The Arlington Museum of Art aims to attract even more art lovers and higher-profile exhibitions, including immersive exhibits, when it opens within the City’s vibrant Entertainment District early next year.
The AMA, a Downtown cultural destination for more than 30 years, has sought a larger, more flexible space that would allow it to accommodate a wider variety of exhibits and educational offerings, officials said. Through an agreement approved by the Arlington City Council on Tuesday, the Museum plans to relocate to the City’s Esports Stadium and Expo Center, located near Choctaw Stadium and the future National Medal of Honor Museum, in early 2024. The special use agreement will provide the Arlington Museum of Art with approximately 48,000 square feet of flexible space inside the Expo Center compared to the 5,500 square feet available its current home at 201 W. Main St., which is a repurposed store originally built in the 1950s.
“In the last few years, the Arlington Museum of Art has honed its skills as a museum that never stands still,” said Chris Hightower, President and CEO of the Arlington Museum of Art. “Every three to four months, we transform our entire space with completely new art exhibitions. Now we have an opportunity to scale way up.”
Arlington attracts more than 14.5 million visitors each year thanks largely to the amenities and assets within The District, which is home to Globe Life Field, AT&T Stadium, Texas Live!, Six Flags Over Texas and more. The Museum’s special use agreement for 1200 Ballpark Way complements existing or soon-to-open venues and attractions there. The agreement, which does not affect the 100,000-square-foot Esports Stadium Arlington in the same building, also provides an adaptive use for the City’s older convention space. Arlington’s new 200,000-square-foot Convention Center is set to open as part of the 888-room Loews Arlington Hotel in February 2024.
“The momentum we have seen in Arlington’s Entertainment District over the last five years has been incredible, which is one of the primary reasons this is such a great fit for the Arlington Museum of Art,” said Jay Warren, board chair for the Museum. “There is a great synergy here. The museum will be in a higher visibility location to attract more visitors which will enable us to bring in higher caliber exhibits. At the same time, the Museum’s programming will offer Arlington’s visitors with another option, expanding The District’s offerings.”
Interior improvements to the Expo Center are set to begin this October and be complete by next February. As part of the agreement with the City, the Museum plans to invest approximately $2.9 million to make interior improvements to the Expo Center space, while the City plans to allocate approximately $1.9 million in next year’s budget to improve the common, shared corridor between the Esports Stadium Arlington and the Museum’s new space as well as the western façade of the building.
In support of creating the infrastructure for a state-of-the-art museum, the Museum launched Phase I of its “Outside the Lines: Reimagining the AMA” capital campaign. In Phase II, the campaign will expand its scope to include extensive improvements for the building’s exterior.
Cultural tourism represents a record-breaking $1 trillion for the U.S. economy, and more than 850 million people from around the world visit U.S. museums annually. On average, visitors to the Museum’s major exhibitions hail from at least 40 different states and more than 20 different countries. Last year, the Museum saw its attendance increase 46% over 2021, and Museum officials say they expect exhibition attendance to grow exponentially in a larger space that will allow for traditional, next generation, interactive and immersive exhibitions.
“We are so grateful to the City of Arlington for recognizing that investing in the arts means investing in economic prosperity,” Hightower said. “Our new location will allow the museum to not only serve our community but attract between $33 to $38 million annually in non-local spending by 2028.”
Under the agreement, the Museum will pay the City a base annual fee of $650,000 plus a revenue share of 10% of each paid ticket up to $3. Arlington will maintain ownership of the building and its ability to book rental business at the Expo Center during any downtime in the Museum’s programming. As a designated “super user” of the Expo Center space, the Arlington Museum of Art will receive priority booking rights to book individual exhibits for several months at a time.
The museum will continue to operate in its current location until early 2024.
“The new AMA footprint will be eight times larger than our current one,” Hightower said, “allowing us to blend traditional, immersive, interactive and evolving art forms in ways that will inspire, entertain, engage and reflect our community and our world.”
