The regular baseball season is almost over, and there haven’t been many highlights for the Texas Rangers this year. But the first season with fans in a new stadium brought the club into a trend that we see as a positive development: the convergence of sport and art.
The Dallas Cowboys pioneered this trend. Gene Jones has campaigned for dozens of artwork across the AT&T Stadium since this facility opened in 2009.
More and more stadiums are following suit. This summer, English Premier League Tottenham Hotspurs made international headlines with the opening of a permanent gallery in their London stadium. Other stadiums joining the trend include Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Hard Rock Field in Miami, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Many of these venues commission work that fits a sports theme, but not all. The Chase Center, the new home of the Golden State Warriors, displays items on loan from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Mary Zlot, a San Francisco-based art consultant who helped curate the collection at the AT&T Stadium, called this trend “fantastic” and praised the Jones family as a pioneer. AT&T Stadium offers art tours and even an arts education program for school children, she said.
“It’s just got bigger than we could ever have imagined,” she told us on Wednesday.
Maggie Adler, curator of painting, sculpture, and works on paper at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, told us that this trend is part of a larger shift toward the “democratization of art.” She said there is even a growing niche of companies bringing together public spaces like stadiums, hospitals or hotels with artists who can produce suitable works. A New England transplant, she said she was delighted when she first visited the NorthPark Center and saw Mark di Suvero’s iconic work.
“Sports fan” and “art connoisseur” may seem like mutually exclusive social circles, but Adler said there is more openness than you might think. Most artists just want people to see their work.
Kyle Steed, one of the artists whose work appears on Globe Life Field, agreed.
“I’m not worried about things like, is someone sold out, or is it really art. I’m not really interested in these conversations anymore, ”he said. “For me it is my job and I have no qualms about making money with it.”
We agree with Steed, Adler and Zlot. We commend the Rangers, Cowboys and other teams for thinking beyond decoration. While it’s too late to cheer on the Rangers this season, we’re excited to see this artistic trend continue.
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