Approximately 12 acres in size, the athenaeum is expected to include a performance hall, two museums and a parking garage located within a central plaza in the southeastern area of campus.
"The work of the late Rick Brettell [founding director of the school's Institute of Art History] inspired us all to fully embrace the arts at UT Dallas," UTD President Richardson C. Benson said. "We are widely known as a university that is strong in [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and the management disciplines, but we are eager to be equally impactful in the arts. Enriching the arts is one of the key themes of this university's strategic plan and a pillar in our new comprehensive campaign."
The athenaeum will first host the new location for the Trammell and Margaret Crow Museum of Asian Art. Founded in 1998, the Crow Museum’s collection includes more than 1,000 works from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam as well as a library of more than 12,000 books, catalogs and journals.
In addition to the Crow Collection, UTD has also received gifts of three collections of Latin American folk art: The Roger Horchow Collection, the Laura and Dan Boeckman Collection of Latin American Folk Art, and the Bryan J. Stevens Collection of Masks of the Sierra de Puebla. Each of these collections are expected to be added to a planned museum of the traditional arts of the Americas.
Construction on the new Crow Museum of Asian Art is anticipated to be completed in spring 2024. The current downtown Dallas museum, which is located in the arts district at 2010 Flora St., will continue to present a full exhibition and program calendar.
Phase 2 of the athenaeum construction includes building a 53,000-square-foot performance hall. The performance hall is expected to include a 600-seat concert hall, practice rooms, and choral and orchestra rehearsal rooms. The final phase of construction will add the 50,000-square-foot museum for the traditional arts of the Americas.
The athenaeum is supported by a $32 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation, which has contributed more than $900 million to “the advancement of a wide range of higher education causes” at UTD since it was founded in 1957, according to campus officials. In November 2013, UTD dedicated the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building followed by the founding of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History in 2014.
