Texas three-step
There's way more than one thing to do in the Lone Star State
By Judy Colbert
judy@judycolbert.com
Posted 4/01/10
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Cowboys drive longhorns along Exchange Avenue in Fort Worth twice a day.
You can probably name a few reasons to visit Texas. Friday night football, Austin's
music scene, great barbecue and friendly people come to mind. Three of the Texaplex
cities -- the area that includes Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin and Houston -want you to add culture to that list, saying you don't have to go to New York or
Washington to expand your brain.
Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston are each delightfully enticing and about as different as
any three cities can be.
Always the big loser in the culture wars between Dallas and Fort Worth, Big D brags that
it has more than 110 live performances every night; more than 115 public art works
scattered throughout the city; and that there are more than 160 museums, galleries and
artistic attractions in the city.
As everything is bigger or better in Big D, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical
Garden has the Dallas Blooms show in March and April -- the largest floral festival in
the south -- with 500,000 blooming bulbs. And, reportedly, the world's largest bronze
monument is installed at the Convention Center, with more than 40 larger-than-life
longhorn steers, horses and cowboys.
The city's culturally inferior reputation seems misapplied, for Dallas says it has the
largest contiguous urban arts district in the country, filling 68 acres, with museums,
performance halls, and award-winning architectural designs. The Nasher Sculpture
Center is home to the world's largest private collection of modern sculptures, a $120
million gift from developer Ray Nasher. The Dallas Museum of Art, started in 1903, has
a busy schedule of classes, lectures and social events. Admission to the Trammell &
Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art (China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia) is free,
and there's a striking selection of gifts, cards and jewelry for sale in the Lotus gift shop.
At the Meadow Museum, on the grounds of Southern Methodist University, are samples
of the largest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain. As a tribute to a more local
culture, the Latino Cultural Center, opened in 2003 and designed by world-renowned
architect Ricardo Legorreta, houses Latino artists in the creative and performing arts.
Although the horseshoe-shaped Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House opened just
last year, the Dallas Opera has been around since 1957. The company presents five fully
staged operas a year and now must find itself in competition with the stunning
architecture of their new home, which is aesthetically eye-popping, acoustically sound
and environmentally friendly.
Alas, the school system taught Dawn Quiett, a Dallas native, that Fair Park (built for the
Texas Centennial) has the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the country.
Miami Beach and Wikipedia disagree, but acknowledge that Dallas does have a large
number of buildings. Quiett also says she was taught that White Rock Lake is the largest
man-made lake in the United States. Again, Wikipedia discredits this claim (it lists Lake
Mead as the largest). However, the 9.33-mile trail around the lake is part of the annual
White Rock Marathon, which is recognized as a top-10 marathon and is used as a Boston
Marathon qualifier.
That's just a sampling of cultural activities in Dallas. All is not highbrow around this part
of the country, though. Dusty Rainbolt, a fifth-generation Texan and vice president of the
Cat Writers Association International, says her favorite museum is the Cockroach Hall
of Fame and Museum, in Plano, a Dallas suburb. Rainbolt says Michael Bohdan, the
owner and curator of the Pest Shop Inc. (a pest-control company), delighted in showing
her then-12-year-old nephew a live Madagascar hissing roach. He has about two dozen
dressed-up roaches, including Liberoach playing the piano, Marilyn Monroach, David
Letteroach, Ross Peroach and the ComBATES motel.
Rainbolt doesn't say what she feeds her cats.
Strike out for Fort Worth
Between Dallas and Fort Worth is Arlington, home of professional football and baseball
teams, and Six Flags Over Texas. Arlington is the new home of the International
Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame (formerly in St. Louis), part of the new
International Bowling Campus. Today's museum highlights the current status of bowling,
with its 69.1 million participants, rather than focusing on its past.
They do have interactive displays and rare one-of-a-kind items from the sport's bygone
era. You can still see a pinsetter, even if it is an animatronic one named Ronnie. A topsecret (seriously hush-hush) training and equipment-testing (new pins, gloves, lane oils,
etc.) center is co-located at the museum facility.
Fort Worth's "serious" culture starts with five astounding museums in its Cultural
District, including the acclaimed Kimbell Art Museum (with Michelangelo's first
painting), which artist and designer Pablo Solomon, from Austin, says is "housed in an
architectural triumph. While basically having only one of everything, the examples are of
astonishing importance."
Also in the district is the newly $80 million renovated Museum of Science and History
(now including the Cattle Raisers Museum), the Amon Carter Museum, with its
collection of 19th and 20th century American artists, the Modern Art Museum of Fort
Worth (second-largest collection of modern and contemporary American and European
art in the country), and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. (Former
Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was a 2002 inductee.)
