MUSEUM MAGIC

10 of the top exhibits to see for free on Austin Museum Day

The Harry Ransom Center is hosting Houdini's Library, a exhibition timed to the 100th anniversary of the illusionist's death.

Instagram/Harry Ransom Center

Austin’s museums, galleries, historic homes, and cultural spaces will open their doors Sunday, September 20, for the 29th annual Austin Museum Day, offering free admission and special programming across Central Texas.

This year’s event includes more than 30 participating institutions, with activities ranging from printing demonstrations and sculpture workshops to historic-house tours and hands-on science exhibits. Visitors can also follow a UT Campus Crawl or claim a free CapMetro bus pass through the Umo app using the code CM-26KB-HRWF.

Highlights include a new Austin Public Library centennial exhibition at the Austin History Center, the recently opened Houdini’s Library at the Harry Ransom Center, and opening-weekend access to the largest U.S. exhibition yet devoted to Swedish artist Moki Cherry. Museum Day is also the final chance to see Austin author Sarah Bird’s photographs of Texas’ Black rodeo traditions in Bastrop, while the Blanton’s Works Progress Administration exhibition closes the following weekend.

Austin Museum Day at the Neill-Cochran House Museum Museum Day at the Neill-Cochran House Museum on Sunday will include free lemonade and ice cream, along with Appalachian music from the Two Goat String Band.Neill-Cochran House Museum

Here are some of the highlights of this Sunday's Museum Day roster of participants:

Austin History Center
Noon to 5 pm, 810 Guadalupe St.
Austin Public Library is celebrating its 100th anniversary with In Circulation: A Century of the Austin Public Library, an exhibition tracing a library system that began in 1926 with 500 donated books. Museum Day serves as the exhibition reception, with tours, refreshments, arts and crafts, and community stories from across the library’s history. The centennial celebration will continue with a party at the Central Library in October.

Bastrop County Museum and Visitor Center
11 am to 3 pm, 904 Main St., Bastrop
Museum Day is the final chance to see Soul Circuit: Juneteenth Rodeos in Texas, a traveling Humanities Texas exhibition featuring photographs by Sarah Bird. The photographs document the network of small-town Juneteenth rodeos that carried forward the history and traditions of Black cowboys in Texas, including connections to Bastrop County. After September 20, the exhibition returns to Humanities Texas.

Blanton Museum of Art
10 am to 4:30 pm, 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Visitors have one more week to catch Art in Every Corner: The Works Progress Administration (1935-1943), which closes September 27. The exhibition looks at artists supported through the federal Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, including Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Dorothea Lange, Jacob Lawrence, and Walker Evans. Admission to all Blanton galleries is free on Museum Day, and visitors can bring a picnic for the museum lawn or make the Blanton part of their UT Campus Crawl.

Harry Ransom Center
Noon to 5 pm, 300 W. 21st St.
The Ransom Center’s newest exhibition, Houdini’s Library, explores a lesser-known side of the famed illusionist: his work as a collector and historian of magic. The exhibition, timed to the 100th anniversary of Houdini’s death, includes books, manuscripts, photographs, and theater memorabilia from his collection. Visitors can also see the newly opened The Worlds of Gertrude Stein, the Gutenberg Bible, and the Niépce Heliograph, and watch printing-press demonstrations throughout the day.

Texas Medical Association History of Medicine Gallery
11 am to 3 pm, 401 W. 15th St.
A new exhibition looks back at the period when Texans treated mineral springs as medicine. Taking to the Waters: Medicine and Mineral Water in 20th Century Texas History explores how physicians, folk healers, resort owners, and entrepreneurs promoted mineral-rich and thermal waters as treatments, transforming natural springs into destinations for health, tourism, and profit.

The Contemporary Austin
Jones Center noon to 6 pm, 700 Congress Ave.; Laguna Gloria 9 am to 3 pm, 3809 W. 35th St.
Museum Day falls on opening weekend for The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry at the Jones Center. The largest U.S. exhibition to date devoted to the Swedish artist and designer brings together textiles, clothing, ceramics, sculpture, posters, music, and performance. At Laguna Gloria, the museum is debuting a self-guided app exploring the site’s history and ecology, while the Elisabet Ney Museum will offer an art-and-nature activity designed by Austin artist Virginia L. Montgomery.

Austin Museum Day 2026 The Contemporary Austin is opening an exhibition of aritst Moki Cherry. Cherry explored ceramics, music, clothing and performance. This photo is displayed by The Contemporary, courtesy of Cherry's estate. Instagram/The Contemporary Austin

Visual Arts Center
11 am to 4 pm, 2301 San Jacinto Blvd.
Two fall exhibitions that opened September 4 combine art with science and education. How to Grow the Cowpea: Survival Strategies from the U.S. South brings together 12 international artists exploring responses to climate change, while Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy marks the 60th anniversary of UT’s photography program with work by 24 alumni. Museum Day visitors can also pick up a limited-edition poster by artist Pallavi Sen.

