Ready for a injection of art, education, and so much more?
Take a look at the exhibitions and collections offered by these Dallas-Fort Worth area museums and plan your own tour to visit these interesting and informative locations.
Click the county name to skip to museums in that area
Dallas Museum of Art
1717 North Harwood
Dallas, Texas 75201
Official Site
Current Exhibitions:
Encountering Space
Through Fall 2012 in the Center for Creative Connections
Artists change space. Just as artists make choices about how they use color, lines, and shapes, they also make choices about how they use space. As you move through this exhibition and view works of art from varying physical distances and perspectives, think about how the artists use space and give you a way into their art. Reflect on your responses to the spaces you encounter in art, as well as those you encounter in your everyday life.
Homeschool Class: Stories in Art
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, September 22 and 1 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Kick off the fall homeschool semester with special guest artist Ann Marie Newman. Ann Marie is the DMA's resident storyteller, working artist, and former homeschool mom! Immerse yourself in an interactive melodrama as Ann Marie tells stories and teaches students how to craft their own characters inspired by portraits in the Museum's collection. Students will have the chance to perform as their characters in the galleries! Members $5 per participating child/nonmembers $7 per participating child (ages 6 and up).
Opening Celebrations of Art in October
10:00 a.m. Saturday October 1, 2011
Dallas Arts District will kick off Art in October with Art in Motion — a public procession of artfully decorated bicycles, strollers and other human-powered vehicles. Other events over the weekend include a tour of the Dallas Arts District, painting workshops, stage performances, and film screenings. For more details on how you can participate please visit The Dallas Arts District website.
Dallas Museum of Nature and Science
3535 Grand Avenue and 1318 S. 2nd Avenue
Fair Park, Dallas, TX
Official Site
Current Exhibitions:
Bob the Builder™ - Project: Build It!
September 24, 2011 through January 8, 2012
Fun and learning are "under construction" in this exciting, interactive exhibit based on the hit television show! The exhibit fosters creativity and coordination through open-ended, discovery-based games and activities. An immersive environment surrounds students with
an array of objects, tools, materials, media, sounds and colors. This exhibit will really "build" curiosity, socialization and motor skills for preschoolers and young children!
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
411 Elm Street
Dallas, TX 75202
Official Site
John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation
On November 22, 1963, the Texas School Book Depository building was the focus of the world's shock, grief, and outrage when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza. John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation occupies the sixth floor where significant evidence of a sniper was found. This exhibition recreates the social and political context of the early 1960s, chronicles the assassination and its aftermath, and recognizes Kennedy's lasting impact on American culture.
Nasher Sculpture Center
2001 Flora Street
Dallas, TX 75201
Official Site
Current Exhibitions:
Tony Cragg: Seeing Things
September 10, 2011 through January 8, 2012
This is the first U.S. museum exhibition in nearly 20 years of the work of the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed artist. Featuring approximately 30 large- and moderately-scaled sculptures dating from 1993 to the present, the exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see
and better understand the artist's work since his last U.S. museum exhibition in the United States in 1990-92. Arrayed throughout the Nasher Sculpture Center, the exhibition will occupy much of the interior galleries and garden, as well as engage the public on the sidewalk in front
of the Nasher.
Sightings: Diana Al-Hadid
October 22, 2011 through January 15, 2012
The work of Syrian-born American artist Diana Al-Hadid is, in many ways, about architecture. Her sculptures often recall built structures—cathedrals, pipe organs, towers, labyrinths, cities—yet are made of simple, often delicate or fragile materials, such as polymer gypsum, plaster, fiberglass, wood, polystyrene, cardboard, wax, and paint, commonly found in art and industrial supply shops.
African American Museum
3536 Grand Avenue
Dallas, TX 75210
Official Site
Current Exhibitions:
Facing the Rising Sun: Freedman's Cemetery
Through December 30, 2011
Freedman's Cemetery (circa 1869 - 1925) represents the remnants of a once thriving North Dallas community, which from the end of the Civil War to the 1970's was the largest African American enclave in Dallas. This exhibition tells its story, using objects, photographs and multimedia presentations.
David Newton: Historic Moments and Timeless Monuments
Through October 29, 2011
Classically trained, Newton transforms mythlogical gods, biblical figures, ordinary African American people and forgotten historical moments into timeless public monuments. Influcenced by Greco-Roman sculpture, his three dimensional figurative forms are naturally posed and translate his classical nomenclature into a system to express the African American experience.
