Hunt Slonem's Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies at the Dallas Arboretum: What to Know Before You Go

From April 20 through September 30, 2026, the Dallas Arboretum welcomes renowned contemporary artist Hunt Slonem's Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies exhibit, a vibrant celebration of color and nature set against the Arboretum's already stunning gardens. Known for his richly patterned, repetitive depictions of wildlife, Slonem brings his signature style to life through large-scale sculptures and installations scattered throughout the grounds, creating unexpected pops of whimsy amid the seasonal blooms. Whether you're a longtime fan of Slonem's work or simply looking for a fresh reason to visit the Arboretum this spring and summer, the exhibit offers a colorful, family-friendly experience that rewards slow strolls and plenty of photo stops. With the show running nearly half the year, there's plenty of time to catch it, but be sure to plan your visit before it wraps up on September 30.

Hunt Slonem's Menagerie Lands in East Dallas

Hunt Slonem paints rabbits like other people paint apples. Rows of them, dozens per canvas, each one rendered in the same loose cross-hatch strokes he's used for four decades, glowing in colors no actual bunny has ever worn, hot pink, cobalt, acid green. The New York-based artist, who also keeps live parrots and finches in his own studio, has spent his career turning wildlife into pattern. Now that work is spreading across the Dallas Arboretum's 66 acres on the eastern shore of White Rock Lake, mixing painted birds and butterflies with the real magnolias, crape myrtles, and seasonal blooms the garden is already known for.

If your only reference for the Arboretum is Dallas Blooms in spring or Pumpkin Village in October, this is a different kind of visit. It's less about the plants and more about how art and landscaping talk to each other, and it rewards people who slow down instead of speed-walking the loop.

Who Hunt Slonem Actually Is

Slonem isn't a garden-adjacent decorative artist parachuted in for a marketing push. He's a serious figure in American contemporary art, with pieces in the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum, and a well-documented habit of filling his studios, in New York, Louisiana, and elsewhere, with live exotic birds that show up, transformed, in his paintings. Bunnies became his signature almost by accident in the 1980s, after he started painting them obsessively during a period of grief. Birds and butterflies followed the same logic: repeat a creature enough times, in enough color, and it stops being a portrait and starts being a pattern you can lose yourself in.

That's the frame worth carrying into the Arboretum. This isn't wildlife art in the way a nature photographer would frame it. It's closer to wallpaper crossed with taxidermy crossed with stained glass, bright, a little maximal, and meant to be seen in volume rather than one careful piece at a time.

What You'll Actually See on the Grounds

Expect large-scale paintings and sculptural pieces placed throughout the garden's existing structure, the pathways, the pavilions, the shaded pockets near the Lay Family Garden and Pecan Grove, rather than a single indoor gallery hang. The Arboretum has a track record of doing exactly this kind of thing well; it's the same institution that's turned seasonal installations into some of the most photographed spots in Dallas. Slonem's bunnies and birds get worked into that existing rhythm, so you're moving between real foliage and painted wildlife in the same fifteen-minute stretch of walking.

Bring a phone with storage space. The color saturation in Slonem's work photographs almost too well against green backdrops, and you'll see plenty of other visitors treating certain installations like a backdrop stop rather than a gallery piece. That's fine, it's part of why the Arboretum leans into these art-meets-garden shows in the first place.

Best Time to Go

Texas summer and Dallas Arboretum crowds don't mix well after 10 a.m., and that math doesn't change just because there's art involved. Early morning, right at opening, is the move if you want to actually look at the pieces instead of navigating around strollers and school groups. Weekday mornings are noticeably calmer than weekends.

If the exhibit runs into fall, which tracks with how the Arboretum typically times its bigger installations, you'll get a bonus: cooler air, better light for photos, and the added visual of painted rabbits next to actual pumpkins if the show overlaps with Autumn at the Arboretum. Worth checking the Arboretum's own calendar before you go, since exhibit dates and seasonal decor installs can shift the layout of the grounds week to week.

Practical Stuff Nobody Tells You

• Parking fills up fast on weekends. The Arboretum's lots are not huge, and a popular art exhibit stacked on top of normal garden traffic means arriving by 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday is not paranoia, it's strategy.
• Wear shoes you can walk a few miles in. The grounds are hilly in places, and if you're chasing every installation plus the regular garden paths, you'll cover more ground than the map suggests.
• Shade is limited midday. Bring water and sunscreen even if you're only planning an hour. The Arboretum's tree canopy helps in spots but not everywhere the art is placed.
• Membership pays off if you're a repeat visitor. Anyone who's already got a membership for Dallas Blooms or the pumpkin festival should plan on using it here, one visit rarely covers everything worth seeing when a temporary exhibit is layered on top of the permanent gardens.

Is It Kid-Friendly?

Genuinely, yes, probably more than a typical museum show. The color and scale of Slonem's work reads instantly to kids in a way that subtler garden installations don't, and there's enough open lawn nearby for a break if attention spans run out. It's a reasonable pairing with a White Rock Lake morning: paddle or walk the lake trail first, then cross over to the Arboretum once the sun's higher. If you want a fuller lake-day plan, DFWPulse's guide to paddleboarding and kayaking on White Rock Lake covers rental spots within a few minutes of the garden entrance.

Families relocating to the area and still mapping out where the good green space is should also take a look at DFWPulse's guide to family-friendly DFW neighborhoods, the pockets of East Dallas and Lakewood near the Arboretum come up a lot for exactly this reason.

How This Compares to Other DFW Art-Meets-Nature Moments

Dallas doesn't have a shortage of places doing the art-outdoors thing, but they scratch different itches. The Nasher Sculpture Center downtown is quieter and more formal. The Dallas Museum of Art's late-night programming, detailed in DFWPulse's guide to DMA Late Nights, is a better fit if you want art with a bar and a crowd. The Arboretum's version is unabashedly a family outing dressed up with serious art, and Slonem's bunnies fit that mode better than almost anything the garden has hosted before. It's louder and brighter than a typical botanical installation, closer in spirit to how the Arboretum treats its holiday lights or pumpkin displays than to a hushed gallery show.

If wildlife-adjacent art has you in the mood for the real thing afterward, the Dallas Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo visitor guide is a short drive away and makes a decent second stop for anyone determined to turn this into a full day of looking at birds, painted or otherwise.

Bottom Line Before You Go

Go early, wear real shoes, bring water, and don't expect this to feel like a typical museum visit. It's a garden day with a jolt of neon color running through it, good for photos, good for kids, and genuinely interesting if you take five minutes to read up on why an artist who keeps live macaws in his studio ended up painting this many rabbits. Check the Arboretum's site for exact exhibit dates before locking in a plan, since installations like this tend to shift with the garden's seasonal calendar rather than running on a fixed year-round schedule.

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