Sawyer Yards & the Washington Arts District Studios

Just northwest of downtown, a cluster of old rice silos and repurposed factory buildings has become one of the largest concentrations of working-artist studios anywhere in the country. This is Sawyer Yards, the anchor of Houston's Washington Avenue Arts District, where more than four hundred painters, ceramicists, glassblowers, photographers, and mixed-media makers keep studios inside brick warehouses that once packed furniture and stored grain. On this walk you'll thread between Winter Street, Silver Street, and the towering rice silos, stopping at the galleries and open studio doors that make the campus feel alive on any given afternoon. Many artists work with their doors open, so treat the whole route as one long, wandering gallery. Come on a weekend or during a Second Saturday open-studios event and you'll catch the campus at its busiest. Wear flat shoes — the ground is old industrial concrete and gravel.