Museum Hours :Wednesday - Saturday, 11AM - 6PM
General Admission: always Free, Donations accepted

Support the Houston Museum of African American Culture

Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Your support will help ensure the museum sustainability. Text “HMAAC” to 44-321 to donate!

The Houston Museum of African American Culture invites you to Phillip Pyle, II’s "Wave Check,: at 3PM, Saturday, October 12.
On Saturday, October 12, 3PM HMAAC presents “Wave Check/ 100” with Phillip Pyle, II, in collaboration with the 2024 Texas Biennial. This engaging performance is part of Pyle’s mid-career exhibition “So Far So Good” which ends on October 12. Pyle is one of 80 artists selected for the 2024 Texas Biennial and HMAAC is a presenting venue for the show.

The Biennial was curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Assistant Curator at the Blaffer art Museum, Ashley DeHoyos Sauder, curator at Diverse Works, and Coka Treviño, the Founder and Curator of The Projecto, and Artistic Director at Big Medium.a solo museum exhibition from artist Phillip Pyle, II. "So Far So Good" is a survey of the artist's work over the past 12 years. "Pyle is a visual artist, graphic designer, and photographer based in Houston whose primary interests are race, humor, advertising, sports, and popular culture. Mining imagery from sources diverse as mass consumer culture, contemporary advertising, to ephemera, historic imagery, and hip-hop, Pyle, introduces a complex vision that derives from a strong comedic foundation while also looking at the abstraction and transience of our values, and beliefs."

The Houston Museum of African American Culture presents: A Happy Hour Tour of "Shavon Aja Morris: The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones.”
Join artist Shavon Aja Morris and Houston Museum of African American Culture’s Chief Curator Christopher Blay for drinks and a tour of the exhibition. Curator Blay, along with two other curators, select one artist for the annual Bert Long, Jr. Prize each year. The 2024 winner is Shavon Aja Morris. Along with a $3,000 cash award Morris was presented a solo exhibition Shavon Aja Morris: The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones. Morris (b.1991) reuses found photographs as a means for rediscovering the essence of the Black American woman.

schedule a curator-led tour of current exhibitions. to schedule, click below.

Visit the Culture Shoppe at HMAAC for all your local artists and vendors merchandise!


exhibition archive

Visit our most recent exhibitions via our virtual 3D portal. Click anywhere to begin. For more of our other exhibitions, please scroll below.

 
 

Latinx Museum of Art in Houston?, curated by Benito Huerta. A glimpse of what a gallery exhibition in a Latinx museum might look like when accompanied by programs defined completely by Latinx voices.

 

Permanent Exhibitions

The Houston Museum of African American Culture dedicated its Stairwell of Memory on February 19, 2022 with the addition of the portrait of Houstonian Robbie Tolan, “The Survivor.” On December 11, 2021, HMAAC dedicated a portrait of Tolan by artist Cedric Ingram that was added to the ones of Bland and Floyd. The three of them represent our area’s most prominent symbols of police brutality. America is indeed lucky and blessed that one of them survived; a living reminder that justice for black victims of police brutality is so rare as to essentially be non-existent, and that good citizens of all races must be diligent to change our current culture to one of fairness and equity.

 

The Jazz Church of Houston

“The Jazz Church of Houston is an endeavor by artist Tierney Malone to create a temporary institution dedicated to collecting and sharing the story of Houston's musical tribe. While there are museums in Texas dedicated to music, a space does not exist that chronicles the jazz history of Houston. The name “Jazz Church” drew its inspiration from the Church of John Coltrane in San Francisco. Established in 1970, the church uses John Coltrane’s music as an expression of worship. The Jazz Church of Houston is a secular temple that will serve as a communal gathering place for like-minded people to listen, learn and celebrate jazz music and culture in Houston.

The Jazz Church of Houston’s patron saint is Texas tenor legend, Arnett Cobb. He is the standard bearer for all those who came after him. He made Houston his base of operation instead of New York or LA, as many of his contemporaries have done. He mentored the next generation of jazz musicians who followed in his footsteps to New York. He is the model of rugged individualism that often characterizes Texans. He survived many physical challenges to pursue his passion of making music. He was hospitalized for a year from a car accident, and used crutches for the rest of his life. He never let his physical challenges prevent him from playing for audiences around the world.”-Tierney Malone, via jazzchurchhouston.org 

 

Open Your Eyes

Houston Museum of African American Culture

 

OUR MISSION

The mission of HMAAC is to collect, conserve, explore, interpret, and exhibit the material and intellectual culture of Africans and African Americans in Houston, the state of Texas, the southwest and the African Diaspora for current and future generations. In fulfilling its mission, HMAAC seeks to invite and engage visitors of every race and background and to inspire children of all ages through discovery-driven learning. HMAAC is to be a museum for all people.

 OUR VISION

HMAAC seeks to be a cultural portal through which people share and converge histories and contemporary experiences that acknowledge and expand the African American experience, and from such interactions come together to build a common future.