LEISURE AND RECREATION
Trammell & Margaret Crow
Collection of Asian Art
www.crowcollection.org
Exhibiting works of art from Japan, China,
India and Southeast Asia, the Crow
Collection offers visitors a peaceful world
of beauty and spirituality in the heart of
the city. The pieces date from 3500 B.C.
to the early 20th century and include
precious jade ornaments from China,
delicate Japanese scrolls and a rarely
seen 12-by- 28 foot sandstone façade of
an 18th century Indian residence.
Dallas Museum of Art
www.dallasmuseumofart.org
Established in 1903, the museum has an
encyclopedic collection of more than
23,000 works spanning 5,000 years of
history. The collections focus on the art of
the ancient Americas, Africa, Indonesia,
South Asia and Europe, as well as
American painting, sculpture and
decorative arts. American and
international contemporary art is also on
display. The museum welcomes more
than half a million visitors per year.
Morton H. Meyerson
Symphony Center
www.meyersonsymphonycenter.com
In September 1989, the Morton H.
Meyerson Symphony Center opened its
doors. The architect, I.M. Pei, was selected
from more than 100 world-renowned
architects, and his acclaimed design is
revered among musical venues. The
building’s impressive architectural features
and unsurpassed acoustics have made
the Meyerson a pre-eminent environment
for exceptional events in Dallas.
Nasher Sculpture Center
www.nashersculpturecenter.org
The Nasher Sculpture Center is a
longtime dream of Raymond Nasher
and his late wife Patsy, who together
amassed one of the finest collections of
modern and contemporary sculpture in
the world. The Center features more
than 300 pieces and is located
adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in
the Arts District. Renzo Piano, a world-
renowned architect and winner of the
Pritzker Prize in 1998, designed the
55,000-square-foot building. Landscape
architect Peter Walker designed the
outdoor garden.
Winspear Opera House
www.dallasopera.org
Designed by Foster + Partners under
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman
Foster and Senior Design Partner Spencer
de Grey, the Winspear Opera House is
the newest of four such venues at the Arts
District’s AT&T Performing Arts Center.
The home of the Dallas Opera since
2009, it is engineered specifically for
performances of opera and musical
theater, with stages equipped for ballet
performances, as well as other forms of
dance. A 21st century reinterpretation of
the traditional opera house, the 2,200-
seat venue’s principal performance
space, the Margaret McDermott
Performance Hall, is designed to be the
environmentally conscious, state-of-the-art
standard against which future opera houses
will be measured.
FAIR PARK
Fair Park, Dallas, one of Dallas’ hidden
treasures, is a central location to spend
the day relaxing and learning about the
rich history of Dallas. While many people
associate Fair Park with only concerts and
the famous Texas State Fair, there is
actually much more to this historically
and culturally rich locale.
Fair Park is home to many beautiful native
and organic gardens, museums, and
performance halls, but it also boasts some
of the finest art and architecture in the
nation. As a matter of fact, Dallas’ Fair
Park holds the designation of being a
National Historic Landmark due to it
boasting the largest collection of 1930s
Art Deco architecture in the United States,
and it is the only unaltered pre-1950s
World’s Fair site in the nation.
The State Fair of Texas has called Fair
Park home since its inception in 1886
when the Dallas State Fair Board of
Directors voted to purchase 80 acres of
land and established the fairgrounds.
Now the largest annual state fair in the
United States, the State Fair of Texas is the
largest tenant of Fair Park.
In 1936, the city of Dallas was chosen to
host the State of Texas Centennial
Celebration. Architect George Dahl was
commissioned to rebuild Fair Park for the
event to the astonishing tune of $26
million—an outlandish price tag for the
Depression Era. Dahl was tasked with the
planning, designing and constructing with
only 14 months from conception to
