News

The Best Gift Shops in the Museum District

June 18, 2014

IF YOU LOVE THINGS shaped like other, unrelated things, you’ve got two go-to options: SkyMall (also useful if you like clocks attached to random objects), or your local museum gift shop. Need a whistle in the shape of a toothbrush? A laser pointer that looks like an arrowhead? A uterus-shaped pillow? All of these can be had at Houston’s museums, which provide, in addition to the pleasures of random mimesis, some of the city’s most underappreciated shopping opportunities. 

Two shops in particular stand out. We love the one at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where dancer and jeweler Tana Acton brings a sense of movement to her extraordinary hand-strung bracelets (Strung sterling silver cuff, $272, HCCC), and artist Connie Roberts whittles whimsical wooden pieces that look like everything from pill bottles to teabags, all of which happen to function as whistles (Pill bottle, $35, HCCC). We’re also taken with the tucked-away treasures of the gift shop inside the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, specifically its dapper, wearable wooden bowties (Bow tie by Wood Thumb, $38, CAMH). For kids, skip the forgettable shop at the Children’s Museum Houston and head to CAMH to pick up some hand-carved alphabet blocks (Alphabet blocks by Pat Kim, $72, CAMH).

There are also plenty of surprises to be found in the Czech Center’s gift shop; you’ll probably be the only wedding guests gifting the bride and groom with antique Czech crystal goblets (Set of six goblets, $389.95, Czech Center) from the former nation’s First Republic. And if you can wade through all the kitsch (read: uterus pillows) at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, you’ll find striking one-of-a-kind high-end items, such as onyx lamps ($2400, HMNS) hand-carved in Mexico. They may be disappointingly lamp-shaped, but they’ll cast a warm, inviting glow on that pillow.

More News

March 6, 2025

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) and the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) are pleased to co-present “Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other,”

January 25, 2025

Jessica Fuentes writes about a traveling exhibition that explores the role of art and design related to the experiences of menstruation, reproduction, childbearing, and caregiving.

December 18, 2024

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) announces its call for artists for the upcoming exhibition, “CraftTexas 2025,” the twelfth show in a long-running series of

December 17, 2024

May Howard reviews Designing Motherhood, a timely exhibition on the material history of human reproduction at Houston Center of Contemporary Craft, Houston. By May Howard

December 8, 2024

Surprise, delight, and discomfort are a few of the feelings you may experience upon entering Designing Motherhood, an ambitious, wide-ranging, but ultimately cohesive survey of

November 7, 2024

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to announce the opening of the free online application for the 2025 – 2026 Cycle (September 2025

4848 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is located in the Houston Museum District, two blocks south of Highway 59, near Rosedale St. Visitors should park in the free parking lot located directly behind the building, off Rosedale and Travis Streets, and enter through the back entrance. 

Free Admission

OPEN TUESDAY – SATURDAY, 10 AM – 5 PM

4848 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is located in the Houston Museum District, two blocks south of Highway 59, near Rosedale St. Visitors should park in the free parking lot located directly behind the building, off Rosedale and Travis Streets, and enter through the back entrance. 

Free Admission

OPEN TUESDAY – SATURDAY, 10 AM – 5 PM

Skip to content