Art lovers will have a new favorite destination in Texas this year when the final pieces of El Paso’s Downtown Arts District slot into place, bringing a cultural renaissance to a city worth a visit in its own right. El Paso is hoping to tap into the buzzy type of art tourism that Marfa attracts—and convince the glitterati and gallerists flying in from New York, Los Angeles, and Miami to take a detour from the car rental lot at the international airport to the city itself.
In recent years, El Paso has prioritized increasing arts access and community-facing programs to residents, including those across the border in Juarez, many of whom cross daily. The city even has an appointed director of Quality of Life who oversees cultural affairs and recreation. New museums like La Nube STEAM Discovery Center, designed by starchitect firm Snøhetta, and the Mexican American Cultural Center (which opens in March) embrace the region’s people, its border, and its creativity, providing El Pasoans a point of unity and pride in their city.
“This cultural explosion is nearly 15 years in the making,” says Edward Hayes, Jr., director of the El Paso Museum of Art, which is in the heart of the Arts District. Here are five reasons that art lovers—and really, any travelers—should spend a few days in El Paso in 2025.
The El Paso Museum of Art was founded in 1959.
Photo by Marisol Rios Campuzano/Shutterstock
El Paso Museum of Art
The El Paso Museum of Art features permanent collections of North American, European, and pre-Columbian art, but now it also places a large emphasis on contemporary work from the Southwest and Mexico. “The focus has been to transform the institution from the inside out, while still reflecting the community,” says Hayes.
A major part of this reflection is the Border Biennial, which will next be held in 2026. This unique binational exhibit will showcase the works of contemporary artists on both sides of the border—not just from Juarez and El Paso but also Tijuana, New Mexico, and California. The 2024 biennial, a collaboration with Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, garnered major national attention.
Hayes is also eager to close the gap between the city and its more famous neighbor to the southeast. “New ties are being formed between Marfa and El Paso arts communities and patrons,” he says. In fact, the museum received its first minimalist work in 2024, an aluminum sculpture by Dutch artist Cecilia Vissers, which was donated by the estate of longtime Marfa-resident Lineaus Hooper Lorette. “To engage the visitor who comes to see minimalism in the desert, we should have complementary exhibitions,” Hayes notes.
Leo Villareal’s Star Ceiling (El Paso) features 14,580 LEDs.
Jorge Salgado/ Salgado Photo/Courtesy of the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation
A major draw for El Paso is Star Ceiling (El Paso), a new work from artist Leo Villareal that is both a twinkling urban canopy and dramatic entry to the museum. “If you are traveling to Marfa and are aware that there is a Villareal along the way, you will stop,” says Hayes, who recommends timing your visit at dusk to really appreciate the work. Villareal, who grew up in El Paso–Juarez, says his light-based work is partly inspired by his childhood observing the night sky over the desert. (His Illuminated River in London showcases his light technology on nine bridges across the Thames and is the longest public artwork in the world.) “I’ve often considered my pieces to be digital campfires that people gather around, where we can create community and togetherness,” he says. “I hope that this artwork will invite and inspire more people to come and visit.”
La Nube
This striking STEAM museum opened in 2024 and was designed by famed Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta (whose managing director, Elaine Molinar, is from El Paso) to look like a cloud. (Nube is Spanish for cloud.) Its white curves and misting fountains outside add something otherworldly to the earthy, adobe colors surrounding it, while the interiors are designed to reveal amazing displays as visitors make their way through the museum, floor by floor. Exhibits in La Nube lean into Southwest and Mexican motifs, such as life-size wooden models of native foxes and desert cats, while also using cutting-edge sonic, robotic, and digital technologies in its hands-on lab spaces.
The Mexican American Cultural Center
When it opens on March 22, the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) will celebrate a city that’s nearly 80 percent Hispanic. Designed by El Paso architecture firm Exigo, the center’s horizontal terra-cotta panels and bronze facade create a harmonious relationship with the neighboring El Paso Museum of History. The opening exhibit ¡Es Hora! / ¡It’s Time! features Mexican American art from 1960 to now, and the center contains a state-of-the-art auditorium and black-box theater for live events, as well as recording studios and a rooftop lounge. “It will be a living laboratory and a place to discover your heritage,” says Rebecca Muñoz, director of MACC. “Our mission doesn’t change in this political atmosphere. Chicano art is American art, Mexican Americans are Americans. We can show a counter narrative about the border that is different from what people see in the news.”
The Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens
Located on the University of Texas at El Paso campus, the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens is a natural history museum showcasing native flora, fauna, and geology of the Chihuahuan Desert, along with Native American artifacts and armor of the Conquistadors. In the desert garden outside the museum, follow the narrow paths past Indian ricegrass and bishop’s cap, which reveal their frail beauty under the bright sun. Yellow blossoms on little-leaf green-twig shrubs attract local bees, and butterflies flutter in a mad dance around sprays of blue mistflower.
The Rubin Center for Visual Arts
Across campus, the Rubin Center for Visual Arts is a contemporary art gallery that celebrates a diversity of perspectives with rotating exhibitions, large installations, and experimental projects. The current Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue exhibit brings together art and artists from agricultural regions across Central America and North America, including the fields of Nicaragua and Great Plains states like Kansas. This compelling show runs until April 2025 and will then travel to other university museums in Massachusetts and Illinois.
Rooms at the Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park in El Paso offer views of the San Jacinto Plaza or the Franklin Mountains.
Photo by James Baigrie
Where to stay
The Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park was one of Conrad Hilton’s first hotels and played host to Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean in 1956 during the filming of Giant. It was built in the pueblo deco style in 1930, and its painted wood beams and sandstone detailing have been carefully restored. Original artwork fills the lobbies, library, and hallways, and guest rooms are done up in restful grays and taupes with amber and brass accents. Next year, the Plaza’s owner will open a luxury day spa, gourmet food hall, and private rooftop with an alfresco cinema in a historic building across the street.
