Sweet Pass Sculpture Park is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2018 by Tamara Johnson and Trey Burns, as an extension of their own art practices, and is currently located on a one acre lot in west Dallas. Programming highlights artists in an outdoor setting on a rotating basis with a focus on project-based exhibitions. Sweet Pass is dedicated to experimentation, community engagement, and creating systems that exist in gaps between ideas of gardens, green spaces, and public spaces while supporting contemporary art.

Sweet Pass began on an empty lot but was conceived in the vacancy for opportunities for emerging and mid-careers artists to show contemporary outdoor projects. To date, we have worked with over 100 international and local artists, as well as students from local universities, schools, and youth organizations. Through these pursuits, we’ve identified another deficit; education initiatives that foster and facilitate artists and their projects without incurring massive debts. Our program Sweet Pass Sculpture School provides opportunities for artists to develop site site-responsive projects — while providing stipends, an exhibition, and structured project development.

About Tamara & Trey:

Tamara Johnson (b. 1984, Waco, TX) is a sculptor, educator and curator currently living in Dallas, TX. Johnson graduated from the >University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012 with an MFA in Sculpture. Johnson has exhibited her work at the Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX) The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT), The Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX), ex ovo gallery (Dallas, TX), Grand Union Gallery (Birmingham, UK) and various spaces in NY such as Socrates Sculpture Park, The CUE Art Foundation, Wave Hill, Maria Hernandez Park, the SPRING BREAK Art Show, Air Mattress Gallery, Microscope Gallery, NURTUREart, Black Ball Projects, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Wassaic Projects and CR10 Arts. While living in New York (2012-2018) Johnson worked as a project manager for the Robert Gober Studio and public artist Janet Zweig. Johnson received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in conjunction with Wassaic Projects, the Meadows School of Arts at Southern Methodist University, the Santo Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Trey Burns (b. 1984, Goldsboro, NC) is an educator, curator, and lens based artist whose work explores filmmaking, built environments, histories of place, and collective production. Burns currently serves as Multimedia Producer for the Dallas Museum of Art and Documentarian for the Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency. He received an MFA from the Savannah College of Art & Design in 2008 and has worked as a serial collaborator ever since. He has been shown at the Ecole Nationale d’Architecture Paris, Malaquais Gallery (Paris, France) Pavillion Vendôme (Clichy-la-Garenne, France), the St. Paul’s Cultural Center (Chicago, IL), Wassaic Projects (Wassaic, NY), ex ovo (Dallas, TX), Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), The May Gallery (New Orleans, LA), The Hand (Queens, NY) and et al Projects (Brooklyn, NY). In 2020 he received an NEA grant with Tamara Johnson in conjunction with Wassaic Projects in New York and an ArtsActivate grant from the City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture for Sweet Pass Sculpture School.