Dallas Art Fair Makes a Major Move to SMU, Ushering In a New Epoch for the City’s Art Scene
A Landmark Relocation Brings Fresh Possibilities and Bigger Ambitions
By Catherine D. Anspon //
Among the most significant stories this reporter has covered across double decades at this magazine is the Dallas Art Fair. Texas’ first homegrown art fair, and arguably America’s foremost boutique art fair, its arrival upon the cultural scene in 2009 has spurred a generation of collectors, while being a catalyst for Dallas transforming into a 21st-century capital for an important dialogue spun around contemporary art: international, national, and Texas.
Thanks to Dallas Art Fair, a robust Dallas Arts Month has also sprung up, which makes every April an exciting and unparalleled cultural convergence not equaled by any other city statewide.
So when the announcement arrived that Dallas Art Fair — incredibly, its 19th edition — will relocate from its original Fashion Industry Gallery site to Southern Methodist University’s Armstrong Fieldhouse come 2027, it felt like the next installment of a narrative we’ve been following intensely and closely for 20 years.
More Than a Venue Change
But it’s more than a venue change, even though the expansive, light-filled Armstrong Fieldhouse — which serves as a college-football practice facility for SMU’s Mustangs — will redefine the fair experience for participating galleries and the art audience. Think avant-garde installations and more spacious booths, while keeping the fair the same size, approximately 90-some exhibitors, focusing less on quantity, but quality.
The Dallas Art Fair’s move to SMU signals an innovative dialogue between this respected art fair with international chops and an elevated university where both visual and performing arts are interwoven into its DNA. Of course, we’re alluding to the duo of the Meadows School of the Arts and the Meadows Museum, joined by SMU’s heralded art-history program and the cultural- and research-driven SMU DataArts, offering a dual degree in arts management and business.
Adding to this is SMU’s new commitment to be woven into the fabric of the city, during a time when the metropolis is undergoing a rapid transformation fueled by Y’all Street. Cue the recently minted The Dallas Office, billed by the university as “SMU’s front door to the city and region – a single coordinated point of access to connect Dallas to SMU and SMU to Dallas more intentionally.”
And speaking of city involvement, there stands Dallas Art Fair’s decades-long commitment to give back. Since its early years, Thursday night’s glittering vernissage, the Preview Party, has benefited the town’s renowned museum triad: Dallas Contemporary, Dallas Museum of Art, and Nasher Sculpture Center. To date, $3 million has been donated.
Then there’s DMA Acquisition Fund, which in a little more than a decade, has underwritten the acquisition of more than 75 contemporary artworks selected by DMA curators, assiduously vetted from the booths of Dallas Art Fair exhibiting galleries, thus giving museum cred and support to the artists and their dealers who made the commitment to show at the fair.
Community partners have already embraced the move. Confirmed to date for Dallas Art Fair 2027 are Visit Dallas, Highland Park Village, Headington Companies, Heritage Auctions, Crozier Fine Arts (storage, transport, crating), and Distinguished Fine Art & Collectibles Insurance.
Fair co-founder John Sughrue said in his statement — the news was picked up quickly by major arts-press outlets like Artnews — “We are committed to competing at the highest level internationally, and this new venue and partnership gives us the opportunity to advance that ambition.”
Sughrue adds, “We’re thrilled to partner with the SMU community, which so powerfully contributes to the commercial and cultural success of Dallas.” Looking forward, he notes, “This is a strategic investment in the future of the fair, in our local cultural ecosystem, and in the role Dallas can play internationally.”
How the Dallas Art Fair Move Went Down
As to how this move all went down, PaperCity reached out to long-time fair director, Kelly Cornell, who shared that the fair’s search for a new venue began during the past decade, but heated up more recently.
Cornell tells us the SMU connection happened organically within the past three years. The fair director says, “I stumbled upon the space when my daughter was at a summer soccer camp and knew it could be a perfect space for us.”
“SMU President Jay Hartzell and Provost Rachel Davis Mersey were very responsive to our interest and helped us get this accomplished. Kit Sawers, of the newly formed Dallas Office, was also hugely instrumental in getting us to this point. I’d worked with Kit when she was at Klyde Warren Park [as president and CEO], and she was an ally.”
For Cornell, it’s a homecoming. She says of returning to her alma mater, “I have a BFA in studio art, minor in arts history and arts management and entrepreneurship from SMU.”
It’s also a full-circle moment for Cornell, who was appointed Dallas Art Fair director in April 2016. She says: “I actually did an internship for the Dallas Art Fair when I was at SMU, so I definitely got the [art fair] bug at a young age. I never dreamed we would be able to bring the fair to SMU, but when we found the opportunity a few years ago, I knew it was the answer we have been looking for.”
Save the date: Dallas Art Fair unfurls next spring, April 15 through 18, 2027, at SMU. Find more details here.
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