, and free admission every Tuesday.
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Three floors of Texas history under a giant lone star, from the 1686 La Belle shipwreck hull to space-race artifacts, with an IMAX theater for rainy afternoons.
LBJ Presidential Library
A monolithic travertine tower on the UT campus holding 45 million pages of Johnson's papers, a replica Oval Office, and an animatronic LBJ that tells jokes.
Texas State Capitol
The pink granite Capitol stands taller than the one in Washington, with free guided tours daily and a rotunda floor where you can look up 218 feet to the star.
The Contemporary Austin - Jones Center
The downtown half of the Contemporary, a Congress Avenue gallery of rotating contemporary shows with a rooftop deck that opens for evening events.
The Contemporary Austin - Laguna Gloria
A 1916 Italianate villa on Lake Austin whose 14 lakeside acres hold a sculpture park with works by Ai Weiwei and Tom Friedman among live oaks and lagoon trails.
Mexic-Arte Museum
Austin's official Mexican and Latino art museum on lower Congress, best known for its Day of the Dead exhibitions and the Viva la Vida parade each October.
Harry Ransom Center
UT's humanities archive keeps a Gutenberg Bible and the first photograph on permanent view, with rotating exhibitions from its film, literary, and photography collections.
UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum
Charles Umlauf's bronzes sit among ponds and shade trees on a hillside next to Zilker, a calm 20-minute wander that pairs well with a Barton Springs swim.
Elisabet Ney Museum
The 1892 limestone studio of sculptor Elisabet Ney, kept as she left it in Hyde Park with her plaster portraits of Texas heroes and a prairie garden outside.
Museum of the Weird
A Sixth Street dime museum of shrunken heads, a Fiji mermaid, the Minnesota Iceman, and a live sideshow performer who swallows swords for the crowd.
Texas Military Forces Museum
A free 45,000-square-foot hangar at Camp Mabry packed with tanks, helicopters, and artillery from the Texas Revolution to Iraq; bring a photo ID for the base gate.
George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center
A city-run museum in East Austin devoted to Black history in Texas, with a Juneteenth exhibit, a children's gallery, and rotating shows by local Black artists.
Neill-Cochran House Museum
An 1855 Greek Revival mansion west of campus with Austin's only intact slave quarters, now interpreted through tours that tell the full story of the household.
Texas Science & Natural History Museum
The reopened Texas Memorial Museum on the UT campus, a 1930s art deco hall with the enormous Texas Pterosaur overhead, dinosaur fossils, and a gem and mineral gallery.
Austin History Center
The city's archive in the 1933 old central library building next to the current one, with rotating photo exhibitions on Austin's past and staff who will pull maps of your block.
Bastrop County Museum & Visitor Center
A small historical society museum on Bastrop's Main Street that covers the 1832 town, the Camp Swift POW era, and the 2011 Lost Pines fire, a good stop before the state park.
Williamson Museum
A free county history museum on Georgetown's courthouse square with cattle-drive and railroad exhibits and a hands-on kids' room, steps from the square's ice cream shops.
ESB-MACC (Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center)
A city-run cultural center on the lake celebrating Mexican American art and history through rotating gallery exhibits, dance and music programming.
Asian American Resource Center
A city cultural center with a garden, museum gallery and event hall dedicated to Austin's Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Dougherty Arts Center
The city's rebuilt community arts hub near Zilker Park, with gallery exhibits, theater space and classes in ceramics, painting and more.
Museum of Human Achievement
An artist-run experimental gallery inside the Canopy complex mounting boundary-pushing installations and performance art shows.
Canopy
A sprawling East Austin studio and gallery complex housing dozens of working artists alongside Big Medium, Ground Floor Theatre and other tenants.
Women & Their Work
A nonprofit gallery founded to showcase Texas women artists across visual art, dance and performance, with rotating exhibitions all year.
Wally Workman Gallery
A longtime Clarksville gallery in a converted house showing representational painting, sculpture and works on paper from regional artists.
Yard Dog Art Gallery
A South Congress storefront gallery specializing in outsider, folk and self-taught art alongside music posters and vintage rock ephemera.
HOPE Outdoor Gallery
Austin's legal graffiti park, reborn near the airport after outgrowing its old Baylor Street hillside, where anyone can bring spray paint and add to the walls.
Texas State Cemetery
The official burial ground for Texas governors, legislators and notable figures including Stephen F. Austin, with self-guided walking tours through the grounds.
Governor's Mansion
The Greek Revival residence of Texas governors since 1856, offering limited guided tours that walk through its antique-filled public rooms.
French Legation Museum
The oldest surviving building in Austin, a French diplomat's 1841 residence turned house museum with period furnishings and shaded gardens.
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