San Antonio Museum of Art

Description:

• This attraction may not be top-listed by everyone, but I enjoy doable (read: not overwhelmingly large) museums with interesting architecture and collections related to the cities in which they're located. This one definitely fits the bill on all those counts. Several castlelike buildings of the 1904 Lone Star Brewery were gutted, connected, and transformed into a visually exciting exhibition space in 1981, which also offers terrific views of downtown from the multiwindowed crosswalk between the structures. Although holdings range from early Egyptian, Greek, Oceanic, and Asian to 19th- and 20th-century American, it's the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, opened in 1998, that is the jewel of the collection. This 30,000-square-foot wing hosts the most comprehensive collection of Latin American art in the United States, with pre-Columbian, folk, Spanish colonial, and contemporary works. You'll see everything here from magnificently ornate altarpieces to a whimsical Day of the Dead tableau. Computer stations add historical perspective to the collection, which is a nationwide resource for Latino culture. If any of this sounds appealing to you, allot at least 2 hours for your visit.

  The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing represents another major collection, the largest Asian art collection in Texas and one of the largest in the Southwest. To see everything, which I don't particularly recommend, would take more than 4 hours.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010