Blaffer Art Museum

The Blaffer Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in the arts district of the University of Houston campus. Part of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, it has no permanent collection of its own and instead presents rotating exhibitions. The institution was founded in 1973 as the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, named after a donor whose art collection was later sold by an independent foundation to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The proceeds from that sale still support the museum's programming budget today. In 2010, the gallery was renamed the Blaffer Art Museum, accompanied by a comprehensive renovation that was completed in 2012. The new building was designed by the New York architecture firm Work Architecture Co.

The museum's exhibition policy focuses on the art of the past hundred years as well as its cultural and intellectual roots. Between six and eight exhibitions are shown each year, featuring both national and international artists. These include major traveling exhibitions, retrospectives, thematic surveys, works by regional artists, and projects by university students. In addition to the exhibitions, you can take part in a variety of public programs, including informal lunchtime tours and interactive salons. Admission to the museum is free, and it attracts more than thirty thousand visitors a year.

Education and community engagement are central to the museum's mission. Since 1988, the UHReach program has offered special programs for local schoolchildren, with students from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University serving as guides. In 1998, the museum also launched the Young Artists Apprenticeship Program, a free afternoon course for teenagers that gives them the chance to learn artistic techniques such as printmaking and videography. Participants work on their own projects, which are ultimately presented in a museum exhibition. In 2009, the museum received the Coming Up Taller Award, a prize honoring arts programs that benefit underserved youth.