For many gay and lesbian travelers, a city's arts scene ranks right up there with night life, scenic beauty, or dining when it comes to deciding where to plan a vacation. Devotees of certain artists, for instance, have been known to drop everything and fly to some faraway land to catch the latest Picasso or Caravaggio exhibition.

With that in mind, here is a sampling of some of the many stellar museums across the United States, many of them with strong thematic ties to the lesbian and gay community. Gay interest aside, these are all museums that any devotee of visual-especially contemporary-art would enjoy visiting.

Amon Carter Museum, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth

Dallas may draw the bulk of the visitors to north central Texas, but some of the world's top art museums are found in the neighboring self-described "cow town" of Fort Worth. First, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which in mid-December will move into a new 153,000-square-foot space designed by Tadao Ando, has one of the nation's top contemporary collections. You will find major works by Mark Rothko, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney, among many others. Next, the Amon Carter Museum, whose photography collection includes works by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Laura Gilpin, is a shutterbug's dream. Also note the many fine Western bronzes and paintings, including the Thomas Eakins painting Swimming-controversial in its day for a somewhat homoerotic depiction of young nude men frolicking in a lake. This museum underwent a dramatic expansion designed by gay architectural wonder Philip Johnson, which was completed in 2001 and tripled the size of the original facility. When in Fort Worth, also be certain to visit the definitive Louis Kahn-designed Kimbell Art Museum, an exceptional collection best-known for its famous Caravaggio work, The Cardsharps, plus creations by El Greco, Goya, and Rembrandt.

The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh

Although the setting for the American version of "Queer As Folk," Pittsburgh seems the unlikely home of a museum that celebrates one of the most cutting-edge and gay-identified artists. But the stellar Andy Warhol Museum, which celebrates the life of the late pop art icon who grew up in nearby Oakland, is a major attraction in this industrial city. The museum occupies a dramatic 1911 building, which was orginally a steel supply warehouse. The 3,000 works here range from the expected Campbell Soup cans to numerous earlier sketches and drawings as well as Warhol's time capsules-boxes in which he stuffed daily receipts, notes, lists, and other minutiae. This engaging and often very funny museum contains abundant commentary on Warhol's life and his homosexuality.

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Anchoring Grant Park is one of the world's great repositories of creative endeavor, the Art Institute of Chicago. The 300,000-piece collection spans more than 40 centuries and includes the most impressive display of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works outside of the Louvre, as well as such iconic works as American Gothic by Grant Wood (long the subject of gay rumors), Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed. The highlights go on and on, but in this city of famous skyscrapers you shouldn't miss the Graham Study Center, which contains some 130,000 architectural sketches and drawings. And the museum's mesmerizing photography collection includes a significant chunk of Alfred Stieglitz's works (donated after his death by his widow, Georgia O'Keeffe) and a hauntingly evocative contemporary shot of Provincetown by Joel Meyerowitz.

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore

Adjacent to the leafy campus of Johns Hopkins University, the Baltimore Museum of Art contains a varied and impressive survey of works spanning several centuries and continents. A few thousand of the museum's holdings were donated by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone, two unmarried sisters who with help from their friend (and sometime lover of Etta) Gertrude Stein collected works by Henri Matisse (500 of them), Picasso, Gauguin, and similar luminaries. Interestingly, this is not the only important Baltimore institution that owes much of its success to a pair of prominent women: The esteemed Johns Hopkins medical school was begun with funding from Mary Elizabeth Garrett, who raised the necessary half million dollars to open the school with her lover, Ms. M. Carey Thomas. More than $300,000 came from Garrett herself, with the proviso that Johns Hopkins admit women on the same terms that it admitted men (an almost scandalous notion at the time). Garrett went on to fund and help found the prestigious Bryn Mawr School for girls and Bryn Mawr College.

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley

Fans of the avant-garde and the experimental have long lauded this fine arts and film venue at the left-leaning University of California Berkeley. The museum earned notoriety in 1995 for its exceptional and provocative exhibition In a Different Light, which explored the gay and lesbian experience through an extensive and eclectic display of 20th-century artworks. Since that time, the museum has continued to present acclaimed rotating shows, including many with gay relevance (such as Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane a couple of years ago). Look to the Film Archive as well to host the kinds of events and lectures that challenge conventions. And keep in mind the museum's 7,000-piece permanent collection, which includes an unrivaled trove of paintings by Hans Hofmann, numerous French Impressionist works, and a superb assemblage of Asian art.

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

Opened in summer 1997 near the historic Plaza in the artistically rich city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this museum traces the life of the bisexual artist, who resided during the last half of her life in the village of Abiquiu, about 50 miles to the northwest. This is a relatively small facility, with nine galleries displaying various works from a permanent collection of about 135 paintings and sculptures. Sometimes criticized for providing relatively little biographical information on O'Keeffe or context on the works shown, the O'Keeffe is nevertheless a must for any fan of the artist, and it presents some excellent rotating exhibits that bring in many works you won't see anywhere else.

