When you think of Dallas I bet you don’t think of it as an artistic hub. I know I certainly didn’t. But we would be wrong. Dallas hosts a growing artists community resident in the “arts district” of downtown. It is home to a variety of landmarks and organizations whos goals are to bring world class art to the city, coupled with developing emerging artists. I’d like to introduce you to a couple of attractions I particularily enjoyed.
While Pioneer Plaza is not in the heart of the arts district, it certainly captures the history of the region in the most elegant of ways. Pioneer Plaza is home to the world’s largest bronze statue depicting the earliest route of a 19th century cattle drive across the Shawnee trail. It consists of 49, over-sized steers and 3 trail riders, although I could only find two of them. That’s your challenge when you visit. Find all three and post pictures on my KKO Facebook page! This $9M dollar project, half of which was raised by private donations, was created in two years by the artist Robert Summers of Glen Rose, Texas and I must say…It. Is. Spectacular. Walking through this display is a little intimidating because the Longhorns are so life like in expression and detail that I felt I was running with them. Parking around the area isn’t too bad if you can catch a metered spot right next to the site. (featured image: my attempt at “running with the bulls” or maybe it was a Wonder Woman moment. Who can say? But it was fun!)
Nasher Sculpture Center is central to the arts district. Patsy and Raymond Nasher began collecting sculpture in the 1950’s and in 1997 acquired land downtown Dallas to construct a center to share their collection with the world. Their family foundation funded the entire $70M build and it opened in 2003 and features a rotation of their collection. While I was there, I had the pleasure of seeing a couple of my favorites, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. But I was over the moon to see my alltime favorite sculpture Auguste Rodin’s “Eve” appropriately placed in the outdoor garden. For those of you who require an “art infusion” aka: “beauty infusion” to inspire, the Nasher is well worth for $10 measly dollars to behold such masters!
