tomo reimagined

Artsy Houston magazine store revived at downtown development

A Montrose magazine and design shop will soon have a new home. Tomo (styled TOMO) will reopen this fall in Post Houston's Art Club, the downtown food hall and event space's permanent black box art exhibition space and nightlight experience.

Set to open in the fourth quarter of 2024, Tomo will be the site's gift shop and storefront component.

Founder Vico Puentes originally opened Tomo in 2015. The store began as a unique magazine shop housed within a refurbished school bus, showcasing independent publications from around the globe. It moved to a permanent location in Montrose at 703 W. Alabama St., and quickly became a vibrant neighborhood hub for printed art and design goods. Tomo paused operations in 2017 and focused on collaborations and partnerships. An opportunity for a revival became available when Puentes met developer Kirby Liu through the Houston arts scene and stayed connected with him through various events and exhibits hosted at Post.

The reimagined Tomo will blend both of those iterations. Its new location will offer Art Club merchandise collaborations and exclusive, limited-edition design goods, focusing on visual and experiential artists. Readers will be glad to hear that the store's magazine selection returns in a new form as well, highlighting small publishing houses and titles from Spain, Mexico, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the USA, along with local Houston and regional publications.

“Through our partnership with Art Club, Tomo returns with a renewed spirit, ready to rekindle its mission of finding inspiration and connecting people through print,” Puentes said in a statement. “The revival of Tomo provides a space that will champion education and curiosity and celebrate diversity and representation.”

Art Club’s international roster of artists should be announced in October. Blending elements and programming from both nightclubs and art galleries, the 40,000-square-foot space will introduce a fresh approach to time-based art installations with a rotating roster of light and digital media artists and designers from around the world. Having Tomo as its retailer gives another avenue for artist creation and for guests to take home part of their Art Club experience. It also means downtown shoppers have a new space to look for unique items.

“Downtown Houston is in need of retail with creative offerings unavailable anywhere else in the city, "said Kirby Liu, founder of Art Club and director at POST. “Tomo's unique gifts and books will establish downtown as one of Houston’s cultural epicenters.”

Those wishing to see what might be in store can catch the US debut of pop-up exhibition Solar Dust by Italian Art Studio Quiet Ensemble. Solar Dust is the first exhibition organized by Art Club and runs through September 30.

Courtesy of Tomo

TOMO, a former Montrose shop beloved for its art vibe and books, is set to reopen at Post Houston this fall

shopping downtown tomo houston

schools with high achievers

These 15 Houston K-8 schools rank among Texas' best for 2025

T.H. Rogers PTO/Facebook

Congratulations are in order for the Rams.

Several Houston elementary and middle schools are at the top of the class when it comes to educating and preparing the next generation for a successful life and career, according to U.S. News & World Report's just-released list of 2025 Elementary and Middle Schools Rankings.

One such school – T.H. Rogers School in Houston ISD – is the No. 8 best middle school in Texas for 2025.

U.S. News ranked over 79,000 public schools on the state and district level using data from the U.S. Department of Education. Schools were analyzed based on their students' proficiencies in mathematics and reading/language arts on state assessments, and tie-breakers were decided based on student-teacher ratios.

Texas' best middle schools for 2025
Three Houston middle schools achieved spots among the top 10 best Texas middle schools for 2025, according to U.S. News.

T.H. Rogers School has a total enrollment of 1,063 students, with 87 percent of the student population scoring "at or above the proficient level" in mathematics, and 90 percent proficiency in reading. The school has a student-teacher ratio of 17:1, with 62 full-time teachers.

T.H. Rogers School also topped the district-wide list as the No. 1 best middle school in HISD.

Houston Gateway Academy - Coral Campus also ranked among the statewide top 10, coming in at No. 9 with a total enrollment of 914 students. U.S. News says 82 percent of HGA students are proficient in math, and 80 percent are proficient in reading.

"Houston Gateway Academy - Coral Campus did better in math and better in reading in this metric compared with students across the state," U.S. News said in the school's profile. "In Texas, 51 percent of students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 41 percent tested at or above that level for math."

Right behind HGA to round out the top 10 best Texas middle schools is Houston ISD's Briarmeadow Charter School. This middle school has 600 students, 69 percent of which are proficient in math and 74 percent are proficient reading.

Briarmeadow's student-teacher ratio is 16:1, which is better than the district-wide student-teacher ratio, and it employs 38 full-time teachers.

U.S. News also ranked Briarmeadow as the second best middle school in Houston ISD.

Six additional Houston-area schools ranked among the top 25 best middle schools in Texas, including:

No. 18 – Cornerstone Academy, Spring Branch ISD
No. 19 – Mandarin Immersion Magnet School, Houston ISD
No. 21 – Smith Middle School, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
No. 22 – Seven Lakes Junior High, Katy ISD
No. 23 – Houston Gateway Academy
No. 25 – Beckendorff Junior High, Katy ISD

The best elementary schools in Texas
Jesus A. Kawas Elementary school in Laredo was crowned the No. 1 elementary school in Texas for 2025, while two Houston-area schools made it into the top 10.

Tomball ISD's Creekside Forest Elementary in The Woodlands is the No. 7 best elementary school statewide, boasting 656 students, 42 full-time teachers, and one full-time counselor. Students at this school, which U.S. News designates is situated in a "fringe rural setting," scored 90 percent efficiency in math and 94 percent efficiency in reading.

Following one spot behind Creekside Forest in the statewide ranking is Sugar Land's Commonwealth Elementary School in Fort Bend ISD, coming in at No. 8. Commonwealth has a student population of 954 with 55 full-time teachers, and two full-time counselors. The school's student-teacher ratio is 17:1, and 90 percent of students are proficient in math, and 94 percent in reading.

U.S. News says student success at Commonwealth is significantly higher than the rest of Fort Bend ISD.

"In Fort Bend Independent School District, 59 percent of students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 47 percent tested at or above that level for math," U.S. News said in Commonwealth's profile. "Commonwealth Elementary [also] did better in math and better in reading in this metric compared with students across the state."

Other Houston-area schools that were ranked among the 25 best in Texas are:

No. 13 – Bess Campbell Elementary, Sugar Land, Lamar CISD
No. 20 – West University Elementary, Houston ISD
No. 23 – T.H. Rogers School, Houston ISD
No. 25 – Griffin Elementary, Katy ISD

"The 2025 Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings offer parents a way to evaluate how schools are providing a high-quality education and preparing students for future success," said LaMont Jones, Ed.D., the managing editor for Education at U.S. News. "The data empowers families and communities to advocate for their children’s education. Research continues to indicate that how students perform academically at these early grade levels is a big factor in their success in high school and beyond."

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