KIDS + FAMILIES

March 1 is a Target Free First Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, offers free admission all day, the first Sunday of each month, courtesy of support from Target.

As part of Target Free First Sundays, the museum’s education department plans an array of art activities, performances, films, and refreshments from 1 pm to 5 pm designed to give families an interactive experience, with an emphasis on current exhibitions.

That means free admission all day for everyone, and special family-friendly programs.

Come discover the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston inside and out!

Enjoy family flicks, sketching, storytime tours, and geometric refreshments.

The family flicks are shown in Brown Auditorium Theater on the lower level of the Law Building.

Art activities are held in both the Law and Beck buildings, and refreshments are provided.

Sunday, March 1:  The American West.

Grab your cowboy hat, strap on your boots, and step into the American West at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Inspired by Frederic Remington´s art, sculpt your own cowboy and horse, create a Western Landscape, and sketch a horse sculpture outside!

Venture to the American West through music from the Chamber Strings Orchestra, 3rd — 5th grade students in a Project GRAD Houston Fine Arts Program. Enjoy a performance by Bobby Bridger from Young Audiences, A Ballad of the West: The Epic Trilogy. Share a Campfire Story in the galleries, or watch a Family Flick.

Schedule of events:

Beck Building
Saddle-up and Sculpt
Outside Entrance
Round-up your family, and sculpt your own bronco buster inspired by Remington’s “The Bronco Buster.”

Let’s Rodeo!
Porte-Cochere
Test your rodeo skills at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Kids Corral. Cowboys and cowgirls of all ages can learn fun stuff from talented Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo volunteers.

Look Closely: Campfire Stories
Gallery 108
Gather around cowpoke - share American West campfire stories and have a cowboy sing-a-long!

Storytime Tours
Gallery 108
2:00, 2:30, 3:00, and 3:30 p.m.
Look, listen, and share - discover the American West and Remington through children’s picture books.

Performance
Project Grad – Chamber Strings Orchestra
Gallery 214
2:00 and 3:00 p.m.
Enjoy music that evokes the American West. The Honors Chamber Orchestra (students Grades 3 – 5) is from the Project GRAD Houston Fine Arts Program at Ketelsen, Sherman, Looscan, and Jefferson Elementary Schools. The students were selected for the Orchestra based on talent, diligence and persistence.

Lemonade Stand
Outside Entrance

Law Building Activities
Pioneers, Ponies, and Pastels
Law Lobby
Ride ‘em, Cowboy! Imagine the American West, and create your own Frederic Remington inspired pastel drawing.

Performance
Young Audiences
A Ballad of the West: The Epic Trilogy with Bobby Bridger
Law Lobby
1:30 and 2:30 p.m.
Experience the highly-acclaimed trilogy of historically documented epic ballads which chronicle the American West from the days of the mountain man and the Fur Trade Era of the 1820’s through the death of Lakota Holy man, Black Elk, in 1950.

WANTED: Sketching
Main Street Entrance to Law Building
Clip clop! Clip Clop! Forget the lasso – grab a pencil and capture Deborah Butterfield’s “Apu” horse in a drawing.

Family Flicks
Brown Auditorium Theatre
There is plenty for every cowpoke to do before you ride off into the sunset!

2:00 p.m.
Go West (69 min)
Go West (1925) is a silent comedy starring Buster Keaton. A hapless young man (aptly named "Friendless") idealistically hops a freight train westward to meet his destiny, first in a teeming metropolis (where he is roundly trampled by rush-hour foot traffic) then into the ranchlands of Arizona. In the side-splitting course of his attempts at bronco-busting, cattle wrangling, and even dairy farming, Friendless finds himself enamored with Brown Eyes, a particularly affectionate bovine beauty from whose hoof he removed a painful pebble.

Setting traditional ideas of romance and masculinity on their ears, Go West is uniquely graceful and characteristically hilarious. In an epic sequence that is pure Keaton, sentimental comedy is put aside as hundreds of cattle are unleashed upon downtown Los Angeles, wreaking uproarious havoc upon all in their path, with only one lonesome cowboy to round 'em up!

3:30 p.m.
King Ranch (30 min)
More than 150 years after Richard King first tasted the sweet waters of Santa Gertrudis Creek, King Ranch has evolved from the visions of a New York born steamboat captain into one of the largest and most famous cattle ranches in the world.

Recommended Ages: 4+

Target Free First Sundays are free. No pre-registration necessary and you may drop in and stay as long as you wish.