Austin Art Galleries

(Austin, Texas - TX, USA)

There are several notable art galleries and museums in Austin, ranging from the eccentric and contemporary, to the classical and ethnic. A number of Austin's most popular galleries and studios can be found near the capitol building, around 17th and 18th streets, Guadalupe and Lavaca. The excellent Harry Ransom Center, with its massive collection of paintings and books, is just north of here, while the intriguing sculptures of the Elisabet Ney Museum are to the south, on East Street.

Another very popular gallery is the renowned AMOA-Arthouse, which was founded in the early 1960s and stands within the Clara Driscoll estate, where it occupies a rather beautiful building. There is also a downtown AMOA venue located on Congress Avenue, where each year up to six large exhibitions are staged.

Specialising in contemporary Latino and Mexican pieces, the Mexic-Arte Museum is another gallery of note in Austin, as is the Elisabet Ney Museum, where many wonderful sculptures await. Of note, this museum is now listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

AMOA-Arthouse

Address: Laguna Gloria: 3809 West 35th Street, Austin, Texas TX, 78703, USA
Tel: +1 512 458 8191
Address: The Jones Center: 700 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas TX, 78701, USA
Tel: +1 512 453 5312
In November 2011 the AMOA Austin Museum of Art and the Arthouse at the Jones Center merged to form the AMOA-Arthouse with two sites. Standing on Congress Avenue the Jones Center is an established arts center represents contemporary art from all ethnic backgrounds and genres. Of possible interest, both the Hideout Theater and the Paramount Theater are just a short stroll away.
Located northwest of the city center in an early 20th-century Mediterranean-style villa, the AMOA-Arthouse Laguna Gloria was once the home of Clara Driscoll Sevier, famous for acquiring and preserving the Alamo site, among other things. The museum boasts an art school and includes both permanent and temporary exhibits of 20th-century American art, sculptures and photographs. The grounds are also well worth a look, with their lovely setting on Lake Austin.
Open hours: The Jones Center, Tuesday to Saturday - 11:00 to 19:00, Sunday - 12:00 to 17:00; Laguna Gloria Galleries, Tuesday to Sunday - 10:00 to 16:00; Laguna Gloria Grounds, Monday to Saturday - 09:00 to 17:00, Sunday - 10:00 to 17:00
Admission: free, donations suggested

Blanton Museum of Art

Address: The University of Texas at Austin, 200 East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Austin, Texas TX, 78701, USA
Tel: +1 512 471 7324
Austin's Blanton Museum of Art is part of the University of Texas complex and is a fine arts museum. Hosting many notable events and exhibitions throughout the year, the gallery is home to a large collection of almost 20,000 works of art from around the world.
Open hours: Tuesday to Friday - 10:00 to 17:00, Saturday - 11:00 to 17:00, Sunday - 13:00 to 17:00; third Thursday of the month - 10:00 to 21:00
Admission: charge, discount available for seniors, students and children between 13 and 21 years old, children 12 years old and under are free, Thursday free

Elisabet Ney Museum

Address: 304 East 44th Street, Austin, Texas TX, 78751, USA
Tel: +1 512 458 2255
The Elisabet Ney Museum celebrates the eccentric German-born artist, Elisabet Ney, who immigrated to Texas in the latter part of the 19th century after tiring of her country's conformism and eventually settled in Hyde Park, Austin, where she designed and built a house and studio. Her most notable early works include busts of Bismarck and philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and it was in Austin that she sculpted some of her most famed works, including busts of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin among other prominent Texans.
Open hours: Wednesday to Sunday - 12:00 to 17:00
Admission: free

Harry Ransom Center

Address: The University of Texas at Austin, 300 West 21st Street, Austin, Texas TX, 78712, USA
Tel: +1 512 471 8944
The Harry Ransom Center comes with an impressive collection of millions of books, photographs, manuscripts and paintings, located in two buildings - the Harry Ransom Center and the Leeds Gallery of the Flawn Academic Center. The statistics of this gallery are exceptional, with works of art by the likes of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera among 100,000 other pieces. One million books, including one of the rare Gutenberg Bibles, the world's first photograph plus five million others, and more than 30 million literary manuscripts, including those written by Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce are housed here.
Open hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday - 10:00 to 17:00, Thursday - 10:00 to 19:00, Saturday and Sunday - 12:00 to 17:00
Admission: free

Mexic-Arte Museum

Address: 419 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas TX, 78701, USA
Tel: +1 512 480 9373
Featuring contemporary Mexican art, the Mexic-Arte Museum contains 20th-century Mexican art, Mexican Revolution photographs and numerous Guerrero masks. Mexic-Arte was the first multicultural gallery of its kind in Austin and also includes visiting shows from Mexico and a gallery reserved for local art which contains colonial art treasures from a cathedral in Saltillo and a back gallery of works by local Spanish artists.
Open hours: Monday to Thursday - 10:00 to 18:00, Friday and Saturday - 10:00 to 17:00, Sunday - 12:00 to 17:00
Admission: charge, discount for seniors and students, children under five free