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About Arts and Culture

A department of the City of Irving that runs five public destinations, keeps the collections, funds local arts organizations and books the rooms. Here is who does that, and how to reach them.

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  • Department City of Irving Arts and Culture
  • Arts Center opened 1990
  • Campus Ten acres on MacArthur Boulevard
  • Office hours Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm

About us

One department, five front doors.

Arts and Culture is a department of the City of Irving. It runs the venues, keeps the collections, funds local arts organizations and answers the phone when a resident wants to book a room. This page explains who does that and how to reach them.

The Irving Arts Center opened in 1990 on ten acres off MacArthur Boulevard and has been the anchor of the department ever since. Two theaters, five galleries, a sculpture garden and a walled courtyard sit on one campus, and eight resident companies use them across the season.

The rest of the department is spread across the city. The Irving Archives and Museum holds the record of how Irving became a city of 250,000 people. The Mustangs of Las Colinas Museum sits under the sculpture that put the city on postcards. The Jackie Townsell Bear Creek Heritage Center preserves a freedmen's settlement founded by people who had been enslaved. The Ruth Paine House Museum is the ordinary suburban house where an ordinary week in November 1963 turned into American history.

Those five places have almost nothing in common as visits, and the current website treats that as a problem to solve with uniformity. We treat it as the reason the site exists. Each venue keeps its own colour, its own photography and its own voice, inside a structure that behaves identically everywhere, so learning one destination teaches a resident how to use all five.

A docent leading a group through a gallery at the Irving Arts Center
Free docent tours run on the first Saturday and second Sunday of every month.
  • Five Public destinations Two museums, a heritage center, a historic house and an arts center
  • Eight Resident companies Symphony, chorale, theater and series partners
  • 712 Seats in Carpenter Hall Plus 253 in the Dupree Theater
  • Free Gallery admission Every gallery, every open day, no ticket

Boards, grants and the collection

  • Irving Arts Board

    A city board of resident volunteers appointed by the City Council. It reviews grant applications, advises on public art and meets in public. Agendas, minutes and vacancies belong on this site, not in a separate portal.

    Meeting agendas and minutes

  • Grants for artists and organizations

    The city funds local arts organizations and individual artists each year. Eligibility, deadlines, award ranges and the reporting a grantee owes afterwards should all sit on one page with the application form.

    Grant guidelines and deadlines

  • Public art collection

    Sculpture in the courtyard and garden, work in the lobbies, and the pieces installed around the city. Each piece deserves a record with the artist, the year, the medium and where to stand to see it.

    Browse the collection

Talk to a person.

Every department page ends with a named way in rather than a general inbox. If the question is about a ticket, the box office answers it. If it is about a room, an event or a grant, administration does.

Box office
(972) 252-2787
Administration
(972) 252-7558
Address
3333 North MacArthur Boulevard, Irving, Texas 75062
Office hours
Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm