Group Visits and Tours

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) welcomes groups to the Museum’s collections and exhibitions. Discounts (折扣) for self-guided group visits and expert-guided group tours are there for those who book 10 or more tickets.

From the great art collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston—with objects crossing the world and human creative history—to the ever-changing schedule of thematic exhibitions, the Museum offers a lot of tour topics to suit your interests. Visit as a self-guided group, and you and your guests can explore at your own pace. For a deeper exploration into the galleries, request (要求) an expert-guided tour.

Policy

The Museum offers tours and packages to groups of 10 or more for the Museum’s collections and selected exhibitions. Membership benefits and free individual admission may not be used at the same time with school or group visits. Tours led by guides who don’t work in the Museum are not allowed; please contact groupsales@mfah.org in advance of your visit for all tour requests.

Reservations

For price information, contact groupsales@mfah.org or 713-639-7878. To make a reservation (预定) request, complete the group visit request form. At least one-week advance notice is needed for self-guided visits and two weeks for expert-guided tours. Reservations are confirmed with an order number and decided by advance payment.

Looking for school tours? Find information here or email schooltours@mfah.org with your questions.

Main address: 1001 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas 77005

MFAH Information Line: 713-639-7300

As Eline reached the top of Mount Langley, a 14,000-foot mountain in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada, she could feel the soft sand under her feet and hear the enveloping silence of the wonderful mountain. But she couldn’t see a thing.

Born almost completely blind, Eline is among a growing number of outdoor adventure athletes who refused to let disabilities reduce them to onlookers. She had a strong desire to take part in outdoor activities when she was very young. Unfortunately, her early efforts to fit in with the other kids didn’t go well. While she experienced countless failures, she faced up to them.

When it comes to her final success in outdoor sports, it is all credited to her doctor who is an expert in instructing blind runners. Impressed by Eline’s love for adventure, the doctor recommended her to join a half-marathon. Eline had never run more than 4 or 5 miles at that point. She worried about making a fool of herself or wasting her doctor’s time. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “If we have to walk the last few miles, it’s no big deal.”

Eline ran every step of that race and won her division. It was her first taste of athletic success and a turning point. Since then, she has traveled the globe, blowing away most of her visually impaired (视觉障碍的) competition in 47 marathons, from New York to Athens to Barcelona. In 2015, she won her division in the Boston Marathon, one of the most celebrated and competitive races in the world.

Marathons had become sort of Eline’s routine, but climbing a 14,000-foot mountain was so wildly out of her comfort zone that it brought back the butterflies she felt in her stomach before that first half-marathon more than a decade ago. Now, she made it. The change was just as meaningful. “Life can be scary, but fear doesn’t help,” she said. “Being blind creates hardships other athletes don’t face, but it also brings out extraordinary grace and generosity (大方).”

It’s common for people to have the idea, believing that happiness will come after reaching certain goals. This can include things like getting a promotion, finding a romantic partner, or reaching a certain level of life success. While these achievements can certainly bring some happiness, this way of thinking can lead to an endless cycle of waiting for the next thing to bring happiness.

The truth is that happiness should not be dependent on material achievements but rather a choice we make in each moment. By linking happiness with outside factors, we often lose sight of the present moment and miss the joy that can be found in everyday experiences. It’s important to realize that happiness is not something that can be achieved in the future, but rather a state of mind that we can keep at present. By being present, we can appreciate the simple pleasures in life, like the warmth of the sun on our skin, the laughter of loved ones, or the taste of a delicious meal.

Life is indeed filled with challenges, which are an important part of our journey towards personal growth. They often push us out of our comfort zones and force us to think creatively and find new solutions, providing us with opportunities to learn, get valuable experience and discover our inner strength. By embracing these opportunities to learn, we can grow and become better equipped to handle future challenges instead of always waiting for the perfect moment or for all our problems to be solved before allowing ourselves to be happy. When we understand that challenges are not difficulties to our happiness but rather opportunities for growth and learning, we can appreciate the present moment and find happiness regardless of the situations.

Rather than waiting for future events to bring happiness, it’s better to accept the present and find joy and contentment in the journey itself. Let’s grasp the opportunity and embrace the joy that is within our reach. Time waits for no one, so why wait to be happy?

Traditionally, the number of meaningful social relationships one can keep is around 150. This concept finds its roots in the natural development of the human brain. However, in the digital age, where our social connections extend far beyond the geographical boundaries (界限), we easily create more connections with the help of the rising online platforms. Then, a question arises: Does the digital age rewrite the rules of social connection?

