Bringing art to the Katy Trail started out as an experiment.
Charlie Shufeldt had the idea about seven years ago when he was president of Friends of the Katy Trail. It’s the nonprofit that operates and manages the popular running and cycling path in Dallas.
Shufeldt’s wife, Amanda Dillard Shufeldt, is the current art director for the trail. She said they decided to start small and see how it was received.
“It’s been such a positive reception. People love it,” she said.
'Seeding the Path'
The idea started in 2019, and in 2020 conversations with museum leaders took off as they looked for new ways to reach audiences during the COVID-19 shutdown.
A partnership with the Nasher Sculpture Center by the artist Sara Cardona debuted in 2021. Five sculptures that referenced ceramic seed pots and Japanese Akarai lanterns hung from trees in the installation called "Seeding the Path."
From there, Friends of the Katy Trail also started to collaborate with the Dallas Museum of Art and new installations rotated in regularly. Now, curation on the trail is evolving.
“Rather than presenting an individual work on a rolling basis, every two years we will invite a new curator to give a cohesive exhibition of 10-12 works along the full 3.5 mile corridor of the trail,” Dillard Shufeldt said on Thursday. “This shifts the program from a series of strong, individual projects to a unified vision.”
The program is called the KTX Biennial and its first exhibition will debut next spring.
'Bringing museum quality art outdoors'
Jovanna Venegas is the biennial’s inaugural curator.
Based in New York, Venegas has produced exhibitions at SculptureCenter in Long Island City and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California. However, she hasn’t put together a program outdoors before and jumped at the chance.
“The trail already has a set of users, two million visitors a year, that to me, is such a site of potential,” she said. ”As curators, I think we dream of moments like that to really bring art truly to the public and to a setting where it's unexpected and it can be a surprise that hopefully is altering or really moving touching.”
She has a few invitations out to artists now, and is in the process of researching others. She plans to include some representation from artists in Texas.
“I really want to add to that sense of love that people already have for the trail and not impose … but bring in, hopefully, something that is truly pleasurable because I think we need those moments of pleasure right now,” she said.
The original goal was to increase conversations about art in Dallas, Dillard Shufeldt said. It appears to be working.
When her husband went to a conference in Las Vegas, a fellow attendee asked where he was from.
“And the guy says, ‘Oh Dallas. Do you know the Katy Trail? They have this great art program, and they have all these really cool art installations on the trail.’ And my husband was like, ‘Yeah I think I know something about that,” Dillard Shufeldt said.
By bringing museum quality art outdoors, Dillard Shufeldt hopes that more people will be less intimated to check out art inside local museums and galleries.
Got a tip? Email Marcheta Fornoff at mfornoff@kera.org.
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