Have Some Art With Your Football

When football fans enter the Dallas Cowboys stadium on Sunday to watch the Steelers and the Packers fight to become Super Bowl champions, they may get an unexpected eyeful of contemporary art. The Cowboys stadium, which opened in June 2009, features nearly twenty permanent art works from an array of international artists.

The Jones family, owners of the Texas team, wanted their new stadium to be unique. The saying, “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” is true here. At 3 million sq. ft., the new Dallas Cowboys home is the largest NFL stadium ever built. It features two 292 ft tall arches that support a retractable roof.

To fill the stadium, the Joneses looked for art as grand as the structure. They commissioned 19 original pieces from internationally known artists like Danish sculptor Olafur Eliasson, conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner and multimedia artist Doug Aitken.

The artists were selected by a council of art leaders from the North Texas community. Charles Wylie, curator at the Dallas Museum of Art served on the board. As a fan of both football and art museums, he was excited to have the opportunity to merge the two divergent worlds.

Wylie spoke to Art Beat about the collection:

Photos by James Smith & Richie Humphreys, Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys co-owner Gene Jones talks about the stadium’s art and architecture:

Editor’s Note: You can listen to a report on the new stadium’s art collection from KERA.