Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum is second only in size to it's counterpart in New York, and is the oldest art museum in Texas, having been chartered in 1892. It was initially conceptualised by a group of 25 women keen to make the town more than just a centre for cows and horses. The collection officially began in 1904 with the group's acquisition of George Innes' Approaching Storm,and five years later the museum had grown enough to host its first exhibition of 45 painings. From there the musuem continued to grow by leaps and bounds and became the impressive collection that it is today. The museum is housed in an eye-catching building, consisting of five long flat-roofed pavilions atop a 1.5-acre pond, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and opened to the public in 2002. The new space boast 53,000 square feet of gallery space and has a state-of-the-art auditorium attached to it. Performances and shows are regularly hosted in the auditorium. The museum's permanent collection of modern and contemporary paintings includes works by Picasso, Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg and Pollock, and is particularly strong on works in the Pop and Minimalist genres, as well as German art from the 1970's and 1980's. The museum also hosts visiting exhibitions and features a large sculpture collection. Altogether, the permanent collections on display in the museum amount to 3,000 works.

Address: 3200 Darnell Street, Fort Worth

E-mail: info@themodern.org

Website: www.themodern.org

Telephone: (817) 738 9215

Opening times: Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm (8pm Fridays, and 7pm on Tuesdays between September and November). Closed on Mondays and major holidays.

Admission: $10 (ages 13 and over); $4 (students with ID cards and seniors aged 65+); free for children under 12. Free admission on the first Sunday of every month, and half price on Wednesdays.