The TEA (Tenerife Espacio de las Artes) is Santa Cruz's contemporary art museum — a brutalist building designed by Herzog & de Meuron that houses permanent collections and international-caliber temporary exhibitions.
Good to know: Free admission on Sundays. Closed Mondays. The museum café, overlooking the interior garden, is one of the island's finest spots for a break.
Inaugurated in 2008, the TEA is an architectural masterpiece in its own right — raw concrete, plays of natural light, ramps that wind between levels. The building has won several European architecture awards.
The permanent collection is dedicated to surrealist artist Oscar Domínguez (born in Tenerife in 1906) and documentary photography from the 1930s-50s in the Canary Islands.
Domínguez Collection: Paintings, sculptures and objects by the most famous Canarian surrealist. His works sit alongside those of his contemporaries — Miró, Ernst, Picasso.
Photography: An exceptional collection of photographs documenting life in the Canary Islands in the 20th century.
Temporary exhibitions: Rotating every 3-4 months, featuring Spanish and international artists.