A New Life in the Park
Ongoing construction in the Women’s Museum Building is making way for the building’s next new life — temporary home of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters.
June 1, 2025
The Coliseum Building, built in 1910 and situated on the northwest corner of Fair Park along Parry Avenue, is emblematic of Fair Park’s many lives.
After all, the Park has been a horse-race gambling track, the grand Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas’ arts and cultural center, and the site of civil rights protests, just to name a few.
Today the Coliseum Building is known as the Women’s Museum building named for its last full-time tenant. It’s about to become the full time, but temporary, home of the Texas Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL), placing an additional arts and culture institution back into the park.
The building’s many roles included livestock showplace, musical-performance hall, the Texas Centennial Exposition’s administrative hub, neglected structure and a Women’s Museum.
TBAAL is bringing with it an estimated $6.16 million from the Convention Center Construction Fund for repairs and the reconfiguration of select parts of the building. The work is in progress and is scheduled to be finished in August.
This is the first major brush up the building has received since a nearly $30 million overhaul completed in 2000 to house the Women’s Museum, which closed in 2011 due to lack of funds. Since then, it has been used mostly during the State Fair.
It seems tailor made for the nearly 50-year-old Black art and cultural institution that hosts art exhibits and theatrical and musical productions as did the building’s last tenant. And Fair Park will benefit from a much-needed injection of new life on its northwest corner, not to mention a full-time paying tenant.
But TBAAL isn’t putting down roots – those are in downtown. TBAAL must move from its current home, a part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center campus, while the convention center complex undergoes a major expansion and renovation. The stated plan is for TBAAL to return downtown in 2028 after the convention center project is complete. A new development with the city’s construction financing suggests that date will likely be pushed out.
The building’s most recognizable feature is the Spirit of the Centennial, the iconic sculpture and background mural at its main entrance. The 1936 work by artists Raoul Josset, Jose Martin and Carlo Ciampaglia is next up for restoration. The administrative process to begin work is under way within the city’s Office of Arts and Culture.
There are three additional public and historic art works in the form of fountains on the building’s exterior. One is in front of the Spirit of the Centennial and two smaller fountains are on the west side of the building.
A current assessment of fountains in need of repair is underway by the Park and Recreation Department. It’s not yet known if the building’s fountains will be included in those repairs. If not, efforts to secure funding outside of the Park and Recreation Department will be the next item on the Fair Park to do list.
The building’s major restoration about 25 years ago for the Women’s Museum allows for TBAAL to move in with relatively minor renovations. I got a peek at the restoration on a tour with preservation architect Marcel Quimby, a consultant on the project who has been instrumental in the preservation of the Hall of State and other Fair Park preservation projects.
The expansive and flexible main space will remain mostly intact and can accommodate performances and special events. Some existing exhibit and office spaces are being reconfigured and updated. The interior work is taking place behind the main space.
The building’s exterior needs attention too and is getting minor repairs such as repairing wooden and historic metal window casings and patching the roof.
This project will add one more life to the old Coliseum Building. What will happen after TBAAL returns to the convention center campus is impossible to say. Hopefully, another new life will come right behind it.