The Dallas Museum of Art is in the middle of the biggest transition it’s had in years, a new director, a massive expansion campaign, and a full slate of exhibitions running right now, all happening at once. Here’s where things actually stand.
Leadership
Brian Ferriso took over as the DMA’s director on December 1, 2025, succeeding AgustÃn Arteaga, who stepped down after eight years to lead Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum. Ferriso spent nearly two decades running the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, where he raised more than $140 million for a campus renovation and grew the museum’s endowment by $40 million while eliminating $7 million in unfunded debt.
The DMA hired him specifically for that fundraising track record, since he’s now tasked with steering a Dallas expansion that could cost upward of $150 million. Board president Gowri Natarajan Sharma called it a museum “at an inflection point,” and Ferriso himself has described the timing as a chance to shape a DMA that’s more accessible and more reflective of the city it serves.
The Expansion
That fundraising push connects directly to an ongoing installation currently on view inside the museum itself, “Looking Forward: A New DMA,” which has been running since November 2023 and continues through August 2026. It functions as a public preview of the museum’s planning process for its own renovation and expansion, letting visitors see the thinking behind the project while it’s still being shaped rather than waiting for a finished announcement.
What’s On View Right Now
Three exhibitions are currently running alongside that long-term installation. Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork runs through September 6, and Paper Technologies: Italian Prints and Drawings runs through September 20, both offering a closer look at technique-driven work across very different traditions. A fourth major exhibition, Rhythm of the City, which explored 21st-century urban life through photography and film installations, just closed on July 19.
The DMA also picked up new work this spring through the Dallas Art Fair Foundation + DMA Acquisition Fund, adding pieces like Caroline Monnet’s “Kingdom” to the permanent collection, part of a fund that’s brought in 78 works since it launched in 2016.
The Basics
General admission to the permanent collection has been free since 2013, though advance ticket reservations are recommended, and special ticketed exhibitions carry a separate charge. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It sits at 1717 N. Harwood St. in the Dallas Arts District, the largest arts district in the country, inside a building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes that the museum moved into in 1984 after founding in 1903.
The permanent collection holds more than 25,000 works spanning roughly 5,000 years, organized into galleries covering the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, and Texas. Outside, landscape architect Dan Kiley designed the museum’s walled sculpture garden, four parallel water walls that mute the sound of downtown traffic and turn the space into one of the quieter spots in the Arts District.
More on current hours, exhibitions, and tickets is available at dma.org.
