Dallas. Such a great city for the arts. Whether you prefer the expansive collection offered by the Dallas Museum of Art, or you prefer the more focused experiences available at venues, such as the Latino Cultural Center, or the all-things-Spanish Meadows Museum on the SMU campus, Dallas offers a formidable variety of art for all tastes.

The Crow Museum of Asian Art offers a bounty of Oriental treasures for true aficionados or those with a mere passing interest about the history of their chinoiserie vases or wallpaper. Located on the campus of UTD in nearby Richardson, 12 miles N. on Central Expressway and 2 miles west on Campbell Road, this hidden gem has been hiding in plain sight since September 2024. Free to the public, it serves as a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art in downtown Dallas, doubling their exhibition space. Morphosis Architects was chosen for the project and is the designer of bold and stunning buildings, such as the office building for ENI, in Milan Italy, a “supermajor” oil company whose building is shaped like geological strata and is striking to behold.

The satellite Crow Museum of Asian Art, also makes a bold visual statement, using precast concrete sourced from nearby Hillsboro, TX and feels light, airy and spacious despite the use of cemented materials. Yet to come is a performing arts center, adjacent to the museum, and is scheduled to open in Fall 2026, as Phase II.

Entering through the light-filled atrium, visitors are greeted with a wide and grand staircase guiding one upward to 12 galleries. There you will find a collection of compelling Asian artifacts and rotating art installations, from the ancient to postmodern. Included are gorgeous, oversized ceramics, judiciously encased in glass, a curvaceous room filled with turned jade objects, walls of traditional weaponry and much, much more.

One of the current exhibits, “Groundbreakers: Post-War Japan and Korea,” is a collection of works by artists expressing themselves, after freedom from the severely restrictive cultural dictates of Colonial Japan. One of the featured artists paints with his feet, expressing art with his whole body. Other works play with form, space and movement. The exhibit also showcases an immersive environment, where visitors enter a dark room and gaze downward upon a floor with ever-changing randomized numbers appearing as red blinking dots against a black background. What do the numbers mean? Only you can say.

Coming soon is the return of the Tibetan Buddhist Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery. Beginning November 11, 2025, visitors are invited to stop by and observe the placement of millions of grains of crushed marble as they are mindfully laid into place, to form a colorful mandala over the course of a week. This ancient spiritual art form has no less than global healing as its intention. The sacred practice invites all who visit to ponder thoughts of compassion, impermanence, and the interconnectedness of all life. Seeing the mandala’s intricate evolution is an experience that can touch the minds, hearts and consciousness of all who bear its witness.

Crow Museum of Asian Art on the UTD campus
800 W. Campbell Road | Richardson, TX 75080
Closed on Mondays; open Tuesdays – Sundays, 11am – 5pm
crowmuseum.org