It all began in the back 1970s, when Dallas city officials enlisted a team of external auditors and asked them to find the perfect location to gather all its art institutions. By consensus, the northeast of Dallas’ city centre was deemed ideal – the land was once the ancestral home of Native American peoples such as the Caddo, Wichita, Tawakoni and Kiikaapoi and of nomadic communities such as the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache. The seeds were planted, and today, the multicultural Dallas Art District, the biggest one in the US, highlights not only the Native-American heritage, but also the African-American and Latino influences, as essential aspects of the history of Texas.

Only a few years later, the first stone was laid. All this heritage was brought together in the district’s first major museum: the Dallas Museum of Art, designed by Edward Larabee Barnes, which opened in 1984. Its 14,800sqm became home to more than 24,000 exhibition pieces from Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia that date back from 3,000 BCE to the present day. At the museum, you can visit works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Georgia O’Keeffe and Claude Monet that form part of its permanent collection, as well as the installation All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins – one of artist Yayoi Kusama’s most famous works – until January 2026.

Since the opening of this first museum, the district has developed into an area that boasts the most buildings designed by Pritzker Prize winners in the world. Another of its most important institutions is the Museum of Art’s Nasher Sculpture Center, born from the vision of Raymond and Patsy Nasher. Collectors of contemporary sculpture, in the late 1990s they commissioned the award-winning Renzo Piano to design their museum in collaboration with landscape designer Peter Walker. Opened in 2003, this design introduced a new urban narrative that was consolidated by the subsequent development of the Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Square, Sammons Park and other public spaces destined for art that we will visit later. The Nasher Sculpture Center is an oasis in the middle of the asphalt, with a public garden of 6,200sqm that serves as an outdoor museum featuring works by Miró and Picasso, along with 5,000sqm of indoor exhibition space. In addition, every Friday during the summer it puts on outdoor concerts. Its collection includes works by Rodin, Giacometti, Judy Chicago and Max Ernst – among many other giants of sculpture – and periodic exhibitions where the new acquisitions are exhibited. Since 2020, the Nasher Sculpture Center has bestowed an annual award recognising contemporary artists. This year’s went to the multi-disciplinary Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga.

The backbone of the entire Dallas Art District is, however, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, whose facilities deliver more than 40,000sqm that are home to four institutions and public spaces. The first is the 2,200-seat Winspear Opera House, which in August offers the musical Life of Pi, winner of three Tony awards. Next door is Annette Strauss Square, a space designed for outdoor events that every week hosts activities ranging from yoga classes to concerts, and the Elaine D and Charles A Sammons Park, which has green areas and spaces for children. All these spaces were designed by or had collaboration from the Foster + Partners architectural firm, founded by Norman Foster. The last space in the complex is the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, an intimate venue with fewer than 600 seats, designed thanks to the collaboration between several of the world’s leading architectural firms, including the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas. This summer, it’s showing the Broadway classic Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

For families wishing to share an experience with little ones, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science is the perfect destination. An architectural gem by Morphosis Architects, it displays its permanent collection in 11 exhibition spaces, where visitors can explore the solar system, live through an earthquake, make their own weather predictions, pilot the flight of a bird, conduct experiments in a biological laboratory or measure their speed against a T Rex or NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes. In addition, new exhibitions are coming this summer: Topaz: A Spectrum in Stone, featuring the world’s finest pieces of topaz, and Bug Lab, from 28 June, which explores all the secrets of insects.

One of the latest additions to Dallas Art District is The Green Family Art Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose main goal is to bring more visibility and support to artists who have been historically marginalised. It hosts three annual exhibitions of emerging or consolidated but underrepresented artists, curated with special care, and offers grants to museums that later wish to host these works. All of their shows, including their openings, are free and open to the public. Until September, you can visit the Robert Peterson’s collection, Somewhere in America, an exhibition organised in collaboration with the Wichita Art Museum, which pays tribute to the life and everyday expressions of African-American communities.

Tip: In Dallas Art District, art is also eaten (and drunk). For breakfast, don’t miss YOLK. For quick daytime options, Flora Cantina at Sammons Park offers a variety of Tex-Mex food. The most stylish options? Tei-An, rated by the Michelin guide thanks to its Japanese chef Teiichi Sakurai, and La Stella Cucina Verace, featuring the cuisine of the chef Nicola Bacchi. Finish off the day with a cocktail at the Akai speakeasy behind the Musume restaurant.