The Best Museums in America That Aren't in New York

New York's museum density is unmatched, but some of America's most essential cultural institutions are in cities that don't get the same attention. These museums are worth building a trip around, and several of them offer experiences that nothing in Manhattan can replicate.

The Menil Collection in Houston is free, uncrowded, and houses one of the finest private art collections ever assembled. The Renzo Piano-designed building is a masterpiece of natural light architecture. Inside, you'll find Rothko, Magritte, Warhol, and an entire chapel designed by Mark Rothko nearby.

The Menil is a campus rather than a building, which is why it deserves a full day. Within a few streets sit the main collection, the Cy Twombly Gallery, the Menil Drawing Institute and Dan Flavin's permanent installation in Richmond Hall. The Rothko Chapel, an octagonal room holding fourteen of his darkest canvases, is a short walk away and was rebuilt in 2020 to restore the natural light he wanted. All of it stands in a residential neighbourhood of bungalows painted the same soft grey by the de Menils.

The Art Institute of Chicago holds one of the world's greatest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte and Grant Wood's American Gothic live here. The modern wing connects to Millennium Park and houses contemporary work rivaling anything in New York.

Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts converted a 19th-century factory complex into one of the largest contemporary art centers in the world. The sheer scale allows for installations that no conventional museum could accommodate. James Turrell's permanent light installations alone justify the drive.

Mass MoCA occupies 26 buildings of a former electronics plant in a mill town, and the Sol LeWitt retrospective alone fills three floors of one of them: 105 wall drawings installed in 2008 and staying up for 25 years, painted by teams following his written instructions. Building 5 is roughly the length of a football pitch. Allow four hours rather than two, and check the calendar, because the campus also hosts Wilco's Solid Sound festival and a working performance programme.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas was founded by Walmart heir Alice Walton and features a stunning Moshe Safdie-designed building set into the Ozark landscape. The collection spans colonial to contemporary American art. Admission is free.

Other essential visits include the Getty Center in Los Angeles for its architecture and garden, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth for Louis Kahn's most beautiful building, and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis for Tadao Ando's meditative concrete galleries.

Several of these cost nothing. Crystal Bridges and the Kimbell both give free entry to their permanent collections, the Getty charges only for parking at about $25, and the Menil is free every day it opens. The Art Institute is the outlier at over $30 for an out-of-state adult. Check opening days before booking flights, because most of these close on a Monday or Tuesday, and Crystal Bridges sits half an hour from a small regional airport in a town better known for its mountain-bike trails.

https://www.menil.org/