UT Dallas leaders celebrated the completion of phase one with the opening of a new Crow Museum of Asian Art on Sept. 24, 2024. The museum is part of the 12-acre Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, a new arts and performance district on its Richardson campus.
Designed by Morphosis, founded by 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne, the facility will anchor the UT Dallas Art Museums, featuring innovative Asian art exhibits, pieces from the Dallas Museum of Art, UT Dallas' collections and works by local photographer Carolyn Brown. Morphosis serves as the principal architect for the O'Donnell Athenaeum. Led by design partner Arne Emerson, the firm developed the master plan and designed the complex's buildings.
The phase one building, featuring the Crow Museum of Asian Art and additional galleries, is the first completed part of the O'Donnell Athenaeum, largely funded by a $32 million gift from the O'Donnell Foundation. The cultural complex will be developed in three phases:
- Phase I: A two-story, 57,000-square-foot building, doubling the Crow Museum's gallery space from its downtown Dallas location. It also includes galleries for UT Dallas Art Museums, a conservation studio and more.
- Phase II: A two-story, 66,000-square-foot performance hall and music building with a 680-seat hall, outdoor performance space, rehearsal rooms, teaching studios and student areas.
- Phase III: A future museum building and a multi-level parking structure to support the Athenaeum and the campus.
“We are grateful for the immense generosity and vision of our donors, including the O’Donnell Foundation, the Crow family and others, for providing the foundation for the arts initiative at UT Dallas, which will benefit not only our campus community, but the North Texas community and beyond,” said UT Dallas President Dr. Richard C. Benson in an official statement. “Expanding and enhancing arts facilities and infrastructure was a cornerstone of our strategic plan, and this opening is a tremendous step forward in that process.”
The Crow Museum of Asian Art, along with other galleries, is now open to the public. Admission is free, just like at the museum's downtown Dallas location, which remains active on Flora Street in the Arts District.
Phase two of the O'Donnell Athenaeum was also launched, with leaders breaking ground on a new performance hall and music building for the UT Dallas Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, set to open in fall 2026.
Upon completion, Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum will include two museums, a performance hall, a music building, a grand plaza and parking.
The Crow Museum, the largest in the Southwest dedicated solely to Asian art, opened in 1998 in Dallas' Arts District, named after Margaret and Trammell Crow. The collection, spanning ancient to contemporary works, was made freely available to the public.
Over two decades, the museum expanded through new acquisitions, highlighting Asian and Asian-American artists. In 2019, the Crow family donated the entire collection to establish a second museum at UT Dallas, a vision supported by the late Dr. Richard Brettell, founding director of the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History.
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