Austin Museum Of Art-Laguna Gloria
3809 W. 35th St.
512/458-8191.
Tues., Wed., Fri, Sat. 10-5, Thurs. 1-5, Sun. 12-5.
Set on a lush Lake Austin peninsula, this 1915 Mediterranean-style villa was once home to Clara Driscoll Servier, the savior of the Alamo. The museum showcases an expanding collection of 20th-century American paintings, sculpture, and photographs and hosts outside exhibits and family-focused art programs. An art school shares the beautiful setting. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Elisabet Ney Museum
304 E. 44th St
512/458-2255
Wed-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm
Bus: nos. 1 or 5
Free admission
This was the home and studio of German-born sculptor Elisabet Ney in the late 19th century. In the former loft and working area, visitors can view plaster replicas of many of her pieces. Ney created busts of Schopenhauer, Garibaldi, and Bismarck before she was commissioned to make models of Texas heroes Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston for an 1893 Chicago exposition. The studio also contains many of her marble portrait sculptures. William Jennings Bryan, Enrico Caruso, Jan Paderewski, and four Texas governors were among the many visitors to her Austin studio.

French Legation Museum
802 San Marcos
512/472-8180
Tours Tues-Sun 1-5pm
Go east on Seventh St., then turn left on San Marcos St.; the parking lot is behind the museum on Embassy and Ninth.
Bus: 4 stops nearby (at San Marcos and 7th.)
Admission charged. 5 and under free
The oldest residence still standing in Austin was built in 1841 for Count Alphonse Dubois de Saligny, France's representative to the newly formed Republic of Texas.
In the back of the house, considered the best example of French colonial-style architecture outside Louisiana, is a re-creation of the only known authentic Creole(early French) kitchen in the United States. A shop focuses on Texas history from the time of the republic to the present.

George Washington Carver Museum
1165 Angelina St
512/472-4089
Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri-Sat noon-5pm
Bus: 2 and 120
Free admission
The many contributions of Austin's African-American community are highlighted at this museum, the first one in Texas to be devoted to black history. Rotating exhibits of contemporary artwork share the space with photographs, videos, oral histories, and other artifacts from the community's past. Cultural events are often held here, too. The museum's collection is housed in the city's first public library building, opened in 1926 and moved to this site in 1933. The newer George Washington Carver branch of the public library is next door.

Governor's Mansion.
In an 1856 letter to his wife, the mansion's first resident, Governor Elisha M. Pease, described the view from the balcony, writing that all he saw were the recently constructed Capitol (which later burned), the Baptist church, open prairie all the way to the Colorado River, and a few head of cattle grazing on Congress Avenue. Every sitting governor since then has lived on the second floor, witnesses to the ever-changing views. The beautiful mansion is in the Greek Revival style, with keyhole molding and fluted Ionic columns in front. Free public tours are given every 20 minutes, 10-11:40 AM, weekdays, except state and federal holidays. 1010 Colorado St., 512/463-5516. Free. Weekdays 10-5.

Guadalupe Street. Known locally as "the Drag," this bustling area bordering the west side of the University of Texas campus is lined with record stores, trendy boutiques, and restaurants. It's a great place for window-shopping or people-watching.

Jack S. Blanton Museum Of Art.
A fragment of this museum's stellar collection is housed in two campus locations. The original Huntington space houses more than 12,000 drawings, etchings, and engravings, a mere fraction of which are displayed on the attic-like second floor. The main downstairs gallery features rotating exhibits of large sculptures, canvases and installations. The rest of the museum, in the August Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, showcases a world-class collection of Latin American art and antiquities as well as Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures. The Old Masters collection includes works from Ricci, Passeri, and del Piombo; the 20th Century collection includes works from Thomas Hart Benton, Franz Kline, and Marsden Hartley. 23rd and San Jacinto Sts., 512/471-7324. free. Mon., Tues, Wed., Fri. 9-5, Thurs. 9-9, weekends 1-5.