The Guggenheim, New York City

In a city containing some of the world's top museums, the Guggenheim has always been an exceptional venue for modern and contemporary-and often provocative-painting, photography, and other fine arts. Solomon R. Guggenheim founded the museum in 1937 with the specific aim of showcasing abstract painting. Of particular gay interest are works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and the tremendous collection of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs (a gallery that bears his name presents rotating exhibitions of his pictures). And should you happen to find yourself traveling abroad, of course don't miss the Guggenheim Bilbao near Barcelona, Spain; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy; the Deutche Guggenheim in Berlin; and the GuggenheimHermitage in Las Vegas.

Museum of Contemporary Art and the Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles

While it has been said, quite accurately, that downtown Los Angeles lacks soul, it does possess the vaunted Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), which has amassed a greater collection in its 63-year existence than many museums have in several centuries. Holdings include works by such diverse artists as Cindy Sherman, Jackson Pollock, Susan Rothenberg, and Frank Stella. Nearby MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary (named in 1996 for gay media magnate David Geffen, a huge benefactor) presents cutting-edge rotating modern-art exhibitions. Finally, right in the heart of gay West Hollywood, smaller shows are mounted at the MOCA Gallery at the Pacific Design Center.

National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

A short walk north of the Mall is the outstanding National Museum of Women in the Arts, begun in the early '60s by arts patrons Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Wallace F. Holladay, who sought to rectify the distinct lack of art by women in most museum collections. Their ambitious efforts resulted in the present-day museum in 1987, which today includes works by such prominent female artists as Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Elaine de Kooning, and Judy Chicago. Rotating exhibitions are held throughout the year, and an extensive library and research center help further the museum's mission of recognizing the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities. While in Washington, consider also paying a visit to the estimable Phillips Collection, the first permanent museum of modern art in the United States. Artists represented in the collection include gay masters David Hockney, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, and David Hare.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

This imposing museum, with front steps made famous in the movie Rocky, is wonderful for several reasons: its contemporary collection, with many works by Picasso, Braque, and Matisse as well as a number of post-World War II artists; its outstanding Marcel Duchamp collection, which includes renditions of his Nude Descending a Staircase (the nude, people often overlook, is male); and a fine collection of photos and paintings of virile young men crewing and boating on the nearby Schuylkill River by local artist (and bisexual) Thomas Eakins. If you get a chance, do as Eakins used to do and make the short trip across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Camden, New Jersey, to the former home (now a museum) of the artists' close and kindred spirit, poet Walt Whitman.

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

As much as any city in the Midwest, Minneapolis consciously embraces the daring, the emerging, the unexpected, and the innovative. Nowhere is this sensibility more evident than at the Walker Art Center, which has earned a reputation for presenting both the visual and performance works of both acclaimed and up-and-coming artists. You'll find paintings and sculpture by Marcel Duchamp, Sherrie Levine, and Jasper Johns gracing the permanent collection, but you might also catch a movement workshop by Bill T. Jones or a performance by the Urban Bush Women. And just outside the museum, you can traipse through the 11 landscaped acres that comprise the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. In fact, with one of the nation's leading theater districts, a bevy of slick galleries and design shops, the Leviathan Minneapolis Institute of Arts, St. Paul's Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Walker, the Twin Cities collectively offer one of the most impressive cultural arts scenes in North America.

Andrew Collins authored the Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA and six regional gay guides for Fodor's. He can be reached at GayFodors@aol.com. For more Out of Town, visit www.gaytravel.com.

The Little Black Book

Amon Carter Museum. 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, 817-738-1933, www.cartermuseum.org

Andy Warhol Museum. 117 Sandusky St., Pittsburgh, 412-237-8300, www.warhol.org.

Art Institute of Chicago. S. Michigan Ave. at Adams St., Chicago, 312-443-3600, www.artic.edu

Baltimore Museum of Art. N. Charles and 31st Sts., Baltimore, 410-396-7100, www.artbma.org

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, 510-642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. 217 Johnson St., Santa Fe, 505-946-1000, www.okeeffemuseum.org

Guggenheim Museum. 1071 5th Ave., New York, 212-423-3500, www.guggenheim.org

Kimbell Art Museum. 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, 817-332-8451, www.kimbellart.org

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. 1309 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, 817-738-9215, www.mamfw.org

Museum of Contemporary Art. 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles, 213-626-6222, www.moca.org ;MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary. 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo section of downtown Los Angeles, 213-484-3350; MOCA Gallery at the Pacific Design Center. 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, 213-621-2766

National Museum of Women in the Arts. 1250 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 202-783-5000, www.nmwa.org

Philadelphia Museum of Art. 26th St. and Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., Philadelphia, 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org

Phillips Collection. 1600-1612 21st St. NW, Washington, DC, 202-387-2151, www.phillipscollection.org

Walker Art Center. Vineland Place at Lyndale Ave. S, Minneapolis, 612-375-7622, www.walkerart.org