Alumni, Community Invited to Experience Campus Cultural District

On Sept. 28, The University of Texas at Dallas will celebrate the opening of the first phase of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, a 12-acre campus cultural district, with an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for students, alumni, faculty, staff and the community.

Phase I serves as a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art, introduces the UT Dallas Art Museums and the Brettell Reading Room, and features the Carolyn Brown Archive and a partnership with the Dallas Museum of Art. The space also houses a conservation studio, seminar room, museum shop, exhibition corridor and lecture and event area.

“The open house is really an opportunity to help people engage with the museum beyond just looking because we have such a dynamic exhibition calendar schedule right at the open,” said Caroline Kim, director of development for the Crow Museum of Asian Art. “A lot of activities that day are going to be centered around artists, and you will really have a chance to not only just see an object of art, but really do something tangible with it.”

Visitors will have opportunities to take part in curated tours, design a traditional Indian art community rangoli, explore museum exhibits via a scavenger hunt that includes prizes and create a torn paper charcoal landscape drawing inspired by the work of artist Lam Tung Pang, whose work will be on display. Attendees can also participate in a storytime with staff from the Richardson Public Library and watch a live performance of “Kinmakers: Hidden Songs in Our Mother’s Dreams.”

“A continuing thread for everyone who has been involved in this project has been knowing that something is being created here that is so special, and that’s going to be truly transformative for this campus,” Kim said.

The O’Donnell Athenaeum is supported by a $32 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation, the single largest monetary gift from one of UT Dallas’ most significant donors. Phase I of the project was announced in 2019 when the Trammell and Margaret Crow family donated the entire collection of the Trammell and Margaret Crow Museum of Asian Art to UT Dallas. The campus museum is now the second location for the Crow Collection, which includes the existing museum in the Dallas Arts District downtown.

The Crow Museum’s collection includes more than 1,000 works from throughout Asia, from the ancient to the contemporary, as well as a library of more than 12,000 books, catalogs and journals that will be available to scholars for research.

Learn more about the open house and register online .