On any given day, admission to see the permanent collections at the Dallas Museum of Art is free. If you want to see a special exhibition, though, there’s usually a fee, which goes toward supporting the exhibit’s operating cost. But in an effort to create a more welcoming environment for everyone, including those who don’t have the discretionary income to buy tickets or who might just be intimidated by the museum, DMA director Augustín Arteaga created Free Community Days.
These occasions offer free entry to the featured exhibition, as well as special programs that explore the show’s contemporary relevance. “It’s about letting people have the opportunity of not only seeing the exhibition but also being in a place where conversations can be built and foster learning from others,” Arteaga says.
One such event took place last month — a DMA Free Community Day in connection with the exhibit “Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction” — and another is planned, this time a whole weekend, for Nov. 18-19, tied to the exhibit “Afro-Atlantic Histories.”
“We are very committed to presenting artists who have been on the side of history and examining how those artists resonate with the world we live in,” Arteaga says.
“Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction” is a survey of 19 paintings by the acclaimed Mexican painter, plus seven works by his contemporaries. Ángel died — reportedly by his own hand — at age 19 in 1924. “Ángel was not only original in many ways but was a mirror for the life and times in Mexico,” Arteaga says. “We know he was a queer artist, a young man who came into a society that was not welcoming, and that was the biggest trouble for him.”
Funded by Arcosa, the Free Community Day in October featured a 2 p.m. talk, “The Myth of Suicide,” by Dr. Peter Thomas, a psychologist with local mental-health and suicide-prevention nonprofit Foundation 45. The day was also in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Some of highest rates of suicide happen among teens, Latino teens and queer people, so this Community Day not only introduces a great artist but provides opportunities for the museum to address very serious issues and share resources with a younger generation or others who may be struggling,” says Arteaga.
The day also offered an afternoon of art therapy. Guests were taught how to apply the Maugard Method of creative design to make postcards bearing positive messages. Developed by Mexican artist Adolfo Best-Maugard and published in 2017, the technique incorporates seven motifs that appear globally in primitive art, such as circles, wavy lines and zigzags. Ángel used the method in his early works.
For November, the museum is expanding on its Free Community Day and doing an entire weekend instead. “Revelation & Celebration: Black History and Culture” will afford entry to the exhibit “Afro-Atlantic Histories,” plus performances, films, tours and more.
“[Afro-Atlantic Histories] is an unprecedented exhibition that analyzes the legacy of the Black Diaspora, which was forced — not voluntary,” Arteaga says. “It examines how people were moved across the Atlantic to many different places, not only the U.S. but across the whole continent and South America. What is really beautiful about it is that it’s a way to understand time, history, optimism about how things have to be reconciled and how artists look to the future in a better way.”
The exhibit presents about 100 artworks and documents that were produced in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe from the 17th century to the present. The Free Community Weekend is underwritten by Arlene J. Ford, Ph.D., and Christopher P. Reynolds, with free special exhibition admission presented by Kimberly-Clark.
Arteaga began finding ways to attract a wider audience shortly after he joined the museum in 2017, bringing with him “Mexico: 1900 to 1950,” which he had curated for the Grand Palais in Paris. “We worked very hard to provide access on weekends and Sundays, and that turned out to be an amazing experience seeing people from all of Dallas flowing into the museum to see these works of art and all the programming around it,” he recalls.
Subsequently, the DMA has provided open-access days to such major shows as “Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity” last year and “Dior: From Paris to the World” in 2019. “We always try to do Community Days,” Arteaga says. “We are always pursuing who is the right match and who will be willing to provide the financial resources.”
The DMA also collaborates with local organizations to broaden its audience, including the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, the South Dallas Cultural Center and the Dallas-Fort Worth Urban League of Young Professionals.
Says Arteaga, “We want everybody to know we are here for them, that this is their museum, and to make them feel present in the works that we show.”