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 Merging the border between the Capitol Complex and the sprawling University of Texas campus in Austin are two of the top museums in the state. The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum and The Blanton Museum of Art stand tall as civil service meets academia at the northern end of Congress Avenue as it terminates at Martin Luther King (MLK) Boulevard.
The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
No on can claim to be a true Texas history and trivia junkie until they have spent a day in The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. This repository of Texas culture and artifacts flows through three floors beginning with the Karankawa tribe’s first encounter with Spanish explorers and winding its way through Texas’ contributions to the World today and beyond.
Life sized façades of the Alamo, a steamboat, and other symbols of Texas’s development create an amazing show around the displays of artifacts from daily living for the state’s wide variety of inhabitants. A multi-media experience in the Texas Spirit Theater compliments the exhibits by bringing the stories of Texas to life.
To help you make a day of it, the museum houses the Story of Texas Café. The Museum Store gives you an opportunity to take home Texas books, shirts and trinkets. An Imax theater whose screen rises 6 stories, gives visitors a chance to sit for a few hours of entertainment after their hours of trekking through the museum.
The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum hours of operation are
Monday through Saturday 9 am - 6 pm
Sunday 12 - 6 pm
 The Blanton Museum of Art
The Blanton is the largest university art museum in the country and the third largest museum in Texas. Creation of the museum was spawned from a 1927 donation by Archer M. Huntington of 4000 acres of land in Galveston with instructions that it be used to support an art museum. The eventual sale of the land created the endowment that enabled The University of Texas to begin construction of the University Art Museum in 1963.
Through the years the collection grew rapidly, creating the need for more storage and gallery space. In 2003, construction of a beautiful new facility on the southern edge of campus began. The expansion was fueled by a generous $5 million donation in 1994 from Mari Michener, wife of the renowned writer James Michener.
This was followed in 1997 by another significant donation of $12 million dollars from Houston Endowment in honor of its former chairman. It was at this point the name was changed to the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art.
The Blanton collection totals over 17,000 works from around the world. It includes the largest collection of Latin American art and a very substantial inventory of European paintings. The large collection of North American art includes approximately four hundred twentieth-century American paintings donated by the Micheners and nearly one thousand contemporary prints donated in 1968 by Charles Clark of McAllen.
As a University owned museum, The Blanton is in a unique position to offer educational opportunities for all students of art. Included in these opportunities is the Wilkinson Center for Prints and Drawings, offering an excellent resource for an in-depth study of works on paper and the Meredith eLounge which provides an online resources.
The beautifully patterned floors and limestone walls of the Blanton’s new home make an elegant setting to view extensive collection of art is housed in the Museum. For casual observers or true lovers of art, The Blanton Museum of Art is an excellent stop for any trip to Austin.
The Blanton Art Museum Hours
Monday Closed
Tuesday 10 AM - 5 PM
Wednesday 10 AM - 5 PM
Thursday 10 AM - 8 PM (Free admission all day)
Friday 10 AM - 5 PM
Saturday 10 AM - 5 PM
Sunday 1 - 5 PM
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