Between St. Paul and Harwood, along the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, the Dallas Museum of Art holds more than 24,000 objects. Feel how this place carries layers: in the 1970s the museum moved here from its earlier home in Fair Park, and the new building — designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and John MY Lee Associates, the 2007 winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal — rose in stages over a decade. Inside, the collection stretches from the third millennium BC to the present day, more than 24,000 objects that invite slow looking and surprise.
The museum is known for a dynamic exhibition policy and active educational programs, and its Mildred R. and Frederick M. Mayer Library, a non-circulating research library, holds over 50,000 volumes accessible to curators and the general public. With 159,000 square feet (14,800 m2) of exhibition space, this is one of the largest art museums in the United States. The institution’s story begins even earlier, with the 1903 establishment of the Dallas Art Association and artists like Frank Reaugh who saw the new public library as a chance to display art.
Picture that collection filling halls between St. Paul and Harwood, more than 24,000 objects waiting inside these Arts District walls.