The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame has a new front door. The museum at 1720 Gendy St. has built a 16,000-square-foot westward extension, and its new entrance faces the arena across the way, the building that was Dickies Arena until October 26. Since that morning, it has been Ariat Arena.
The museum has been at this site since 2002. Its entrance has never pointed at the arena before. On Saturday, November 7, the museum holds a parade, opens its expansion, and then shares the evening with a headline concert next door. Every part of that day draws on the same streets and lots. This is the Cultural District's new arrangement, and opening day is the first full test of it.
Thursday Starts the Week With the 50th Induction
The week opens today, Thursday, November 5, with the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame's 50th Annual Induction Luncheon & Ceremony. The 2026 honorees are Cherie DeVaux, Laura Kraut, Kenda Lenseigne, Lela Rose, Lisa Sorrell and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. The archive already holds more than 4,000 artifacts and over 260 enshrined women. Two days after this ceremony, the building those women are honored in grows by a wing.
What the New Wing Holds
The museum's expansion page describes four new gallery spaces:
- A fashion gallery
- A personal collection gallery
- A photography gallery
- An 18-horse carousel, custom-made in San Francisco
The wing also adds a 250-guest event venue and dedicated space for K-12 programming. Linbeck returns as the construction team, EwingCole is architect of record, and Projectiles, a firm based in Paris, is design architect again. When the museum announced the project in June 2025, it put the cost at $19 million and said the arena-facing entrance would improve visibility and accessibility for guests visiting the area.
The Icons Gallery opens with "Miranda Lambert: Velvet Rodeo," the wardrobe Lambert wore during her Las Vegas residency. Fort Worth Magazine dates the residency to September 2022 through April 2024 and reports that the exhibit is expected to stay for at least a year.
The idea for the collection began in this building. In the announcement published by the Fort Worth Report, Lambert described her first visit:
"When I first visited the National Cowgirl Museum, I was so inspired by all of the amazing Western pieces on display that I sent a bunch of photos to my stylist, Tiffany. We mixed that inspiration with the heyday of Elvis to create the 'Velvet Rodeo' wardrobe."
Curator Ashley Kowalski said in the same announcement that the styling drew on historic garments by Western tailors that Lambert saw on display at the museum.
Why the Arena's New Name Fits the Door
The museum's expansion page still says the new entrance faces "Dickies Arena." That name was retired before the wing opened. The Fort Worth Report reported that Trail Drive Management Corp., which manages the arena, and Ariat International agreed to a 10-year naming-rights partnership that took effect right away. Under the deal, Ariat is the arena's exclusive partner for Western wear, work wear and boots.
The new name matches the museum's Western subject closely. Ariat was founded in 1993 to make boots for equestrian athletes and Western riders. It opened a flagship store on Mule Alley in the Stockyards in 2022 and announced last year that it would invest $72.6 million and add 250 jobs at its regional headquarters in Fort Worth. The change came after Bluestar Alliance bought the Dickies brand and said it did not want to remain the naming partner.
Some old signage will still be up this weekend. Ariat signs are going up now, and all permanent signage is expected to be installed by the end of the year. The deadline is the 130th Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, which begins January 15. The arena is owned by the city, seats up to 14,000 depending on the event, and cost an estimated $540 million. A full house there is far larger than the museum's new 250-guest event space.
Saturday, Hour by Hour
On November 7, the museum's opening and the arena's concert happen on the same day. Here is how the day runs, based on the museum's grand-opening page and the arena's event listing:
| Time | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. | Cowgirl Museum | Members-only preview |
| 10:30 a.m. | Parade route | Streets close |
| 11 a.m. | Cultural District | Grand Cowgirl Parade, free anywhere along the route |
| Noon | Cowgirl Museum | Expansion opens to the public |
| 5 p.m. | Cowgirl Museum | Opening-day hours end |
| 6 p.m. | Ariat Arena | Doors open for John Summit |
| 7 p.m. | Ariat Arena | Show begins |
The parade will include more than 300 people representing Cowgirl honorees and board members, local officials, riding clubs and civic organizations. The museum also sells reserved parade seats. The route is shown on a map on its event page.
Parking is where the two halves of the district meet. For the parade, the museum lists public parking in the Western Heritage Garage and the Yellow Lot, with a fee set by the City of Fort Worth and Trail Drive Management. Members can get discounted parking at the museum's concierge desk. The arena also lists the Yellow Lots among its own parking areas and says prices depend on the event. Demand for John Summit was strong enough that the arena added a second show on Sunday, November 8. If you come for the parade in the morning, the museum's 5 p.m. close leaves an hour before the concert crowd starts filling the same lots for 6 p.m. doors.
The museum's posted general admission is $10 for adults, $4 for children ages 4 to 12, and $7 for seniors and military or first responders. Children 3 and under get in free. A Cowgirl Family ticket for two adults and up to four children is $28. If you visited the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History the same day, you get 50% off at the Cowgirl. That museum charges adults $16. Saturday is opening day and will draw a crowd. A later weekday is a better time to see the carousel and the four galleries.
Plan the Rest of November Around the Arena Calendar
The same overlap repeats through the month. The arena's November calendar decides which nights are busy around Gendy Street:
- November 13–15: Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live: Glow-N-Fire, with shows Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
- November 21: Ty Myers.
- November 22: The LS² Hoops with Heart doubleheader, with TCU vs. Utah State at noon and Texas vs. Ohio State at 2:30 p.m.
- November 27: INTOCABLE.
Friday, November 13, is the busiest night. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is free on Fridays. On November 13 it will show "In the Making: Stories from the Collection," which opens October 31 and runs through August 15, 2027. The Kimbell Art Museum stays open until 8 p.m. on Fridays and has "Photography's First Century: Masterworks from the Bibliothèque nationale de France" on view through January 17. That same evening, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden holds Blooms & Beats in the Horseshoe Garden from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with local live music and food from Flora House Cafe. The first monster truck show starts at 7 p.m. If you're doing the free Friday at the Modern, arrive before the arena traffic builds, not alongside it.
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is free every day, and it stays open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. "Here Lyeth: Grave Rubbings by Ann Parker and Avon Neal" closes November 8, the day after the Cowgirl opening. "The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol" runs through January 3, 2027, and "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Carter" runs through September 2027. Of the exhibitions in this post, "Here Lyeth" is the only one that closes this weekend.
The Lambert wardrobe will be on view well into next year, and the Kimbell's photography show runs through mid-January. The time-sensitive items are Saturday's parade, the street closures at 10:30 a.m., and the parking that the museum and the arena share all day.
Our team follows the Cultural District calendar closely, from which lots fill on arena nights to which museum Fridays stay quiet. If you're weighing a home within reach of Gendy Street and want to know how the area works on an event night, Torelli Properties Group can walk you through it. Schedule Your Personalized Consultation.