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library And Museum
The largest presidential library in the nation is on the grounds of The University of Texas. The building is the repository for all 45 million documents produced during the LBJ administration and contains many exhibits on Johnson's life, family, and presidential years, as well as information on the assassination of JFK. There's also an art gallery with changing exhibitions. 2313 Red River Rd., 512/916-5136. free. Daily 9-5.

MEXIC-ARTE Museum
419 Congress Ave
512/480-9373
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm; Sat 10am-5pm
Bus: Red 'Dillo
Admission charged.
The first organization in Austin to promote multicultural contemporary art when it was formed in 1983, MEXIC-ARTE has a small permanent collection of 20th-century Mexican art, including photographs from the Mexican revolution and a fascinating array of masks from the state of Guerrero. It's supplemented by visiting shows, including some from Mexico, such as a major retrospective of muralist Diego Rivera. The museum also programs an average of two music, theater, and performing arts events each month and runs mural tours to Mexico.

Neill-Cochran Museum House
2310 San Gabriel St.
512/478-2335
Wed-Sun 2-5pm; free 20-min. tours given
Bus: Yellow 'Dillo, UT shuttle
Admission charged., children under 10 free
Abner Cook, the architect-contractor responsible for the governor's mansion and many of Austin's other gracious Greek revival mansions, built this home in 1855. It bears his trademark portico with six Doric columns and a balustrade designed with crossed sheaves of wheat. Almost all its doors, windows, shutters, and hinges are original:which is rather astonishing when you consider that the house was used as the city's first Blind Institute in 1856 and then as a hospital for Union prisoners near the end of the Civil War. The beautifully maintained 18th- and 19th-century furnishings are interesting, but many people come just to see the painting of bluebonnets that helped convince legislators to designate these native blooms the state flower.

Texas Memorial Museum
2400 Trinity St University of Texas 512/471-1604 Web site Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm
Bus: no. 27
Free admission (donations appreciated)
During a whistle-stop visit to Austin in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt broke the ground for this museum, built to commemorate the centennial of Texas independence. Whatever your age, you'll probably remember going on a class trip to a place like this, with dioramas, stuffed animals, and other displays detailing the geology, anthropology, and natural history of your home state.

In addition to the requisite child-pleasing dinosaur displays (including footprints outside the building), three things make this museum well worth a visit: an intriguing exhibit on the history of firearms; the original zinc goddess of liberty that once sat on top of the capitol; and a good gift shop, with lots of ethnic crafts and educational toys.

Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum
605 Robert E. Lee Rd
512/445-5582
Wed-Fri 10am-4:30pm; Sat-Sun 1-4:30pm (Sat 10am-4:30pm June-Aug)
Bus: nos. 29 or 30
Admission charged, children 6 and under free
This is a very user-friendly museum, one for people who don't enjoy being cooped up in a stuffy, hushed space. An art instructor at the University of Texas for 40 years, Charles Umlauf donated his home, studio, and more than 250 pieces of artwork to the city of Austin, which maintains the lovely native garden where much of the sculpture is displayed. Umlauf, whose pieces reside in such places as the Smithsonian Institution and New York's Metropolitan Museum, worked in many media and styles. He also used a variety of models; you'll probably recognize the portrait of Umlauf's most famous UT student, Farrah Fawcett. With advance notice, the museum can arrange American Sign Language tours for the deaf and "touch tours" for the blind.

University of Texas Museums & Galleries
The LBJ Library on the University of Texas (UT) campus is a highlight of a visit to Austin. Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th president of the USA. A jovial native Texan, LBJ balanced the John F Kennedy campaign ticket with a southern political presence. Supported by Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, the museum contains information on the JFK presidency and assassination, the Bay of Pigs, Krushchev, the civil rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, and the Vietnam War. Upstairs, a new exhibit on Mexican Texans details pre-republic Texas life.

The Texas Memorial Museum
A building filled with displays of Texas' natural and social history. Exhibits focus on geology, paleontology, anthropology and natural history. There is even a pterodactyl skeleton.

The Archer M Huntington Gallery at UT
This is one art museum in two buildings: the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) on the West Campus and the Art Building on the East. The collection focuses on 20th century North American and Latin American art and on drawings from the 15th century forward.