Dallas Art Fair Moves to a Football Training Building for 2027

The Dallas Art Fair is leaving its downtown home. Its 2027 edition will take place at Armstrong Fieldhouse on the campus of Southern Methodist University, according to The Art Newspaper.

The fair runs 15 to 18 April 2027. Armstrong Fieldhouse is an indoor training building for SMU's football team, a large enclosed space where the players practise when the weather is poor. Art fairs need wide, open floors for their stands, so the building has been turned to a new use for the week.

Until now, the fair has been held at the Fashion Industry Gallery (FIG), a building in downtown Dallas. The fair has used it since its first edition in 2009, which makes 18 years in the same place. FIG is owned by John Sughrue, who co-founded the Dallas Art Fair with Chris Byrne. Byrne left the fair's organisation in 2017. FIG has also extended its lease on its building until 2033.

SMU is in University Park, about five miles north of downtown Dallas. The university has more than 12,000 students. Moving the fair there puts it on a campus rather than in the city centre, and it brings the event to a different part of the city.

Kelly Cornell is the director of the Dallas Art Fair. The fair typically presents around 90 galleries, which are commercial spaces that show and sell art, and it has said its 2027 edition will feature more than 90 galleries from around the world.

The fair's foundation says it has given more than US$3 million to Dallas's museums and cultural institutions.

For visitors, the change means a new address to plan around in April. For the galleries that sign up, it means a different room to set up in, with new layouts for their stands and new routes for visitors to walk. Anyone travelling to Dallas for the week will want to check the fair's website for tickets and opening times closer to the date.