Dallas Holocaust Museum
211 N. Record St.
Suite 100 Dallas, TX 75202
Official Site
Current Exhibitions:
The Color of Memory: Art by Two Daughters of the Holocaust
September 9 through October 31, 2011
The exhibition consists of the work of two artists from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Julie Meetal and Veronique Jonas, whose paintings and sculptures embody the searing effect of the Holocaust on their families and on the Jews of Europe during World War II.
Old Red Museum
100 South Houston Street
Dallas, TX 75202
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
Rescuing Old Red: A Photographic Journey by Gail Nogle
Through October 30, 2011
In her exhibit, highly regarded photographer Gail Nogle documents the restoration of Old Red and represents the contribution that the Crystal Charity Ball made to restore Old Red to its original grandeur.
Frontiers of Flight Museum
6911 Lemmon Avenue
Dallas, TX 75235
Official Site
Embark on a memorable aviation journey - a tour of the Frontiers of Flight Museum. During your experience, you will bridge several lifetimes starting with the pioneers who realized their earliest dreams of flying; identifying with the aviators of the 20's and 30's, known as the "Golden Age of Flight"; understanding the sacrifices of the fliers of World War II; and progressing to the jet and rocket age of today.The museum features various aircraft from fighter jets like an F-16B to helicopters, small planes and commercial airliners.
Museum of the American Railroad
1105 Washington St.
Fair Park, Dallas, TX
Official Site
The facility shares with the public not just the heritage of trains … but also current and future trends in railroading. Educational exhibits, artistic programming and cultural events that honor railroading help visitors appreciate the beauty of that form of transportation. More than 30 pieces of historic railroad equipment are on display overall, making it one of the finest railroad museums in the southwestern United States. The museum also features a steam calliope and whistle display.
Meadows Museum
5900 Bishop
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75205
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan
September 11, 2011 through January 8, 2012
The exhibition represents the culmination of a six-year project that began in 2004 at the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago. The project’s aim was to research and “reconstruct” Xiangtangshan, a series of six-century Buddhist cave temples hollowed out from the living rock in a mountainous region in northeast China. A focal point of the exhibition is the
digital recreation of one of the largest cave temples of Xiangtangshan, by which visitors can better understand the architectural setting in its original context. The results of these efforts form the basis of this exhibition.
Ribera: 'Mary Magdalene' in a New Context
September 18 through January 15, 2012
The exhibit, featuring Jusepe de Ribera’s monumental portrait of Mary Magdalene from the collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain, is part of the museum’s multifaceted three-year partnership with the Prado, a collaboration that includes the organization of groundbreaking focused exhibitions centered on pivotal masterpieces on loan from the Prado, scholarly texts that will advance the understanding of Spanish art, and an internship exchange
between the two institutions. Though Ribera is known for his dark and startling works, often depicting scenes of horror, his representation of the Magdalene is tender, emphasizing the beauty and elegance of his subject.
The Many Lives of Mary Magdalene:
A Selection of Images from Bridwell Library Special Collections
September 18, 2011 through January 15, 2012
Accompanying the display of Ribera’s Magdalene, this exhibition will illuminate the stories surrounding Mary Magdalene, examining her pictorial narrative through the ages. Depicted by artists in these and other gospel scenes leading up to, and commemorating, the death and Resurrection of Christ, the iconography of the Magdalene was a reflection of the age in which her image was created.
Ten Years, Ten Works
November 6 2011 through january 15, 2012
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the inauguration of the Meadows Museum’s new home, the museum will host an installation featuring ten significant works of art acquired by the Meadows over the past ten years. This display will feature selections from their holding of portraits–a strength of the museum’s collection – such as Richard Worsam Meade by Vicente López y Portaña and King Charles II by Juan Carreño de Miranda. Nineteenth-century landscapes by artists such as Joaquín Sorolla and Aureliano de Beruete will also be included in the installation.
Women's Museum
3800 Parry Avenue
Dallas, TX 75226
Official Site
Petticoats and Slide Rules
Through November 3, 2011
This exhibit celebrates women in engineering, their struggles for equal rights, and their mission to introduce young women to a rewarding career. It also highlights the history of women engineers' evolving roles in American society and in the engineering profession. Vistors walk through the development of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the first American national engineering society dedicated to promoting women.
