Museum of Fine Arts in Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston opened its doors to the public in 1924. It was the first art museum building in Houston which gave the facility a firm root in history. Over the years, the museum has undergone many expansions and renovations. The Museum of Fine Arts has added tens of thousands works of art to its permanent collection and has seen millions of visitors since its first inception - an estimated 2.5 million people come to the museum every year. The museum has 300,000 square feet of space filled with displays of art and consists of two major buildings - the Caroline Wiess Law Building and the Audrey Jones Beck Building. Additional facilities that are on the museum's premises include the Hirsch Library, Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, and the Alfred C. Glassell School of Art. Most of the collections at the Museum of Fine Arts are from Asia, North and South America, Europe, and Africa. The artifacts that are shown date from antiquity to the present day.

There are over a dozen collections at the Museum of Fine Arts. Some of the collections include Decorative arts, textiles, Indonesian Art, Latin American Art, European Paintings, Antiquities, Modern Art, Pre-Columbian Art, and much more. The Rienzi Collection is the most important collection of European decorative arts in the Southwest United States. The collection opened in 1999 with the help of Harris Masterson III and his wife, Carroll Sterling Masterson, two Houston philanthropists. There is also an incredible collection of drawings and prints at the Museum of Fine Arts. The Prints and Drawings collection covers five hundred years of art history, many of the works being European. The collection is affectionately referred to as "Five centuries of masterpieces on paper."

One of the most interesting things about the Museum of Fine Arts, is its film exhibition program. The Museum of Fine Arts Films was created for moviegoers who have an appreciation for both contemporary and classic films. The museum holds events such as screenings and premiers of the latest independent productions. Scholars and movie critics often make appearances to share their perspectives about different films with the audience. The Museum of Fine Arts Films has become such a big success over the years that it received the "2008 Outstanding Award for Film Programming" from the Houston Film Critics Society. A Cafe is also located near the films section so that film buffs can enjoy both dinner and a movie.

The museum's library, Hirsch, has one of the largest collections of art references in the Southwest. The library is open to the public and includes periodicals and books on fine art, photography, and decorative art. The Hirsch Library is very technically advanced and offers on-line access to subscription databases for research. The library is located in the Caroline Weiss Building on museum premises. The Caroline Weiss building was the museum's original building and houses multicultural exhibits. Collections of special interest in the building include the Glassell Collection of African Gold, which is the largest assemblage of gold objects in the world.