weekend event planner
Here are the top 14 things to do in Houston this weekend
This weekend brings a host of artful events for those so inclined. Look for an exhibition opening centering on an epic war movie, a showcase of young artists, and a merging of wellness and art. Speaking of wellness, don't miss a wellness market.
Meanwhile, Color Factory brings some pop to date night, classical music and dance offerings abound, and a renowned DJ hosts Sunday Funday
Here are your best bets for the weekend.
Thursday, January 20
Thursday Date Nights at Color Factory
Color Factory is a collaborative interactive exhibit that features participatory installations of colors, hues that invite curiosity, discovery, and play. It also has been welcoming couples on Thursdays this month. Visitors getting their date on will be able to purchase two tickets for the price of one. This month only, tickets are 50 percent off every Thursday. That means if you bring a date during these times, your date comes for free. 4 pm.
Da Camera Young Artists | Concert Inspired by Calder-Picasso
For the next two Thursdays, these free concerts will explore themes in the exhibition Calder-Picasso. Musicians from Da Camera Young Artists will perform two different programs inspired by the art and innovations of Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso. The music for part one comes from such artists as Virgil Thomson, Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky and the Velvet Underground's John Cage. 6:30 and 7:30 pm.
MY Salon Suite East Heights Grand Re-Opening
This weekend, MY SALON Suite is commemorating the grand opening of our newly expanded flagship location in Sawyer Yards. Home to 70-plus "Salontrepreneurs," the Sawyer Yards location is the largest MY SALON Suite in the nation, from the vaulted ceilings, abundant natural light and distinctive light well to the high-tech security system and curated collection of art. Join them for a night of "suite" beats by DJ Tony Styles, a champagne toast, and a celebration of entrepreneurship for these small business owners. 6 pm.
Friday, January 21
Healing Arts Houston Launch Event
In lieu of the full “Healing Arts Houston: Innovations in Arts and Health” symposium (which has been postponed for the fall), there will be this free event, livestreamed (here) from the University of Houston, this event will feature selected panels and performances and mark the official launch of Healing Arts Houston. The free event will initiate the Healing Arts dialogue in Houston and offer a lively preview of what is to come in the September symposium. 1 pm.
The Moody Center for the Arts presents "Soundwaves: Experimental Strategies in Art + Music" opening reception
In honor of the "Twilight Epiphany" Skyspace’s decade-long history as a site for musical innovation, this exhibition celebrates experimentation across the disciplines of art and music and pays homage to visual and performing artists who have demonstrated a deep engagement with the field of music. New works by Jamal Cyrus, Spencer Finch, Jason Moran, and Jorinde Voigt will be shown for the first time. Through Saturday, May 14. 6 pm.
NobleMotion Dance and Musiqa presents LiveWire
NobleMotion Dance and Musiqa have been breaking artistic boundaries in Houston and winning national acclaim for their adventurous programming. At the same time, Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, professor and director of the BRAIN Center at University of Houston, has been pioneering nonsurgical brain-machine interfaces to understand the brain in action in clinical, artistic and classroom settings. For the first time, the groups converge to present the world premiere of an innovative collaboration between scientists, musicians, and dancers. 7:30 pm.
Houston Symphony presents Eschenbach Conducts Beethoven & Brahms 1
Revered conductor and former Houston Symphony music director Christoph Eschenbach returns to Jones Hall. Young pianist Jan Lisiecki will tackle Beethoven’s poetic and powerful Piano Concerto No. 4, and Eschenbach, who was music director from 1988 to 1999, will lead Brahms’s monumental Symphony No. 1. The concerts open with Ibert’s dazzling Flute Concerto, performed by Greek virtuoso Stathis Karapanos. The Saturday performance will be available to livestream. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).
Saturday, January 22
The Alta Arts presents Matthew Modine: "Full Metal Jacket Diary" opening day
The Alta Arts will host an exhibition of photographs by actor and filmmaker Matthew Modine. The exhibition features large-scale aluminum prints of photographs taken while on the set of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, in 1987. Modine’s photographs were shot with black-and-white film, and almost bend time by making use of the historic camera and a visual language which is immediately reminiscent of old war footage. Modine will give a talk and Q+A session about the exhibition. Through Saturday, March 5. 1 pm.
Community Artists' Collective presents "Wisdom and Hope" opening reception
The Community Artists’ Collective welcomes the new year with the creative offerings of local artists Hardy Allen, Daniel Tesfai, and Zymora Eikner. Many of Eikner’s paintings reflect her fond memories of spending time on her grandpa’s tobacco farm in Virginia, while Allen’s art recalls significant scenes from his boyhood and family and Tesfai's paintings speak to the gentrification of cultures that don’t easily survive our western civilization. Through February 26. 3 pm.
Lunar New Year | Wellness Night Market
Celebrate Lunar New Year and local AAPI owned businesses rooted in all things wellness at Montrose Collective. Join them for a thoughtfully curated evening market on the paseo with some of Houston's local AAPI owned businesses that support physical and mental wellness, as well as traditional LNY celebrations. For health & wellness, the vendors will include Revolve Physical Therapy, Lost Lotus Yoga, and Nobl Cushions, while food vendors will include Dumpling Haus and Sticky's Chicken. 5 pm.
Houston Grand Opera presents Dialogues of the Carmelites
Francis Poulenc’s tragedy in two parts takes place during the French Revolution and asks the question: who gets to be a martyr? Seeking to protect herself from the guillotine, young aristocrat Blanche (soprano and HGO Studio alumna Natalya Romaniw) leaves her family and trembles her way to the Carmelite convent. But as the bedridden prioress admonishes the fearful Blanche, it is nuns who protect the convent, not the other way around. 7:30 pm.
Sunday, January 23
Khoi Barbecue & Burger Bodega at Tenfold Coffee
In one corner, we have a Vietnamese pop-up that specializes in "Viet-Tex" barbecue. In the other corner, you have a burger pop-up that specializes in crazy-tasting, smash burgers. And it looks like these vendors will be serving up food in a good ol' battle-to-the-death (okay, we don't think it'll be that extreme) over at Tenfold Coffee. There will also be delicious baked goods, courtesy of Pudgy's Fine Cookies. Noon.
Main Street Theater presents The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963
It’s 1963 and the Watsons, an African-American family, journey from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama to take their troublesome son, Byron, to live with his grandmother. It's a trip that lands them in one of the darkest moments in America’s racial history. A fictionalization of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Christopher Paul Curtis’ novel won the Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Awards. Recommended for 5th grade and older. 2:30 pm.
Josh Wink @ Bauhaus Patio Sunday Funday
Philadelphia DJ Josh Wink is a house/techno icon. Back in the day, he and fellow Philly legend King Britt played clubs, produced, and remixed tunes and even ran their own label, Ovum Recordings. (This was most likely inspired by their "Womb" parties they used to do together in Philly.) Wink went to become a international DJ superstar and, this weekend, he makes his return to Bauhaus for its Sunday patio bash. 4 pm.
