Anyone who’s ventured very far on an interstate these days has inevitably encountered outlet malls. These sprawling conglomerations of stores and parking lots at one point seemed to be the future of shopping malls. For a while it didn’t seem like many indoor malls were being built.
This isn’t to be lamented though because most indoor malls are hardly more interesting than the outdoor outlet type. One that is truly distinctive, however, is NorthPark Center in Dallas. And what makes it notable — and worthy of a visit even by those who try their best to avoid such places — is the fact that NorthPark boasts an art collection that’s the envy of the best museums in the country.
Hard as it may be to believe for those who’ve not seen it firsthand, taking a walk through that mall is to encounter works from Modern artists like Henry Moore, Mark di Suvero, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelley, Claes Oldenburg, Jonathan Borofsky and many others. How did this happen? Well, it helps to know the story.
NorthPark was the creation of real estate developer Raymond Nasher, who designed the mall back in the early 1960s. Nasher and his wife Patsy were avid art collectors. If you know the Dallas art scene, you may have heard of the renowned Nasher Sculpture Center. Same guy. By the time he sat down to work on NorthPark, he and his wife had begun to amass an impressive collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. His interest in art came to influence the way he thought about buildings and public spaces.
With NorthPark, he was concerned not just with the more mundane aspects of retail space, but was adamant that there be places in the mall specifically set aside for the display of art. By the time he was finished with NorthPark, he had decided to use space there to let the public enjoy his burgeoning collection.
Now, Nasher—who died in 2007–wasn’t one of those who went around complaining that museums were too “stuffy.” His ideas were far more developed than that common but rather shallow complaint. More to the point behind NorthPark’s art collection was his belief that the public needed to experience art outside of galleries and museums as well as inside them. It should be encountered everywhere. Years ago, he said that “The addition of art into commercial buildings really makes them more comfortable, exciting and interesting,” and NorthPark is a testament to that.
