The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame is closing its doors to the public starting Oct. 19, kicking off a 19-day countdown to a $19 million expansion reveal that will put Miranda Lambert's Las Vegas residency wardrobe on public display for the first time. The Fort Worth institution reopens Nov. 7 with 16,000 square feet of new space, including a fashion gallery built specifically to showcase the Grammy winner's stage costumes.
A Staged Reopening With Members First
According to cowgirl.net, the museum will be closed to the public beginning Oct. 19 and will reopen Nov. 7 with a members-only preview at 10 a.m. and a public opening at noon. The reopening itself has been built as a layered event: museum members get early access first, followed by a Cowgirl Grand Parade at 11 a.m., with doors opening to everyone else at noon, according to American Horse Publications.
The expansion carries a $19 million price tag and adds a new entrance facing Dickies Arena, additional galleries including a photography space, an event venue that can hold up to 250 guests, and a new attraction called the Cowgirl Carousel, the outlet reports. That carousel is an 18-horse ride custom-made in San Francisco, and the broader buildout also includes a personal collection gallery and dedicated space for K-12 programming, per the same cowgirl.net report.
Lambert's Stage Wardrobe Gets Its Own Gallery
The new fashion gallery's first exhibition is dedicated entirely to Miranda Lambert, debuting with wardrobe from her 2021 Velvet Rodeo Las Vegas residency, according to American Horse Publications. Organizers describe the showcase as a way of highlighting the connection between Western fashion, music and contemporary culture, framing stagewear as part of a broader story about how cowgirl style has evolved.
Lambert was named to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame's 2021 honoree class, inducted at a luncheon at Dickies Arena alongside Pop Chalee, Lari Dee Guy, Kathryn Kusner and Lavonna “Shorty” Koger, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. That earlier recognition is part of why her wardrobe was chosen to anchor the museum's reinvented fashion space five years later.
What the Reopened Museum Will Look Like
The museum sits in Fort Worth's Cultural District at 1720 Gendy Street, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, which reported that the new fashion gallery will showcase iconic Western wear and the evolution of cowgirl style more broadly, not just Lambert's pieces. The station's report frames the expansion as placing Western fashion at the center of the museum's updated visitor experience, alongside the new galleries and event spaces detailed by American Horse Publications.
As first reported by the Fort Worth Report, the exhibition sits within a new Icons Gallery, one of the four spaces included in the 16,000-square-foot expansion. Visitors will get a rare chance to examine performance garments up close in a museum setting, rather than from a distance under stage lighting during a concert.
Fort Worth residents counting down to Nov. 7 will have 19 days without access to the museum while crews finish the buildout. The payoff, organizers say, is a reimagined cultural stop that pairs a century-spanning Hall of Fame tradition with one of country music's biggest current stars, giving the Cultural District a fresh draw just as the holiday season approaches.
