Some of that rediscovery and reimagining was born of necessity. After Hurricane Harvey hit in August 2017, ultimately causing around $125 billion in damage in and around Houston and south Texas, the city banded together to address immediate needs and then rebuild based on a reevaluation of how things might operate going forward, from the city’s approach to sustainability and bayou management to downtown revitalization and increased high-rise living options.

We had to show that we could still have beauty in our lives, even if our homes were flooded.

This resilient spirit was particularly evident in the downtown arts district, where institutions such as the Houston Ballet, the Houston Grand Opera and the Wortham Theater Center were hard hit due to their location on the banks of the bayou. “We had about a million dollars in direct damage, and many millions in losses for the season,” says Jim Nelson, executive director of the Houston Ballet. “It was the biggest crisis the company has faced. But we needed to perform to provide a sense of normalcy for our patrons, our company and our students, many of whom weren’t even back in their houses. We had to show that we could still have beauty in our lives, even if our homes were flooded.”

By the end of that September, the ballet, along with other performance institutions, opened its season in borrowed locations, tailoring shows to fit the new spaces; by October, the opera had commandeered an exhibit space in the convention center and dubbed it the Resilience Theater. “It was a true lemons-into-lemonade scenario, but everyone—all the way up to the mayor, who was very supportive of the arts—spun the challenges into something creative, and people really responded,” Nelson says. “We called that entire season our Hometown Tour.”

As Nelson notes, part of coming back strong was also ensuring that the city’s cultural institutions did “not lose their world-class status and that we would get back on our feet at the same level.” Because “world-class” is exactly where things have been heading in the last few years, and while Harvey may have delayed that progression, it didn’t derail it.

It’s an exciting time to be in Houston, as it makes an extraordinary transition from a regional city to an international hub.

At the Museum of Fine Arts, the 14-acre expansion—the largest cultural redevelopment project currently underway in the U.S.—was delayed by the hurricane by several months and several million dollars. But it is now on track to culminate with this fall’s opening of a state-of-the-art, 39,000-square-foot conservation center, followed by the 2020 opening of a 164,000-square-foot hub for 20th and 21st century art. “It’s all with the goal of elevating the user experience and providing more opportunities for the public to interact with the arts,” says Gary Tinterow, director of the museum. Originally from Houston, Tinterow had a 30-year curatorial career at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art before returning south. “It’s an exciting time to be in Houston, as it makes an extraordinary transition from a regional city to an international hub,” he says. “We have a more diverse population now, and most business and city leaders recognize that the quality of life is one of the key factors in Houston continuing to grow and prosper. About 60 percent of visitors come here for cultural pursuits.”

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When they get here, many of those visitors are also heading for the Menil Collection, which was founded in 1987 with the private collection and endowment of trailblazing art enthusiasts and Parisian transplants John and Dominique de Menil. Building on their personal relationships with many mid-century artists, the Menils amassed a trove that’s heavy on names like Rothko, Warhol, Ernst and Magritte (you’ll find the largest number of works by the latter outside of Europe here) but also features important Cézanne watercolors, a noteworthy collection of Byzantine art and pieces by contemporary Texas artists.

While the Menil campus stretches across 30 acres, the artwork is centered in the Renzo Piano-designed main museum (which was renovated and reopened in 2018 with the aim of showcasing more of the permanent collection), the Cy Twombly Gallery (also by Piano) and the $40 million Menil Drawing Institute, opened in late 2018 as the country’s first freestanding facility for the exhibition, study and conservation of modern and contemporary drawings. To engage the community and diminish any feeling of exclusivity, there are no steps leading to any of the buildings and museum entrance and programming is always free.