I Love Downtown Arlington: Love to Learn

People come to Downtown Arlington for all kinds of reasons. If you’re hungry for great food driven by local restauranteurs, Downtown’s your place for dining in, delivery or taking out. Want to catch a show? Downtown is the city’s official State of Texas cultural district, so there are plenty of visual and performing arts destinations to choose from. Eager to get outside and play? Discover all we have to offer in the great Downtown Outdoors. 

People also come to Downtown Arlington to learn. In fact, people have been coming to the heart of Arlington to learn since 1895 when Arlington College, the precursor to the University of Texas at Arlington, was founded. Located along Downtown’s southern edge, today’s UTA is the largest university in North Texas and second largest in the University of Texas System. 

That’s the big picture. What we also love about UTA are the literally hundreds of thousands of students who have come to Arlington to discover their potential, make life-long friends, enrich their lives, and open their eyes to the world around them. Many of them, like this week’s I Love Downtown Arlington contributor and UTA alumnus Garret Martin, discover all there is to love about Downtown and in doing so, enrich Downtown in return.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, our love of learning continues to be fed by all kinds of Downtown institutions and destinations.

The City of Arlington was recently designated a Texas Music-Friendly Community by Gov. Greg Abbott's Texas Music Office, so what better way to celebrate than by joining the Levitt Pavilion, the UTA Music Department and Urban Alchemy for their Learn With the Levitt virtual music education series! Every Tuesday you can take free guitar lessons from professional guitarist and acclaimed guitar instructor, Tom Burchill, and every Thursday in January you can learn about a different genre of music paired with wines.

For entrepreneurs, the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce has been hosting an incredibly useful and interesting Business Leaders Series Online which features local and state experts discussion hot topics. Coming up on January 21 at 1:00pm: Payroll Protection Program 2.0 with Small Business Administration District Director Herb Austin and Tarrant County SBDC Director Rodney Johnson.

Want to learn even more about the entrepreneurs who are powering the economy in Downtown Arlington? Every other Wednesday at 2:00pm, join us for the next new episode in our Down to Business podcast series. #downtobusinessDTA

The George W. Hawkes Downtown Library is a hub for all kinds of virtual and in-person learning. For example, we love their Shelf Check podcast! In the most recent episode, hosts Sharon and Lesley dive into the world of Jane Austen with special guest Dr. Kathryn Warren, an English senior lecturer at UT Arlington who teaches a Jane Austen literature course.  

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a busy year for Special Collections at the UTA Libraries. Click here to learn about several of this year’s acquisitions, view many of them online, and discover how the collections are being used around the world.

Love to be creative? Downtown Arlington arts venues and other destinations offer several ways to explore your inner artist. Visit our events calendar for ideas, including the Resin Charcuterie Board Couples Valentine Event on February 13 hosted by Catalyst Creative Arts, Inspirations Catering, Legal Draft Beer Co., and Urban Tree Merchants.