{"id":1823950,"date":"2026-03-11T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1823950"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:15:54","slug":"a-new-public-art-biennial-will-launch-along-the-katy-trail-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1823950","title":{"rendered":"A New Public Art Biennial Will Launch Along the Katy Trail in Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ivan-Argote-Wild-Flowers-3.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe Katy Trail, a 3.5-mile urban greenway in Dallas, will be the venue for a new public art biennial launching in Spring 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe KTX Biennial will unfold across the length of the Katy Trail, and the works will be on view for up to 18 months, the approved length for a temporary public work in Dallas. New York\u2013based curator Jovanna Venegas will organize the inaugural edition of the KTX Biennial.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Katy Trail runs through three Dallas neighborhoods, Uptown, Knox, and Highland Park, and is free to the public and open from 5am until 11pm. Conceived of as a public-private partnership in 1997, the Katy Trail is an early example of converting former rail lines into green space. It now sees some 2 million visitors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe thought that the most beloved trail in the city of Dallas, the Katy Trail, made a lot of sense of the location for a public art program,\u201d Amanda Dillard Shufeldt, art director of the Katy Trail, told ARTnews<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe forthcoming biennial builds on an existing public art program that the Friends of the Katy Trail launched in 2021, partially as a pilot program for the biennial. Because the trail launched nearly three decades ago, \u201cadding a new concept like Katy Trail Art needed to be vetted\u2014we needed to prove that there was going to be financial support and a general enthusiasm for the project,\u201d according to Amy Bean, executive director of Friends of the Katy Trail, which manages the park.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued, \u201cPeople wanted to make sure that they were going to feel like the works were integrated into the natural experience, and we have noticed people have come to love the surprise of sculpture\u201d as they traverse the trail.<\/p>\n

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Hadi Fallahpisheh\u2019s Guest 2<\/em> (left) and Guest 3<\/em>, installed along the Katy Trail in Dallas. <\/span>Photo Kevin Tadora<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe success got Bean and Dillard Shufeldt thinking about how to take that public art program to the next level. \u201cThe city\u2019s temporary art policy, allowing for works to be up for 18 months, lends itself naturally to a two-year cycle, which led to the decision to make a biennial,\u201d Dillard Shufeldt said. \u201cWe realized that to make a really significant impact, we needed to formalize the program and hire a curator. We thought the singular voice of an experienced curator would provide a more cohesive and enhanced experience for trail users.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat led to the formation of a committee to nominate and select a curator, with them ultimately choosing Venegas. \u201cThere was a very clear consensus among the group that Jovanna showed a fresh and clear vision, and coupling that with her background, network, and experience, gave us the confidence that she was the right choice,\u201d Dillard Shufeldt said.<\/p>\n

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Jovanna Venegas will curate the inaugural edition of the KTX Biennial.<\/span>Photo Yvonne Venegas<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tVenegas, who is currently curator at SculptureCenter in New York, told ARTnews<\/em> that she was interested in taking on the KTX Biennial because her career has mostly been focused on working in institutions with walls, like SculptureCenter and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she worked from 2017 to 2023. At both places, however, she has focused on commissioning artists to make new work, including projects by Patricia Ayres and Elaine Cameron-Weir (SculptureCenter) and Fernando Palma Rodr\u00edguez and Liz Hern\u00e1ndez (SFMOMA).<\/p>\n

\n\tDillard Shufeldt added, \u201cHer enthusiasm for the project was really evident in her proposal. We could tell that she was excited and energized about the opportunity to work in a non-traditional setting, and that she would approach the project in the thoughtful, yet innovative manner that we were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVenegas is currently at work on building out the artist list and range of commissions for the inaugural edition of the KTX Biennial. She said that in addition to working with sculptors and artists who have previously done outdoor public art, she is also thinking about including artists who work in painting and could present a mural, or performance art that could activate different parts of the trail.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough it does not officially have a title yet, the first edition will be focused on \u201cthe imaginative and plural ecologies framework of the forest, examining the visible and invisible dimensions of shared space,\u201d according to a release. Central to this is the writing of science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019 1971 short story \u201cVaster than Empires and More Slow,\u201d about a crew that is meant to observe a planet that is completely covered by a forest. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tVenegas said she is especially looking forward to how the public would interact with it at various times throughout the day, since the trail is officially open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.. She also said she was thinking about how some commissions might be especially activated by the periods between dusk and dawn.<\/p>\n

\n\tVenegas added, \u201cI am interested in the potential for an encounter between distinct worlds on the Katy Trail: that of the visitor and those created by artists.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ivan-Argote-Wild-Flowers-3.jpg?w=1024″] The Katy Trail, a 3.5-mile urban greenway in Dallas, will be the venue for a new public art biennial launching in Spring 2027. The KTX Biennial will unfold across the length of the Katy Trail, and the works will be on view for up to 18 months, the approved length for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1823950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1823950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1823950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1823950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1823950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}