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    Top of The World

    Greeters greet greeters: Worldly visitors enjoy unique Houston — from astronautsto Applebee's

    Tyler Rudick
    Oct 8, 2011 | 5:16 pm
    • Greeters Network is off to Brussels for next year's convention.
    • From left, Ryiad Abu-Taha, Freelance Media Group; MeeOk Park, Houston Greetersboard member; Sam Merchant, Reliance Business Solutions; and Dr. Bandula Wijay,Honorary Consul General Sri Lanka
      Photo by Steve Pedigo
    • Vatsa Kumar with NY Life, left, and Capt. David C. Leestma, U.S. Navy, retired
      Photo by Steve Pedigo
    • Jorge Franz, vice chair of Houston Greeters and vice president of internationaltourism for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and SusanBorches, founder, Houston Greeters
      Photo by Steve Pedigo

    It was a Houston love fest at Global Greeter Network's closing reception for its fifth annual convention. Held at the Mosaic — the ultra-modern residential complex at the edge of Hermann Park — local host chapter, the Houston Greeters, pulled out all the stoppers for nearly 100 guests from more than 10 countries earlier this week.

    There was even an special appearance from a NASA astronaut, Captain David C. Leetsman.

    A volunteer tourism group, the Global Greeters Network (GGN) maintains 25 local chapters throughout Europe and the Americas — all dedicated to showcasing a city’s unique, but often hard-to-find features. GGN tours are always free and can be given in a variety of languages.

     

      “It’s great traveling through Houston to see places you’d never find in Belgium,” she said. “Sunday night, we went and took a chance on a crowded restaurant near our hotel. The place was very entertaining... I think it was called Applebee’s.” 

    Created in 2005 by former Shell executive Susan Borches, the Houston Greeters are a founding chapter of the GGN that arranges more than 80 types of city tours led by its battalion of volunteer “greeters.”

    Guided by an expert in the field, visitors and Houstonians alike can take exclusive tours of the downtown tunnel system, the city’s ice houses and food trucks, or historic African-American sites, to name only a few. Simply make a request on the chapter’s website.

    While our fair city is rarely labeled a world-renowned tourist destination, the Houston Greeters made sure their international guests get the best impression, offering trips to unique restaurants and locales in chauffeured art cars.

     Emile Herssens, a greeter from Brussels, was fascinated by both The Menil Collection and the ice rink at the Galleria.

    “It’s great traveling through Houston to see places you’d never find in Belgium,” she told CultureMap. “Sunday night, we went and took a chance on a crowded restaurant near our hotel. The place was very entertaining... I think it was called Applebee’s.”

    “When we arrived, we couldn’t wait to hear Zydeco music and decided to take a taxi to Jax Grill,” said Global Greeters Network chair Jos Nusse, who traveled in from the Netherlands.

    “The cab driver told us to ‘have fun’ when we got to the restaurant,” he smiled. “I was so happy — that level of friendliness doesn’t happen in many urban areas.”

    Later, at the main reception in the Mosaic’s sleek glass-walled lounge, a VJ played vintage BBC footage of the Beatles as well as a 1973 Carpenters performance of the duo’s international hit, “Top of the World.” Along the walls were table filled with samplings from Houston’s varied culinary culture: Creole cooking from Frenchy’s, Mediterranean cuisine from Cafe Byblos, and, of course, hot dogs from James Coney Island.

    Dr. Bandula Wijay, honorary consul general of Sri Lanka, enjoyed meeting the Houston Greeters for the first time, finding the event a “wonderful networking experience for the city’s international community.” Consuls from Norway and Germany were also in attendance.

    “We put all of our out-of-town clients in touch with the Houston Greeters,” said Kathy Urech from Nino Realtors. “It’s a free service with almost 20 interpreters, perfect for international clientele managing the city for the first time.”

    “The sheer size of Houston can really freak out new visitors at first,” said Jorge Franz, a Houston Greeters board member and the vice president of tourism for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

    “The Houston Greeters make the city feel smaller, kinder, less intimidating,” Franz continued. “We like to think that everyone who takes our tours will make a new friend and a lasting contact in Houston.”

    unspecified
    news/arts

    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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