Austin Museum Day: Exploring Austin's Treasures with Kids

Austin's Bob Bullock Museum

This Sunday, September 22nd, is Austin's Annual Museum Day, a free, citywide discovery of museums in the area. I pulled up the list of participating museums and realized I had not heard of half of these museums. It looks like some are open just for this special day and are otherwise closed to the public.

Here are some of our family's favorite museums to visit with kids:

• Texas Memorial Museum (this museum always reminds me of the 1970s; maybe it is all those dioramas lining the walls; it isn't the American Museum of Natural History or the Exploratorium by any means, but it's our only science museum for kids in the city so we'll keep happily visiting it)
• Blanton Museum (offers several wonderful kids' programs)
• Children's Museum (soon to re-open as the Thinkery)
• Umlauf Sculpture Garden
• Mexic-Arte Museum
• LBJ Presidential Library (actually, I have been there but have not taken my kids yet; it is on our list!)
• Lady Bird Wildflower Center
• The Contemporary Austin

And here are some museums on the Museum Day list that I have never heard of before but am interested in checking out on Sunday with my kids:

• Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (not usually open to the public)
• Texas Archive of the Moving Image (open to the public on Museum Day or by appointment)
• Austin Fire Museum (open to the public two times a year)
• Goodwill Computer Museum (to be able to show my kids' what I typed on in college)

2013 Austin Museum Day: List of Participating Museums

• Austin Fire Museum
• Austin History Center
• Austin Tour Guide Association
• Blanton Museum of Art
• Briscoe Center for American History
• Bullock Texas State History Museum
• Capitol Visitors Center
• City of Austin Cultural Arts Division
• Elisabet Ney Museum
• French Legation Museum
• George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center
• German-Texan Heritage Society
• Goodwill Computer Museum
• Harry Ransom Center
• Humanities Texas
• Immediatag
• Joseph & Susanna Dickinson Hannig Museum
• Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
• Landmarks Public Art Program
• LBJ Presidential Library
• Mexic-Arte Museum
• Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording

• Neill-Cochran House Museum
• O. Henry Museum
• Old Bakery & Emporium
• Pump Project
• Republic of Texas Museum
• Save Austin's Cemeteries
• Texas Archive of the Moving Image
• Texas Department of Public Safety Historical Museum and Research Center
• Texas Governor's Mansion
• Texas Medical Association History of Medicine Gallery
• Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural Science Center
• Texas Military Forces Museum
• Texas Music Museum
• Texas State Capitol
• The Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center
• The Contemporary Austin
• The Thinkery
• Tiny Park
• Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum
• Visual Arts Center
• Williamson Museum
• Women & Their Work