The Menil Collection Art Museum holds over 19,000 pieces of art that are displayed in the main building and often switched around several other types of art collected from the 1940s. The collection is significant in its European art, including paintings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The permanent collection highlights Arts of Africa, the Americas and the Pacific Northwest, the Ancient World, the Pacific Islands, Drawing, Medieval and Byzantine, Modern and Contemporary, Surrealism, and the permanent installation entitled Witnesses.
Bask in the sweet sounds of jazz music at the Houston International Jazz Festival, which makes its annual return by celebrating a remarkable run of music, artists, education, and history. The festival, benefitting Jazz Education, Inc., a nonprofit organization, starts the summer with live music and a host of musicians and bands worldwide. The focus of the festival always seeks to honor the legends, the music, and the standards of tradition, shaping young minds and educating them for the future.