Doing Dallas: Arts and cultural attractions

Dallas is filled with small and large delights.

Fair Park

Once a year Fair Park explodes with people when the it hosts the Texas State Fair. But it rocks the rest of the year as well.

Built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial Exposition, Fair Park contains the world’s largest collection of Art Deco exhibit buildings, art and sculpture. These buildings have become home to African-American Museum, Museum of the American Railroad, the Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park, and Texas Discovery Gardens. Although not open during the year, it’s easy to spot the Eye of Texas, the giant Ferris wheel.

Also at Fair Park is the Museum of Nature & Science, the melding of three cultural institutions—the Dallas Museum of Natural History, The Science Place, and the Dallas Children’s Museum, plus TI Founders IMAX® Theater. With so much going on, an expansion is planned. However, the Fair Park location will remain open to supplement the new building in Victory Park area.

Fair Park is also home to The Women’s Museum in a 70,000 square foot building with soaring interior spaces, and galleries. It focuses less on artifacts (although there are surely fascinating objects) and more on stories and lives, the stories of women who fought to change the world, break barriers, or simply pursued their dreams, wherever those dreams might lead. See the Focus On Dallas articles above.

There’s more than enough for a full day a Fair Park, in fact, several days. Since there’s a restaurant on site, including the Old Mill Inn, built as a flour mill for the 1936 Exposition, there should be no problem exploring. And next time, I’m going to make sure I visit the Museum of the American Railroad.

Arts Abound

The Arts District is indeed the home for much of the Arts within the city. The AT&T Performing Arts Center makes the area a powerhouse, providing a state-of-the-art home for many of the city’s performing arts organizations. Opera, theater, dance, ballet, and more have space in the innovative center. Particularly noteworthy is the innovative designs for the buildings and the 10 acre public park landscaped trees, lawns, and gardens.

Of course, the Dallas Arts District is already a special place for cultural activities. The Dallas Museum of Art has been there since 1983. The Nasher Sculpture Center is the collection of Raymond and Patsy Nasher who had some of pieces of the collection gracing their home. One photo showed the plaster cast of The Kiss by Constantin Brancusi sitting serenely on their dining room table.

Besides the indoor galleries, there’s a large landscaped sculpture garden - combining the human-fashioned art with the nature-made beauty. Make sure you pick up a copy of the map and guide to the outdoor sculpture.

Scenes of Dallas

The Nasher family has been a major patron of the arts and pieces from their collection can be found in their NorthPark Center.

The Trammel & Margaret Crow collections

Walk over to The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art adjacent to the Trammell Crow Center, both contain pieces from the family’s art collection. The Asian Art collection is particularly fine with rotating exhibits, but the space also exudes a sense of peace and tranquility. It is also free, as are all the tours, offered every Thursday at 6:30 pm, and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. There is now no reason to forgo experiencing this rich treasure. A free, guided tour of the Trammell Crow European Sculpture Garden is also offered every Sunday at 1:00 p.m. All tours begin in the lobby of the museum. It’s a wonderful example of art in public spaces and enriches all of us.

NorthPark Shopping Center

Sure, it’s a shopping center complete with 2.4 million square feet (including a 2006 $250 million expansion), making it the largest shopping center in North Texas. But it also has art. In fact, some of the finest artists in the country are included. Art hangs on the walls, stands in the intersections, and dominates the plazas. Stroll among the stores and see sculptures by Mark di Suvero, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Antony Gormley Walk outside and see the work of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

Yes, you can certainly shop at Northpark but you can also have a delicious dinner, wander through the art, sit outside and sip a coffee. No matter how you look at it, Northpark is a winner. Pick up a guide for an Art Walking Tour at the management office.

Frontiers of Flight

The Frontiers of Flight Museum is located at Dallas Love Field and is fascinating for adults and children. They are very proud of their Space Exploration Gallery. The highlight is the actual Apollo 7 Command Module, on loan from the Smithsonian. It’s hard to imagine how difficult it must have been to survive that 10-day flight in October of 1968 unless you can look inside and see the three seats where Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham sat knee and shoulder next to one another in a tiny, claustrophobic capsule – day after day.

Dining

The first thing to know is that Tex-Mex is alive and well. At Mi Cocina in the West Village, the margaritas are delicious and the food excellent. It’s part of a chain of Mi Cocinas around the city, so you won’t have to travel far to enjoy the drinks and lunch or dinner. The Tacos “De Brisket” was unique and delicious – four corn tortillas with shredded brisket (oven roasted overnight).

The Bishop Arts district boasts many fine places, including Bolsa. Located in a former garage, it maintains a bit of an industrial charm. Owner Christopher Zielke explained the philosophy of the restaurant as local and organic whenever possible.

The Breadwinners Café in the Uptown area has fresh made breads and pastries and other breakfasts pleasures served up in a charming historic house.

Hotels

While Dallas has all levels of accommodations from true luxury of The Mansion at Turtle Creek to thrifty Super 8, in nearby Irving there’s a Four Seasons Resort and Club that is the only AAA Five Diamond resort in Texas. Newly refreshed guest rooms, a family pool as well as the serpentine pool that wraps around a lounge area. And, of course, golf and tennis.

The well-located Hotel Indigo offers seaside charm with themed rooms with small but separate living/bedroom areas. The hotel also provides a free guest shuttle for destinations within 3 miles of the hotel.

Transportation

There’s also plenty of public transportation. The McKinney Avenue Trolley (McKinney Avenue Transit Authority) is free and connects Uptown and West Village. Run by volunteers the MATA maintains, restores and preserves historic streetcars, then lets people ride them for free. This is a great way to tour some of the city and have the fun of riding a trolley all at no cost.

The DART, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, links much of the city and is in the midst of a significant expansion which will make it even easier and more convenient to use public transportation to explore the city attractions. The Trinity Railway Express links Dallas and Fort Worth with a stop at the DFW Airport.

To plan your visit to Dallas go to VisitDallas.com