Welcoming the Art Curious

Inaugural Houston Art Weeks spotlights galleries and mental health

Bisong Art Gallery is participating.

Courtesy of Bisong Art Gallery

Houstonians are about to welcome a brand-new cultural happening with a charitable twist: the very first Houston Art Weeks, running October 10-19.

Created by the StellaNova Foundation, the city’s newest arts-meets-philanthropy event is styled after crowd-pleasers like the Holiday Shopping Card and Houston Restaurant Weeks. The initiative connects locals directly to Houston-based artists, galleries, and studios, encouraging them to connect with the artisans while shopping for a cause.

A portion of Houston Art Weeks' proceeds benefits organizations that use art and music as vital therapies for those navigating mental health challenges.

“This isn’t just about buying art,” says Doug Harris, StellaNova’s executive director. “It’s about removing the stigma around mental health, building awareness, and creating healing connections through creativity, through community.”

The primary beneficiary is The Montrose Center, Houston’s LGBTQ+ social services hub that empowers thousands each year with programs ranging from counseling to youth advocacy. Additional StellaNova Foundation beneficiaries in 2025 include Healthcare for the Homeless–Houston, Guitars 4 Vets, The Purple Heart Project, and AHEPA Service Dogs for Warriors.

Harris believes the timing is crucial: “Mental health issues can challenge a loved one, a coworker, or a neighbor, who may be dealing with depression, addiction, or even domestic violence. Too many suffer in silence. We want Houston Art Weeks to shine a light and offer real support.”

Over the event's ten days, Houstonians can explore galleries like Bisong Art Gallery, Heidi Vaughan Fine Art, Archway Gallery, and peek inside artists’ studios, and discover works from talents including Tra’ Slaughter, Damon Thomas, Ron Gordon, Taft McWhorter, and Phyllis Hand.

“When it comes to acquiring art, some people are afraid they might make a mistake," says Harris. "Instead of enjoying the work, in its moment in time, they think about what their friends might say or resale value. Acquire art because you like it."

The week culminates in a pop-up art exhibition and sale at The Montrose Center on October 18 from 9 am-6 pm, where official partners will showcase works that directly fuel the cause.

For a first-year initiative, the excitement is already building. ““It will take time to grow Houston Art Weeks,” Harris admits, “but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The artists are rallying, and we think even the ‘art curious’ will come along for the ride.”

By design, Houston Art Weeks celebrates the city’s vibrant visual arts scene while strengthening the safety net for those in need. Art lovers get one-of-a-kind works, local creatives gain exposure, and some of Houston’s most vital nonprofits receive essential funding.

Learn more and find participating galleries, artists, and events at houstonartweeks.org.

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MFAH will host two impressive American art exhibits this fall

Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Winslow Homer, Children Playing Under a Gloucester Wharf, 1880.

Houston art lovers can get a glimpse of a couple of impressive exhibits this fall at the MFAH. One is from a private Texas collection of American modernist paintings. The other is a collection of rarely seen Winslow Homer watercolors from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Opening October 25, American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection marks the first exhibition drawn from the renowned private collection of Texas philanthropist Charles Butt. With some 80 works, including by such iconic artists as Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Jacob Lawrence, this landmark presentation highlights a deeply personal collecting vision, offering a fresh perspective on American modernism and illuminating key movements and artistic voices that shaped the course of 20th-century art.

The exhibit’s sections reflect Charles Butt’s lifelong passions, which span a love for the sea, developed over Butt’s childhood spent in Corpus Christi, as well as works showcasing how landscape shaped America’s response to modernism, and how artists subverted landscape conventions to chart more personal journeys. A special section in the Houston presentation will be devoted to seven visionary watercolors by Charles Burchfield.

“Charles Butt is widely known in Texas for his philanthropy and abiding commitment to education,” Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, said in a statement. “Less known, until now, is his discerning eye and passion for American art, as expressed by some of our most accomplished artists in the 20th century. We are pleased to host his distinguished group of American modernist paintings in Houston, and grateful to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art for organizing the exhibition and this statewide Tour.”

The exhibit runs through January 18, 2027.

Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens November 1. This is a once-in-a-generation exhibition showcasing the watercolors of this quintessential New England artist, who captured the fleeting effects of light, atmosphere, and landscape on daily life in America during the transformative decades of the late 19th century. Houston is the only travel venue for this exhibition, following its debut last fall in Boston. The exhibit runs through February 7, 2027 and includes 50 watercolors by the artist, alongside a selection of his oils, drawings, and prints.

“We are thrilled that our colleagues in Boston have consented to share with us their definitive collection of works by Winslow Homer,” said Tinterow. “The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is not only one of the world’s premier art museums, but the longtime steward of the singular legacy of Winslow Homer. As a quintessential New England artist, Homer — much like his exact contemporary Mark Twain — captured life in America as it transformed from an agrarian economy to an industrial powerhouse. Because Homer's light-sensitive works on paper are normally kept in dark storage, this exhibition provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see Homer's vision of our country, made visible only in Houston on the occasion of the nation’s semiquincentennial.”

Museum goers will find the exhibit organized chronologically, focusing on major chapters in Homer’s life. The arc demonstrates his evolution as an artist, capturing his fascination with the world around him. Paintings include Leaping Trout, from 1889, his first watercolor to be purchased by any museum, and Driftwood, his last watercolor.

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and originally apprenticed to a print shop, Homer covered the Civil War for Harper’s Weekly as an artist. Working in watercolor in the 1870s, he traveled through the Adirondacks, Massachusetts, Florida, and the Caribbean. He died in 1910, having spent the last decades of his life painting and working in Maine.

These two exhibitions are presented in conjunction with America 250 marking the semiquincentennial of America’s founding with a roster of more than 70 artworks from across its campus and collections that speak to the American experience.

Winslow Homer, Children Playing Under a Gloucester Wharf, 1880.

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