Attraction ·

Meadows Museum


The Meadows Museum, a division of SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10th to the 21st century. It includes masterpieces by some of the world's greatest painters: El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró and Picasso.

Highlights of the collection include Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, exquisite rococo oil sketches, polychrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes, modernist abstractions, a comprehensive collection of the graphic works of Goya, and a select group of sculptures by major 20th-century masters. Most of these sculptures are displayed on the spacious plaza at the entry to the museum, including works by Jacques Lipschitz, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, David Smith and Fritz Wotruba. At the base of the plaza is a 40-by-90 foot moving sculpture, Wave, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

The museum is a unique resource for local schools, colleges, the Dallas-Fort Worth community and visitors from around the world. With an active program of tours, educational outreach, weekend family days and a summer art program for young people, the Meadows Museum plays an important role as an educational and cultural center in North Texas. Throughout the year, the Meadows Museum presents an exciting series of special exhibitions, public lectures, symposia and gallery talks featuring university professors, visiting scholars and artists. The museum also hosts concerts by local and international musicians. The Gates Restaurant in the museum features a seasonal menu of international dishes. Restaurant hours are 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The Museum Shop offers a wide range of merchandise that reflects the museum's collection and exhibitions, including books on Spanish art and culture, travel items, unusual jewelry, decorative items and much more.



Hours
Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission
$10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $4 for students. Free for children under 12, Meadows museum members, SMU faculty, staff and students. Free on Thursday evenings after 5 p.m.

Calendar of Events
Mar 10 - Jul 7Impressions of Europe: 19th-century Vistas by Martín Rico
Jun 6Evening Lecture: Collecting Rico in America
Jun 8Family Day

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Visitor Information

Meadows Museum
5900 Bishop Boulevard
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75205
214.768.2516 phone

visit website
map & directions

Public Transportation
The museum is located at 5900 Bishop Blvd. on the campus of SMU, three blocks west of the DART light rail Mockingbird Station.

Directions & Parking
Ample free parking is available in the garage under the museum.

Other Information
A guided tour of the permanent collection is offered every Sunday at 2 p.m. and is free with museum admission.

HISTORY: During business trips to Spain in the 1950s, Texas philanthropist and oil financier Algur H. Meadows spent many hours at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The Prado’s spectacular collection of Spanish masterpieces inspired Meadows to begin his own collection of Spanish art. In 1962, through The Meadows Foundation, he gave SMU funds for the construction and endowment of a museum to house his Spanish collection. The Meadows Museum opened in 1965 as part of a new arts center at SMU. In the years that followed, Algur Meadows provided the impetus and funds for an aggressive but highly selective acquisitions program through which an extraordinary collection was developed in a remarkably short period of time. Since his death in 1978, The Meadows Foundation has provided ongoing support for continued development of the museum’s permanent collection. The Foundation gave a gift of $20 million in 1998 for construction of a new museum building on campus to showcase the collection and provide more space for special exhibitions and educational programs; the new building opened in March 2001. In 2006, the Foundation gave $33 million to the Meadows School of the Arts, the largest grant ever made by the Foundation and the largest ever received by SMU at the time, which included $25 million for the museum for acquisitions, exhibitions, an educational curator position, an expanded educational program, and special initiatives of the museum director.