The Design District has long attracted interior decorators on the hunt for wholesale furniture and antiques, but it has only recently become a contemporary art destination, with Dallas’ largest concentration of commercial galleries and two nonprofit art institutions. The same conditions that stimulated contemporary art in other parts of the city—convenience, accessibility, and an abundance of warehouse space—are largely responsible for the neighborhood’s emergence. Beginning around 2005, galleries began moving there to take advantage of rents that were a fraction of those for space in Uptown and Deep Ellum. As gallery owner Missy Finger explained, “It was hard to continue looking in Uptown because of the rents, which had been driven ever higher by increasingly lavish development, such as the Ritz-Carlton Dallas Hotel, along with an influx of high-priced commercial and residential enclaves.”
Many credit Nancy Whitenack, who moved her Conduit Gallery to the Design District in 2002, with the beginning of the gallery migration. Established in 1984, it is one of Dallas’ oldest and most respected contemporary art galleries. Whitenack had been among the first to open a gallery in Deep Ellum, originally at 2814 Elm Street, and later moved to another location still in Deep Ellum in the Undermain Building at 3200 Main Street. Conduit Gallery represents emerging and midcareer local and regional artists, promoting North Texas– and Dallas-based talents—painters Robert Barsamian, Vincent Falsetta, and Roberto Munguia, photographer Susan Kae Grant, sculptor Arthur Koch, and conceptual artist Ludwig Schwarz—while giving younger artists the opportunity to showcase their work in the gallery’s smaller Project Space, curated by Danette Dufilho (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3).
It would be several years before other Dallas galleries caught on to the secret Whitenack had discovered in the Design District. In 2005, Holly Johnson opened the doors to her namesake gallery at 1411 Dragon Street, soon followed by Craighead Green Gallery, which relocated from Uptown to 1011 Dragon Street. Johnson had extensive experience directing prestigious galleries in Dallas and Houston, starting with the Dallas-based Adams-Middleton Gallery and Pillsbury-Peters Gallery and the Barbara Davis and MD Modern galleries in Houston. Her gallery opened with an established group of artists, including recruits from her time at Pillsbury-Peters: painter and draughtsman Frank X. Tolbert 2, assemblage sculptor Terry Allen, and painter Virgil Grotfeldt. Currently, Johnson’s stable has expanded to include 30 emerging, midcareer, and internationally acclaimed artists who are featured in the extensive exhibition program. Her focus on Texas artists has helped maintain her connection to the local arts community.
Craighead Green has continued the same programs it offered in its Uptown location. Founders Kenneth Craighead and Steve Green jumped at the chance to move to larger quarters in the Design District, purchasing the 5,000-square-foot warehouse in late 2004. After the space was renovated, the gallery opened with a two-person exhibition featuring botanic paintings by Marci Crawford Harnden and figurative paintings by Kendall Stallings. Its artists are a mix of mid- to late-career artists from around the country. Craighead Green’s longstanding annual juried exhibition New Texas Talent, which introduces and promotes the work of nongallery emerging artists, has become a popular competition (Fig. 4). With more than four times the space of its original Uptown gallery and double the ceiling height, Craighead Green has expanded the competition both in scope and scale.
Also making the move from their pricier Uptown locations were Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery (PDNB Gallery) in 2006 (Fig. 5) and Gerald Peters Gallery (Fig. 6) and Pan-American Gallery (Fig. 7), both in 2007. The growing concentration of major contemporary art galleries led still more to move to the neighborhood, including Marty Walker Gallery in 2006, Galleri Urbane Marfa + Dallas in 2010, and Cris Worley Fine Arts in 2011. Of these more recent additions, PDNB, Marty Walker, Galleri Urbane, and Cris Worley continue to provide a variety of fine art gallery options in the designer-dominated neighborhood.
The Design District welcomed its first major nonprofit institution when the Dallas Contemporary opened in spring 2010 in a renovated 12,000-square-foot warehouse at 161 Glass Street. The Dallas Contemporary traces its roots to 1978, when it was established as the nonprofit art space D-Art. Originally in a warehouse at 2917 Swiss Avenue, D-Art was a kind of community center for local artists, who had access to the galleries for exhibitions, performances, and lectures (Fig. 8). D-Art eventually moved to a Victorian home in a historic neighborhood at 2801 Swiss Avenue, where it became known as the Dallas Visual Art Center (DVAC). While the galleries were designed to accommodate the aesthetic of contemporary art, the location never seemed like a true fit. With Joan Davidow as director, DVAC raised funds through a capital campaign for a new, more appropriate building for the Dallas Contemporary (renamed in 2006). The first exhibition in the new space was a major sculptural and experiential installation by California artist James Gilbert (Fig. 9). Peter Doroshenko, director since fall 2010, has helped organize exhibitions of contemporary art that combine street art, fashion, design, and installation, including Gabriel Dawe: Plexus No. 4 (2011), Juergen Teller: Man with Banana (2011), Jennifer Rubell: Nutcrackers (2011), Rob Pruitt (2012), The Dallas Bienniale (2012), and K8 Hardy (2012).
Just a few months after the Dallas Contemporary opened, the Design District welcomed a second nonprofit art space. The Goss-Michael Foundation, established in 2007 by Kenny Goss and George Michael, aims to educate and engage the public through exhibitions of British contemporary art. Originally in the former home of the Goss Gallery at 2500 Cedar Springs Road (opened in 2005 by Kenny Goss), the foundation nearly doubled its gallery size when it moved to 1405 Turtle Creek Boulevard in 2010. It has introduced Dallas to the work of major British artists, including Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Richard Patterson, and James White, while offering lecture series and a resource center with a library and archive on the Goss-Michael permanent collection of contemporary British art. In 2012, the foundation appointed Kevin Rubén Jacobs as assistant curator/exhibitions manager with the job of building bridges with the Dallas artist community. Jacobs inaugurated New Practices—a program to support younger contemporary artists—with the Dallas-based artist collective (wo)manorial, which curated an exhibition of works in varying media by female artists from around the globe. Goss-Michael plans to use New Practices to continue engaging local artists within its space.
The Design District is poised to take the lead as the hub of the expanding Dallas art scene. In 2013, the neighborhood boasts more than 10 contemporary art galleries or spaces, with plenty of room for growth. The addition of several residential properties and critically acclaimed restaurants like Oak, the Meddlesome Moth, and FT33 have helped the neighborhood grow from a to-the-trade-only warehouse district into a blossoming community that supports artists and their patrons. Many of the galleries are active members of the Dallas Art Dealers Association (DADA) and Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas (CADD), which help coordinate exhibitions and events to bring maximum exposure to the area. In spring 2013, DADA and the community organization Bike Friendly Oak Cliff sponsored a Bike Swarm group bicycle ride from Oak Cliff to the Design District during the annual Spring Gallery Walk. Other events have included food truck parties to coincide with gallery openings and the annual Art Conspiracy auction, held for the first time in a Design District warehouse in fall 2012. Continued development of the neighborhood ensures that it will long be a vital place for artists and art lovers.
