Immersive illuminations

Lunar New Year-inspired light display returns to Houston garden

The Houston Botanic Garden’s holiday light display Radiant Nature returns for a second year, promising illuminated pathways, dazzling displays, and imaginative installations. Presented by Reliant, the light show runs November 8 through February 23, 2025.

The exhibit is produced by Tianyu Arts & Culture and inspired by traditions celebrating the Lunar New Year as well as regional plant and animal life. More than 50 Chinese lantern installations are presented along Radiant Nature’s mile-long path, each one worthy of sharing on social media. As attendees stroll the path, they’ll hear a complementary soundtrack that helps create a serene and almost other-worldly immersive experience.

Installations include a massive iridescent dome that guests can walk inside, where they’ll find a larger-than-life color-changing, moving lotus flower. The lotus is a symbol of purity, honesty, goodness, and rebirth in Chinese culture, making it a perfect fit for a celebration of the holidays and the New Year.

"Houstonians discovered the Houston Botanic Garden is an enchanting environment for celebrating the beauty of nature and diversity of the city’s cultural landscape with the premiere of Radiant Nature last winter," said Jill Barry, the Garden’s president and CEO. "This year, the show is completely different. Visitors will again be wowed by installations that are larger-than-life, now with new surprises around every bend. The novelty that makes Radiant Nature so appealing to visitors of all ages continues to define this unique family experience."

Admission is $28.50 and free for kids under 3. Early bird pricing is now available through October 31, which can save guests 10 percent.

Each ticket purchase for Radiant Nature helps support the Botanic Garden’s mission of enriching life through discovery, education, and the conservation of plants and the natural environment.

Radiant Nature light display of a parrot against a Chinese-inspired garden

Courtesy of Tianyu Arts & Culture

Radiant Nature returns to the Houston Botanic Garden this winter with dazzling new designs.

holiday light display houston botanic garden

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