Crow Collection of Asian Art
2010 Flora Street
Dallas, TX 75201
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: South and Southeast Asia
Through January 8, 2012
In works of art from all around Asia--paintings, fans, sculpture, carvings for the hand, furniture
for the desk--rocks, jades, crystals, and corals-- journeys of many kinds are traced.
Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: East Asia
Through August 5, 2012
the exhibition Fabled Journeys in Asian Art will expand to include East Asia. Viewed as a companion exhibition to Fabled Journeys in Asian Art: South and Southeast Asia, which opened in January 2011 in Gallery 3, the East Asian complement draws on works of art from the Crow Collection with distinctive literary and cultural terrain. The first section of the East Asian portion of the exhibition presents selected paintings, carved jades, and porcelain sculpture inspired by Taoism, which developed in China. Another focus of the exhibition is journeys figured in images of women—with their own expressed balances of yin and yang. The third section of the exhibition features large ceramic horses and camels made for journeys into the afterlife in burial tombs.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
3200 Darnell Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series
Through January 15, 2012
The series is the most comprehensive show to date of Diebenkorn's most celebrated works. Featuring more than 75 paintings, prints, and drawings, spanning two decades—the largest selection ever on view together—this unprecedented project offers visitors the opportunity to
explore in-depth the complexity of Diebenkorn's artistic and aesthetic achievements within the Ocean Park series. By presenting works in various media, this exhibition presents a long-overdue opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of the series as never before possible, showing conclusively the variety, subtlety, and intricacy of the artist's practice.
Amon Carter Museum
3501 Camp Bowie Boulevard
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
The Allure of Paper: Watercolors and Drawings from the Collection
Through October 9, 2011
Organized in celebration of the Amon Carter’s 50th Anniversary, this special exhibition showcases more than 100 drawings and watercolors from the museum’s holdings. These one-of-a-kind works of art range in date from the early 19th century to the late 20th century and chronicle the sweeping changes that occurred in American art over the course of nearly 200 years. From portraiture and history painting to early modernism and abstraction, these objects represent the finest from the museum’s works-on-paper holdings. Artists represented in the exhibition include Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Ben Shahn and Joseph Stella.
Will Barnet: Relationships, Intimate and Abstract, 1935–1965
Through December 31, 2011
To mark the 100th birthday of pioneering printmaker, painter, and educator Will Barnet (b. 1911), this exhibition of nearly fifty works explores the momentous evolution of Barnet’s art from realism to abstraction during the middle decades of the twentieth century.
The First 50 Years
Through March 4, 2012
With fascinating images drawn from the museum’s extensive archives, The First 50 Years commemorates the first half century of one of Fort Worth’s leading art institutions.
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
1600 Gendy St.
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
9/11 Tribute Exhibit
Through November 6, 2011
The exhibit will tell stories of Fort Worthians who were inspired to do more for their community and their nation after the tragic events of 9/11. In the atrium of the museum, the echibit features the World Trade Center's largest artifact in Texas, comprised of three steel columns weighing 6,500 pounds and is 36 feet high by 6 feet wide by 3 feet thick. The massive beam, officially known as WTC 1, Column 133, floors 100-103 NIST Steel # N-101, Impact Steel by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is a full-façade panel that once supported the three floors (101-103) located two stories above the center of the impact zone of the North Tower.
National Cowgirl Museum
1600 Gendy St.
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Official Site
Current Exhibit:
No Glitz, No Glory
Through September 25, 2011
The West, and particularly Texas, thrives on individualism. And, by extension the way we dress ourselves has become a calling card for the west. Rhinestone chaps? Exaggerated fringe? Metallic boots? 12 foot trains and 40 pound dresses? Why, yes!
Heard Museum
1 Nature Place
McKinney, Texas 75069
Official Site
Current Exhibits:
Native Texas Butterfly House & Garden
Through September 30
Enjoy being immersed among native Texas fluttering butterflies in our butterfly house and butterfly garden. This is also a beautiful setting for pictures.
Have a favorite location you think we should know about? E-mail us here.
Information gathered from the official website for each organization. Exhibition dates, hours, and other information may change -- please see each location's site for additional information.