As the city's history is tied to cattle, it's natural that the Stockyards National Historic
District promotes such legendary structures as the Livestock Exchange Building and the
Stockyards Station shops and restaurants in the old sheep and hog barns. Outstanding
guys on horses are honored at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and should the bug bite,
numerous Western shops (Maverick, Fincher's and Leddy's) are located along historic
Exchange Avenue.
You can even see a cattle drive -- twice a day, in fact -- as a team of cowhands drive
longhorns along Exchange Avenue through the stockyards.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my, and cheetahs, meerkats and reticulated giraffes live at
the Fort Worth Zoo, one of the top five in the nation. Brand new is the Museum of
Living Art, where the art moves, hisses, chirps and slithers. The herpetarium lets you see
a gliding tree frog and be eye-to-eye with a rattlesnake, and you can touch other critters.
You can also see money being printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Western Currency Facility Tour and Visitor Center. No, you can't touch any of the
billions of dollars being printed there and no, they don't give away samples. You can buy
souvenirs, though.
Houston, we have no problem
Four hours south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is Houston, the fourth-largest city
in the country. Often called Space City because of the NASA Johnson Space Center, the
city's cultural scene seems perpetually on the brink of taking off to great heights. You can
tour the Houston Space Center, and if you're planning to visit the Downtown Aquarium,
the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, the Houston Zoo, The Museum of Fine
Arts, the Children's Museum of Houston, the George Ranch Historical Park or the
Health Museum, buy a Houston City Pass, which gives you admission to six attractions
for $39 ($74.96 value) for adults and $29 for children (3-11), as of this writing.
Houston's greatest cultural contribution may come from the Houston Greeters, a group of
nearly 100 volunteers who provide free private tours to visitors and residents alike. The
seven miles of underground downtown Houston is the most popular tour, but there are six
dozen other subjects -- from quaint vintage shops in Montrose to the theatre district and
urban gardens -- provided by experts passionate about their fields of knowledge. Judi
Martin, who also volunteers her public-relations expertise for the Greeters, says about
1,000 people enjoyed the two- to four-hour private tours in 2009.
Marta Fredricks works with and touts the "glory of the Houston Symphony, Houston
Arts Alliance, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Julia Ideson Library."
Solomon suggests the Art Collection of Jean & Dominique Menil, which he says is an
eclectic collection ranging from primitive art to ultra-modern, all in a fantastic setting.
"It's one of the finest small museums in the world," Solomon says, and "there's no set
entry price. Donate what you wish."
Patricia Bernstein says her favorite bit of culture is Opera in the Heights, "one of
Houston's best-kept secrets. Of course, we have Houston Grand Opera at the Wortham
Center downtown that presents many fabulous productions, but this little opera company
is tucked away in the old Houston Heights in cozy Lambert Hall. They present fine
young opera singers from all over the world in an intimate environment, with an excellent
small orchestra, a small dedicated chorus, colorful costumes and minimal scenery."
When your search for culture is for something other than the fine arts, you're in luck in
Houston. In one day you may be able to see part of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame,
which is still looking for a permanent sponsor and home; and an "art car" museum
(referred to as the Garage Mahal) that's way too small for its subject. It holds an annual
art car parade sponsored by the Orange Show Foundation.
Or, you may spot a 20-foot stainless steel armadillo with longhorns, a 50-foot saxophone
made of old Volkswagen Beetles and other car parts, 36-foot statues of The Beatles (the
other ones), brightly painted railroad cars, and other idiosyncratic private art works.
Jenny Leonard, a Houston artist, notes that Houston is the only city with a beer-can
house, also under the direction of the Orange Show Foundation. The late John
Milkovisch started flattening beer cans in 1968 to use as aluminum siding. His six-packa-day habit provided materials (about 39,000 cans) for the next 18 years and the pull-tabs
(before they became incorporated into the can design) were linked into wind-chiming
curtains. Coors, Texas Pride and various lite beers were the beverage of choice.
American Airlines flies nonstop to Dallas/Fort Worth, Southwest flies nonstop to
Houston's Hobby Airport and Continental flies nonstop to Houston International.
Sites of interest
dallasmuseumofart.org
internationalbowlingcampus.com
moneyfactory.gov
artcarmuseum.com
artsfortworth.org
cartermuseum.org
citypass.com/city/houston.html?id=FGaZm6uP
cowgirl.net
crowcollection.com
dallasarboretum.org
dallasculture.org/latinoCulturalCenter
dallasculture.org
dallasopera.org
fortworth.com
fortworthzoo.org
fwmuseum.org
houstongreeters.org
menil.org
nashersculpturecenter.org
operaintheheights.org
spacecenter.org
texascowboyhalloffame.com
themodern.org
visitdallas.com