Austin, Texas may be known for is music-rich history, but it is also home to a stellar roster of museums. On a sweltering Central Texas summer afternoon—or maybe a winter morning on the nippy side of things—there are few better things to do than find a good indoor activity. Whether you’re looking to get a break from the weather, or learn something new, these are the 11 best museums in Austin.
1. Blanton Museum of Art
- Address: 200 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.
- Price: $15 adults/$12 seniors (65+)/$8 youth & students/free for kids 5 & under, K-12 teachers with a valid I.D. Free admission on Tuesdays.
With over 21,000 pieces, the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art maintains the largest collection of public art in all of Central Texas. The Blanton ranks among the top university art museums in the U.S., known for its extensive collection of modern and contemporary American and Latin American artwork, as well as paintings from Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters. It also boasts a massive holding of prints and drawings. Additionally, the museum proudly displays the 2,715-square-foot stone building called Austin, gifted by its creator, American painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly, in 2015, shortly before his passing at age 92.
2. Bullock Texas State History Museum
- Address: 1800 Congress Ave
- Price: $15 adults/$11 seniors & military/$9 youths (4-17); free for kids 3 & under.
Delve into thousands of years of Lone Star State backstory and human heritage at the Bullock State History Museum, right across the street from the Blanton Museum of Art. Three floors of exhibits evoke the sweep of Texas history, from its still-vibrant Indigenous cultures to screenings of some of the most indelible Austin City Limits performances. The Texas History Galleries showcase highlights from the museum’s extensive collection of artifacts, such as incised stones better than 12,000 years old recovered from Williamson County, sniper glasses used in the Civil War and a World War II-era AT-6A “Texan” training aircraft. The Bullock also features special and traveling exhibitions in addition to its permanent displays.
3. The Contemporary Austin – The Jones Center
- Address: 700 Congress Ave
- Price: $10 adults/$5 seniors, educators, students/free for youths under 18 & military. Free admission Thursdays.
Some 8,000 square feet of exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art awaits you at The Contemporary Austin’s historic Jones Center on Congress Avenue. The center’s Moody Rooftop comes adorned with an outdoor installation by American artist Jim Hodges: With Liberty & Justice For All (A Work in Progress).
4. The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria
- Address: 3809 W. 35th St.
- Price: $10 adults/$5 seniors, educators, students/free for youths under 18 & military. Free admission Thursdays.
The Contemporary Austin also maintains a second site, Laguna Gloria, set along Lake Austin. This 1916-vintage Italianate villa was donated by Clara Driscoll in 1943 for use as an art museum and the Laguna Gloria Art Museum (later renamed the Austin Museum of Art) opened in 1961. Some of the museum’s original collections still reside here and the gardened grounds include the Betty & Edward Marcus Sculpture Park.
5. The Texas Science & Natural History Museum
- Address: 2400 Trinity St.
- Price: $10 adults/$6 youths (5-17), seniors (65+), students with I.D.; $3 Museums for All admission/free for kids 4 & under, active military
When it comes to Austin top museums, the Texas Science & Natural History Museum at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the real crowd-pleasers, not least in its Texas Titans and Prehistoric galleries resurrecting prehistoric beasts from the Lone Star State’s past. These include a tyrannosaur, the enormous pterosaur called Quetzalcoatlus northropi (boasting a 33-foot wingspan) and the 30-foot-long Onion Creek Mosasaur that once snapped and thrashed its way through the inland seas of Texas. Other highlights of the museum include the Texas Wildlife Gallery and the Big Eye on Dark Skies scale model of North America’s biggest optical telescope.
6. Museum of the Weird
- Address: 412 3. 6th St.
- Price: $12.99 adults/$8.99 kids 7 & under
There aren’t too many P.T. Barnum-style “dime museums” left, but Austin lays claim to one in the form of Museum of the Weird. Here one can marvel at Bigfoot and other cryptids, pose with a giant gorilla, examine UFO paraphernalia and mermaids and all manner of other wacky curios and displays. It all adds up to one of the more unique (and eccentric) museums in Austin.
7. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library & Museum
- Address: 2313 Red River St.
- Price: $16 adults/$12 seniors (62+)/$8 former & retired military, K-12 teachers & staff/$6 students, youths (13-18)/free for kids 12 & under, active military (and up to five family members)—and for anybody with “Lyndon” or “Claudia” in their name.
Explore the life and career of America’s 36th president at the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum, which occupies a striking, 10-story building designed by Gordon Bunshaft on 30 acres of the University of Texas at Austin campus. Among the vast holdings, which encompass some 45 million pages of historical LBJ-related documents and hundreds of thousands of photos, is a unique repository of audio recordings, including more than 600 hours of President Johnson on the telephone. The museum also displays a replica of the Oval Office, which Johnson occupied from 1963 to 1969.
8. The George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural & Genealogy Center
- Address: 1165 Angelina St.
- Price: Free
Situated in a historically Black district of East Austin, the Carver Museum celebrates and explores “the global contribution of all Black people,” including right here in Texas. It does so through a thoughtful core installation, several permanent exhibits, a pair of rotating art galleries, temporary exhibition space, a library and the Boyd Vance Theatre as well as via a rich variety of cultural and educational programming.
9. Thinkery
- Address: 1830 Simond Ave
- Price: $18 General Admission (ages 2+)/$9 for guests with children 36 months & under. Free admission Tuesdays from 3 to 7 PM.
Thinkery at Meredith Learning Lab encompasses some 40,000 interactive square feet of indoor/outdoor exhibits and activities dedicated to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) education, with all-ages appeal but a special focus on kids 11 and under. Exhibits include the Innovators’ Workshop, the Light Lab, the Spark Shop, the Move. Studio and Our Backyard.
10. Mexic-Arte Museum
- Address: 419 Congress Ave
- Price: $5 adults/$4 seniors & students/$1 children 12 & under. Free admission on Tuesdays & during month of December.
Among the biggest institutions of its kind in the U.S.—and certainly another of the top museums in Austin—the Mexic-Arte Museum celebrates Mexican, Latino and Latin-American artistic heritage and culture via a collection more than 5,000 pieces strong: from paintings and prints to rare books. Established in 1984 and welcoming better than 75,000 visitors annually, this Warehouse District museum also puts on the biggest and longest-running Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) parade and celebration in all of Texas.
11. UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum
- Address: 605 Azie Morton Rd
- Price: $7 adults/$5 seniors (60+)/$3 students/$1 youths (13-17)/ free for kids 12 & under, active & retired military
At the six-acre UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum, you can explore over 50 pieces by the noted American sculptor (and longtime University of Texas School of Art educator) Charles Umlauf, constituting the biggest touchable sculpture collection in the Lone Star State. The museum also offers a whole slew of events, from public tours to story time and tai chi in the garden.
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