UTSA's Institute of Texan Cultures

Ages: All ages are welcome

Cost: Adults (13 and up), $7; Children (3 - 12), Seniors (65 and up), and Military (with ID), $4.

Major Exhibits: Texans One and All This exhibit showcases more than twenty of the original cultural groups who settled in Texas. Enjoy the sounds of a German oompah band. Learn Wendish wedding customs. Read the story of the Lebanese pack peddler. Write Chinese numbers. Hear the stories of Japanese American intern camp detainees. See the Czech polka. Hear the blowing of the Jewish shofar. Read the stories of black Texans including baseball player Frank Robinson and Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller. See how early Swedish Texans lived. Walk through today's Tejano story. Learn what Danish Texan sculpted Mount Rushmore. Guests will be entertained by hundreds of stories of Texas's earliest cultural contributors in this entertaining and interactive exhibit. Creation and Cosmos: American Indian Spirituality From the beginning of time, humans of all cultures have wondered about their origins and their place in the cosmos. This exhibit invites you to travel back in time to discover how our Indian ancestors interpreted their world. The ceramic vessels in this exhibit provide clues to illuminate our understanding of everyday life a millennia ago. The pots may allude to religious beliefs, practices, and cosmology-ideas about the world and its origin. Guests walk through dark caverns to see the world as these ancients saw it-to hear their voices and, on a deeper level, to apprehend how different their world experiences were from our own. Living Texas It's one thing to read about how Texas's earliest cultural contributors lived their lives-it's another to actually experience it! Living Texas features interpretive areas that offer guests a firsthand view of early settlers in action. Guests can talk to a ranchhand beside an authentic chuck wagon, witness the creation of thread on two spinning wheels, look inside an Indian tipi, send postcards at an old-style post office, and discuss quilting techniques with a team of experts as they design new quilts. Don't just read about it. Experience it as we bring early Texas lifestyles to life! The Back 40 The Back 40 is the museum's outdoor living history area, featuring buildings from Texas's early 19th century. Guests are invited to walk the grounds of the Back 40, where they will see a traditional one-room schoolhouse, a Hill Country-style barn, a two-room adobe house, a dogtrot-style log house, a Buffalo Soldier fort headquarters, and an Eclipse windmill.

Class Trip Pricing: Exhibit Floor $3 per student; Back 40 $2 per student

Class Trip Programs: Our team of educators can help you develop a field trip that meets the needs of your students. Please call our field trip reservation office at (210) 458-2291 for assistance

Notes:

UTSA's Institute of Texan Cultures is San Antonio's cultural experience museum! Our team develops exhibits, programs, and special events that encourage acceptance and appreciation of our differences as well as our common humanity. In short, we invite guests to live stories of Texas's diverse citizens and cultural contributors, and join in the celebration of Texas's multicultural heritage!