Garden Oasis in Dallas

The new Nasher Sculpture Center celebrates world-famous art and open sky.

I'm resting flat on my back in the middle of downtown Dallas, watching clouds skitter across a royal blue Texas sky.

It's one of my favorite things to do in an art-filled garden wonderland at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Entering the garden feels as peaceful and relaxing as stepping into a ranch hidden beneath towering skyscrapers.

Even the cafe, run by famed Dallas chef Dean Fearing, serves Texas fare fit for a ranch picnic. The menu features tortilla soup and a delicious, sauce-drenched barbecue turkey sandwich with sweet pickles.

A woman in line at the cafe asks for iced tea in a plastic cup "to take out into the yard." A server politely answers that drinks aren't allowed in the sculpture garden, but you can't blame her for asking. The setting puts people at ease.

When I was growing up, Dallas wasn't known for sculpture-unless you count Big Tex, the mechanical cowboy at the State Fair of Texas. Now the Nasher center, which opened in October 2003, showcases one of the most important collections of modern sculpture in the world. It includes more than 300 pieces from the 1880s to the present displayed in indoor galleries and outdoors in the garden.

Developer Raymond Nasher and his late wife, Patsy, began collecting in the 1960s. They loved sculpture and helped make it part of the city's landscape. Nasher displayed artworks at NorthPark Center mall, office buildings, and other public spaces for visitors to see. "Whether they liked it or not made no difference," Nasher said. "They were exposed to it. Art is like air or water. It is needed to survive and to enjoy life to the fullest."

The garden feels magical on a sunny afternoon, when you stroll from one monumental sculpture to the next. Discoveries are everywhere. Walk a gravel path between the 100,000-pound steel plates of a sculpture by Richard Serra. Step into a tunnel of weeping willows. Or just sit back and enjoy the Texas sky framed in an open-ceiling room designed by James Turrell. Don't miss it. It's the biggest thing to hit Dallas since Big Tex. LES THOMAS

Nasher Sculpture Center: 2001 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201; (214) 242-5100 or www.nasher sculpturecenter.org.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mid-Apr 2005
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