get your museum on

Your cheat sheet to Museum District Day: Tips for all types for the free cultureromp

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau
Holocaust Museum
The Menil Collection
Courtesy photo
Contemporary Arts Museum

Museum District Day beckons with free cultural offerings on Saturday, Sept. 25. The day-long event offers free admission to 17 Houston museums, providing a fleet of bus shuttles to take you to and from each cultural institution (Click here for free bus shuttle routes and stops).

"There's so much I'm excited about for this event," Susan Schmaeling, representing the Houston Museum District, tells Culturemap, explaining that this is the event's 14th anniversary.

Schmaeling's top underground tip of the day is the Buffalo Soldiers Museum. "From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. they do a live performance of a buffalo soldier every hour, on the hour. I think that's really cool — a lot of people don't know about this great museum," she says.

Count on CultureMap to guide you through the day, no matter your tastes. We've got a few prime picks for art lovers, in-the-know families, international tastemakers and soul-searching Houstonians.

The Art Ace

Start off with a new survey of Art 101 with the exhibition, Earth Paint Paper Wood at the Menil Collection. Featuring an array of new acquisitions, from 18th century French portraiture to 21st century watercolors and ceramics, this exhibition reveals gifts, purchases and bequests that have remained under the radar of many Menil enthusiasts.

Next, join docent-led tours of the exhibition Dance with Camera at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston to get an inside view on how art, dance and video can flow together. From noon to 3 p.m., dance instructors will be on hand to reveal their secrets and teach the tango and some ballroom boogie.

Hop back on the bus and check in at Rice Gallery to experience D-17, Sarah Oppenheimer's monumental installation that soars upward and out of the museum space. You can temper Oppenheimer's conceptual rigor with free ice cream beneath the campus' sprawling live oaks.

Get crafty as you interact with craft artists and watch demonstrations at the "Gathering of the Guilds" event at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where the CraftTexas 2010 exhibition is also on view. Be sure to wander Convergence II to get a glimpse of currents in glass bead jewelry.

The Jet-Setting Staycationer

Just because you're staying inside the Loop doesn't mean Museum District Day can't resemble an international jaunt. See the world with Created and Found Maps - Exploration of Self and World at Houston Center for Photography. Stroll over to the Menil campus and listen in on a world music sensation, "Divine Rhythm & United Motion" of award-winning reggae band D.R.U.M.

"It's so nice to lay out on the lawn at the Menil and listen to music — usually there are little kids dancing around," Schmaeling says.

Next, take the bus to the MFAH and be whisked away to Africa with the latest exhibition, Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria, featuring artifacts that are taking a leave from their Lagos museum for the fist time. Pretend that you're galavanting through an authentic Kunsthalle at the museum's shows — German Impressionist Landscape Painting: Liebermann-Corinth-Slevogt and Drawing from Nature: Landscapes by Liebermann, Corinth, and Slevogt.

To top off your tour, delve further into Central European culture at the nearby Czech Center Museum.

The Soul Seeker

Remake your mantra during Museum District Day while contemplating the Menil exhibition, Objects of Devotion, showcasing treasures from the world's religions. Next, meditate in the recreated 13th-century sacred setting at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum.

While in the area, learn about Mark Rothko's monumental murals at a panel discussion, "Transformative Encounters with the Rothko Chapel." Professor Helen Winkler Fosdick, art conservator Carol Mancusi-Ungaro and Christopher Rothko, Ph.D. (the artist's son) will weigh in on the chapel's spiritual potential.

Contemplate the past on Caroline Street as Houston-area Holocaust survivors will speak about their experiences in appearances at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Visitors to the Holocaust Museum will also have the opportunity to create their own "stained glass windows" using contact paper and tissue paper, in conjunction with the exhibit, Never Let it Rest!

The Cultured Kiddo

The urbane adolescent comes with high entertainment expectations, and Museum District Day will not disappoint. On the top of the list is the Inventor's Workshop at the Children's Museum of Houston, where visitors can design a musical automation that will engineer tunes to be played by machines on-site (at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. or 4:30 p.m.).

More music and family-fun arts and crafts stations await at The Health Museum, and the tykes can get in on hands-on climate creativity at The John C. Freeman Weather Museum.

Aspiring artists can create sock creatures inspired by Tobiah Mundt's felted work, BEING, and decorate the back patio with sidewalk chalk at Lawndale Art Center. The little prodigies can take a pitstop there with free lemonade.

Finally, children can chill out at the mini film fest, Kid Flix Mix 2010, featuring the best of the New York International Children's Film Festival, screened in the Brown Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

unspecified

Movie Review

Timothée Chalamet cements star status in new movie Marty Supreme

Courtesy

Timothée Chalamet

In a time when true movie stars seem to be going extinct, Timothée Chalamet has emerged as an exception to the rule. Since 2021 he has headlined blockbusters like the two Dune movies and Wonka, and also earned an Oscar nomination for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (his second nomination following 2018’s Call Me By Your Name). Now, he’s almost assured to get his third nomination for the stellar new film, Marty Supreme.

Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a world-class table tennis player living in New York. But reducing Marty to his best skill doesn’t do him justice, as he’s also a motormouth schemer who will do almost anything to achieve his dreams. He doesn’t have any qualms about wooing married women like neighbor Rachel (Odessa A’zion) or actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), or hiding his true ping pong skills to win money in scams with friends like Wally (Tyler the Creator).

Marty is seemingly on the go the entire movie, whether it’s trying to convince Kay’s millionaire husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) to fund his table tennis ambitions; or trying to track down the dog of Ezra (Abel Ferrara), a man he accidentally injures; or trying to avoid the ire of the boss at the shoe store where he works. Just when you think he might slow down, he’s off to the races on another plan or adventure.

Directed by Josh Safdie and written by Safdie and frequent co-writer Ronald Bronstein, the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives, and yet the throughline of Marty keeps everything tightly connected. His particular type of brash behavior turns much of the film into a comedy as he does and says things that are both shocking and thrilling.

Another thing that makes the movie sing is the fantastic characterization by Safdie and Bronstein. Almost every person who is given a speaking line in the film has a moment where they pop, which speaks to airtight dialogue that the writers have created. Characters will be introduced and then disappear for long stretches of time, and yet because they make such an impression the first time they’re on screen, it’s easy to pick up their thread right away.

Safdie, as he’s done previously with brother Bennie (Uncut Gems), calls on a host of well-known non-actors or people with interesting faces/vibes to inhabit supporting roles, and to a person they are crucial to the film’s success. O’Leary (of Shark Tank fame), rapper Tyler the Creator, director Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette, and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi each deliver knockout performances. The relative unknowns who play smaller roles are just as impressive, making each beat of the film feel naturalistic.

Leading the way is the powerhouse performance by Chalamet. For one person to believably play both the famously reserved Dylan and also a firecracker like Marty is astonishing, and this role cements Chalamet’s status as his generation’s movie star. A’zion is a rising star who gets great moments as Marty’s on-again/off-again love interest. Paltrow pops in and out of the film, lighting up the screen every time she appears. Fran Drescher as Marty’s mom and Sandra Bernhard as a neighbor also pay dividends in small roles.

Josh Safdie’s first solo directorial effort is unlike any other movie this year, or maybe even this century. Thanks to its breakneck storytelling, a magnificent performance by Chalamet, and countless intangibles that Safdie employs expertly, the film smacks viewers in the face repeatedly and demands that they come back for more.

---

Marty Supreme opens in theaters on December 25.

movies film