Dallas’ Best Museums — the Ultimate Guide to the City’s Cultural Wonders

Whether you’re eager to learn something new, need to mix it up on a date night, or want to get the kids out of the house for a bit, Dallas is filled with great museums to explore. From dinosaurs and flight to art and history, the city has got it all.

Here are 10 must-visit Dallas museums.

Perot Museum of Nature and Science

2201 N. Field Street

The Perot is Dallas’ premier museum for nature and science — and one of the best in America. Built in 2012, the “giant rock-looking” building added something new to the Dallas skyline that we could never imagine it without now. The museum has 10 exhibit halls filled with dinosaurs, space, gems and minerals, and more. They’ve also got a reimagined children’s museum that just debuted this summer.

Dallas Museum of Art

1717 N. Harwood Street

Known for having more than 24,000 works on display, the DMA is one of the best places to see art in Dallas. From contemporary and classical to Latin American and European art, they have it all. It’s free to go in and browse, but if you want to see a special exhibition, you can buy tickets online. At some point, the Dallas Museum of Art will be undergoing a huge expansion project to make it bigger and better than ever.

Frontiers of Flight Museum

6911 Lemmon Avenue

This aerospace museum was founded in 1988 by William E. Cooper, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and Jan Collmer. Aptly located at Dallas Love Field Airport, the museum explores the stories of aviation and space flight. From the Wright Flyer to Flying Pancake, the Apollo VII spacecraft, 13 historical galleries, and more than 35,000 artifacts, this place will teach you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about flight. It was recently named in Travel + Leisure‘s 10 Best Aviation Museums in the U.S. list.

Nasher Sculpture Center

2001 Flora Street

Opened in 2003, the Nasher is home to a collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. You can take a stroll through the outdoor sculpture garden or check out the exhibitions inside. From Willem de Kooning to Pablo Picasso, the Nasher has tons of cool works on display.

Crow Museum of Asian Art

2010 Flora Street

The Crow family opened the Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in the Dallas Arts District in 1998. Since then, it’s been inspiring and promoting learning and dialogue about the arts and cultures of Asia. In 2024, the Crow Museum of Asian Art opened a second location at UT Dallas in Richardson.

Dallas Contemporary

161 Glass Street

Since the 1970s, Dallas Contemporary has been presenting new exhibitions of artists from Texas and around the world. Current exhibits on display at the Design District spot include Masahiro LaMarsh: Anticlastic and Your Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry.

It’s free to check out (with a suggested $12.51 donation). RSVP in advance.

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

411 Elm Street

Built around the shocking assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this museum gives an in-depth look into the life and presidency of JFK. The multi-media experience includes video, recording, and artifacts from the 1960s. You can spend hours here learning everything JFK did for America, as well as the tragedy of his loss.

George W. Bush Presidential Center

2943 SMU Boulevard

Located at Southern Methodist University, the Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. As the 13th presidential library, the museum examines the specific time during which President Bush served. Highlights of the permanent exhibit include “A Nation Under Attack,” which remembers the events of 9/11, and the Oval Office replica.

Meadows Museum

5900 Bishop Boulevard

This art museum is also located on the SMU campus. Its founding collection was Spanish art, and current collections include paintings, works on paper, sculpture, decorative, and contemporary art. From Salvador Dali and El Greco to Henry Moore and Ignacio Zuloaga, Meadows has quite the collection.

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

300 N. Houston Street

In 2019, the new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum opened in the West End. You may have seen the shiny copper building on Houston Street. It’s 19 times bigger than the former museum and an incredible experience.

Dedicated to teaching the history of the Holocaust and developments of human rights, the museum includes three wings — the Holocaust/Shoah Wing, Human Rights Wing, and Pivot to America Wing. A highlight includes a wooden, wartime Nazi railcar on the third floor.