Mexic-Arte Museum
Noon to 5 pm, 419 Congress Ave.
Mexic-Arte’s fall exhibitions opened September 11, giving Museum Day visitors an early look at Día de los Muertos: Coleccionando Memorias and Selections from the Collection: Juan Sandoval Jr. The Día de los Muertos exhibition explores memory and the enduring bonds between the living and the dead. Visitors can also screen-print stickers and mini tote bags while learning about one of the museum’s favorite printmaking methods.

Texas Science & Natural History Museum
1 to 5 pm, 2400 Trinity St.
The museum’s reimagined paleontology exhibition, Epic Encounters, introduces visitors to Texas’ prehistoric past through fossils and interactive displays. Upstairs, the newer Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats challenges common myths about bats and shows how the animals pollinate plants, control insects, and help regenerate rainforests.

Briscoe Center for American History
11 am to 2 pm, 2300 Red River St.
The Briscoe Center’s new exhibition, Stars, Stripes, and Symbols: America at 250, explores both American history and the ways that history gets told. Drawn from the center’s collections, the exhibition brings together flags, founding documents, advertising, political imagery, activist materials, and handmade objects to show how governments, businesses, artists, and ordinary Americans have celebrated, marketed, and challenged national ideals. The objects range from solemn historical documents to kitschy uses of familiar American symbols.

Other Museum Day possibilities include tours of the newly renovated Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, live sculpture demonstrations and the 35x35x35 anniversary exhibition at the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum, and a Red Dot scavenger hunt among works by more than 125 artists at Women & Their Work.

museums galleries visual art history

Armadillos and people first

Austin's Armadillo Christmas Bazaar shares 2026 lineup, resists AI art

Photo courtesy of the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar

undefined

One of Austin's longest-running art traditions is responding to the times but staying selective about how it modernizes. The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, founded in 1976, has announced its 2026 artist lineup and adopted an official new policy that centers human-made art. The bazaar will be held December 12-21 at the Palmer Events Center.

According to the online artist application page, the new artificial intelligence policy is as follows: "The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar is committed to showcasing human-created artwork and craft; work generated primarily through artificial intelligence platforms is not eligible."

The policy does not detail what level or type of AI design the bazaar deems acceptable — presumably it allows a small amount, since the policy uses the term "primarily."

The type of AI starting impassioned debates in the art world is usually generative AI, which is different from traditional AI; examples of the latter include more controlled, algorithmic feats like recommending a TV show or controlling how a video game character moves.

It would be very disruptive, for example, to disqualify hand-drawn pieces that were made scalable in Adobe Illustrator, prints that feature a visualization of data, or wood sculptures cut by a laser tool that calculates its path to avoid setting the piece on fire.

Art markets are increasingly scrutinized for the art they carry, as more "slop" (Merriam-Webster's word of 2025) breaks through. Generic 3D-printed knickknacks are also facing criticism.

Some artists lament that AI-generated or mass-produced art takes up booth space (and spams search results), reducing exposure for artists who use their hands and more precise digital tools; on the other side of the booth, many shoppers are just tired of seeing it, especially in places where they expect to see community engagement. Some artists feel that generative AI has great potential to redefine the artistic process, raising questions about how much an artist's idea and prompting prowess weigh in the final product.

A press release explains that the new AI policy "protects the integrity of the Bazaar for years to come." It explicitly places value on knowing the story behind a piece, which aligns with the bazaar's core identity as a place for local artists and shoppers to connect directly.

"As AI-generated imagery becomes more prevalent, Armadillo believes there is increasing value in knowing who made the work, how it was created, and the human story behind it," the statement says. "The Bazaar’s new AI policy reinforces its longstanding focus on artistic intention, individual expression and direct human creativity – giving visitors confidence that the art and gifts they discover at Armadillo begin with human ideas and intention."

Bazaar producer Anne Johnson echoes the sentiment.

“You can meet the person who created something, hear the story behind it, and discover a piece that means something to you or to someone you love," Johnson said in the release. "We want to protect and strengthen that experience while continuing to evolve the way people experience Armadillo and what a holiday tradition can look like.”

Now that shoppers know where bazaar curators stand on AI art, they can expect to see nearly 200 human creators selling the following items at the 2026 event:

sculptures
paintings
art prints
photographs
jewelry
fashion accessories
stained glass
soap
plants
notebooks
dishware

The full list of 2026 artists is available at armadillobazaar.com.

New this year, there will be longer hours on select days for a more relaxed experience, and VIPs will get to enter an hour early on opening day, December 12, to ensure they get the first picks from their favorite artists.

The bazaar is also famous for its live music. The musical lineup will be announced in mid-October, this release says. When the musical lineup is announced, tickets will also go on sale.

artificial intelligence visual art markets christmas gifts shopping