A study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking explored the effect of social media usage on the size of social circles and the closeness of relationships. The researchers found that more time spent on social media made for a larger number of online “friends,” but not a larger number of offline friends. Further, the findings were not linked to feelings of closeness towards online or offline friends.

Another study from the European Journal of Information Systems studied the link between social media usage and “social overload” — the feeling that too much of the energy for socializing is being used up by online relationships. The authors found that social media usage directly contributed to the experience of social overload, related to digital tiredness and dissatisfaction with social media.

With social media platforms rising, one’s ability to connect with people challenges the traditional concept. The brain, used to manage a limited number of relationships, now fights against the difficulties of dealing with a large number of digital connections, leading to a less attention and feeling investment (投入) in a relationship. And the online shallow connections can not develop meaningful, lasting relationships that stand the test of digital distance.

Therefore, in the digital age’s social whirlwind, instead of drowning (淹没) in a sea of weak interaction (互动), choose to engage in meaningful conversations and focus on the handful of relationships that truly fit your heart. Hug the beauty of face-to-face connections, allowing the richness of human interaction to flower beyond the digital world. By doing so, we create digital and physical spaces that truly improve our well-being.

Do You Have a Positive Attitude?

Who would you rather hang around with? Someone who always acts in low spirits? Or someone who manages to see the good around him, even when things aren’t always going great?     16    

Having a positive attitude can help you in many ways.     17     Your friends will definitely appreciate you more if you see the silver lining rather than just the dark clouds!

    18     The less pressure you feel, the better you will feel overall. So if you’ve been feeling tired, put on a happy face and you just might feel better soon.

But how can you have a positive attitude when life is hard? It’s more than just turning life’s lemons into lemonade.     19     But it’s worth it.

A positive attitude doesn’t mean ignoring life’s troubles. It just means looking for the good in things, rather than being a pessimist and concentrating on the bad in things. Sometimes your attitude can make all the difference.

Identify (识别) those areas of your life that might not be going so well.     20     Focus on one at a time and think of ways you can find the positive in things.

It was a September day. Today was the first day of high school for a freshman, Kayla. Kayla had always been a bit of a shy kid, but she had always ________ her studies. She was determined to make full use of her high school years.

As she walked down the hallways, Kayla couldn’t help but feel ________. The older students seemed so confident, while she felt small and unimportant. But Kayla was determined to succeed, no matter what ________ came her way.

It wasn’t long before Kayla’s determination was put to the ________. In her first week of school, she was assigned (分派) a(n) ________ project that required a lot of research and planning. Kayla did her ________, but she soon realized that she was in over her head. As she struggled (努力) to complete the project, Kayla began to ________ herself. She wondered if she was cut out for high school. But then, something ________ happened.

Kayla’s classmates began to notice how ________ she was working, and they started to offer her help and ________. They gave her advice on how to ________ her time better, and they shared their tips for ________ assignments. With their help, Kayla was able to complete the project on time and with great ________.

From that day on, Kayla ________ that high school was not a challenge to be faced alone. With the help and support of her ________, she was able to deal with any difficulty that came her way.

Nanjing is a city that has played an important role in Chinese history for thousands of years. Nanjing     36     (name) the capital city first in 229 AD during the Three Kingdoms period. It has been a capital city many times. It’s a place that is relatively unknown     37     foreigners yet very popular with local tourists.

When Dave and I got the chance     38     (travel) to it, we jumped at it. We hadn’t known anything about Nanjing before going, but hearing that it was a popular destination from Shanghai, we were excited to explore it. It turns out that Nanjing is one of our favourite     39     (place) to visit in China.

We first went to Nanjing Niushoushan Cultural Park. A trolley (电车) took us to the top of the mountain     40     we could view the immaculate (圣洁的) Buddhist Palace that was built into the side of the mountain.     41     (open) in 2015, it is an example that proves the traditional and the modern can co-exist.

But soon we     42     (realize) that a real treat was inside the palace when we took the escalator (自动扶梯) 6 stories underground to see the Thousand-Buddha Hall. With a height of 28 metres, the golden hall is     43     (impress).

We highly recommend     44     (take) a full day to explore the Niushoushan Cultural Park to visit all the sites on the mountains. And do remember visiting the Usnisa Palace is     45     must.