all hail the king!

'King of Country' George Strait returns to close out RodeoHouston 2022

The king of country will close out next year's rodeo.

Photo courtesy of RodeoHouston

Houston, it’s time to rally all those exes who live in Texas and mark those calendars. In celebration of RodeoHouston’s 90th anniversary, the King of Country, George Strait, will close out the event’s run on Sunday, March 20, 2022.

Country’s reigning monarch’s full-length evening concert will be held in NRG Stadium on the final night of the 2022 Rodeo, which runs for 21 days Monday, February 28 through Sunday, March 20, 2022, the rodeo announced on March 18.

Fans, take note: Individual tickets for Strait’s concert-only performance go on sale to the public Thursday, June 24. (Tix are limited to four per person). The rodeo promises a full entertainer lineup announcement once available.

“What better way to celebrate the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s 90th anniversary than with a special, concert-only performance by the ‘King of Country’ music himself,” rodeo president and CEO Chris Boleman noted in a statement. “After a couple of particularly challenging years, our thousands of dedicated volunteers simply can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the Rodeo grounds for a Texas-sized celebration of Western heritage that will be well worth the wait.”

Next year’s performance marks Strait’s 31st rodeo performance; his first was in 1983. Those lucky enough to catch the king in 2019 with special guests Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen will recall that the show shattered NRG Stadium attendance records with some 80,108 fans. (Read the CultureMap review here.)

Notably, that NRG Stadium record is separate from the paid rodeo/concert attendance records, as this was a concert-only performance with additional seats on the floor of the stadium.

By the numbers, Strait has entertained more than 1.7 million rodeo fans through the years.

Strait and RodeoHouston are inexorably intertwined. He was inducted into the RodeoHouston Star Trail of Fame in 1996, and in 2013, the first four-year Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo George Strait Scholarship was awarded through the rodeo’s scholarship program.

To date, Strait boasts 33 platinum or multi-platinum-selling albums and 60 No. 1 singles — the most of any artist of any music genre in history — plus, a Grammy for his album, Troubadour. Not surprisingly, he is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

celebrities music rodeo

a beautiful mind

Houston Health Museum's new exhibit shines a light on dyslexia

Sarah Sudhoff created "The Reading Brain" in honor of her son.

Photo by Rose Tylinski

"The Reading Brain" replicates neuron activity in a dyslexic brian while reading

No, "The Reading Brain" isn't the title of a B-horror film from the 1960s. It's a brand new installation at the Houston Health Museum that explores dyslexia.

The piece was created by Houston-based artist Sarah Sudhoff, in partnership with Dr. Guinevere Eden, Director of the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University. Hanging from the ceiling of the Health Museum, it uses light-up colored circles to represent the frontal lobe activity of a dyslexic person while reading. MRI scans of dyslexic brains formed the foundation of the light activity. Sudhoff's own son has dyslexia, and she had to adapt her homeschooling of him to account for his neurodivergence. As much as 20 percent of the American population is dyslexic.

"The Reading Brain" grew out of a similar exhibit at the DoSeum in San Antonio. "Beautiful Minds: Dyslexia and the Creative Advantage" challenged visitors to see dyslexia not as a learning disability but as simply a different way some human brains work. The exhibit featured videos, stories, and art work by dyslexic individuals that show how they succeed and create, as well as a selection of brain puzzles used to teach dyslexic people.

“Even though your brain works differently, it still lights up and is beautiful to watch, a wonderful machine you have. It just means you have to navigate and pivot a little differently,” Sudhoff said.

Sudhoff's innovative bridge between science and art is a permanent part of the Health Museum's MindWorks exhibit. Like "The Reading Brain," MindWorks maps out thinking processes through light and hands-on activities. The exhibit will close on January 5, meaning visitors have a very short time to see Sudhoff's piece.

The Health Museum is a hidden gem in Museum District located a block away from the Children's Museum. It houses a variety of exhibits about the human body, such as a giant plastic colon that kids love to run through. Since opening in 1969, the museum has helped Houstonians and visitors from around the world learn about the way the body works as well well as public health protocols. As the only Smithsonian Affiliate Museum in the Houston Museum District, it has a high educational pedigree despite it's colorful and often whimsical offerings.

houston health museum museum district museums

all hail the king!

'King of Country' George Strait returns to close out RodeoHouston 2022

a beautiful mind

Houston Health Museum's new exhibit shines a light on dyslexia

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