Fair Park in Dallas has been named a Cultural District by the TCA, 2021. Also designated this year: The Laredo Cultural District in Laredo, and the Westside Cultural District in San Antonio.
The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) has announced more than $11.6 million in grants across Texas, funding 976 nonprofits and governments in 121 Texas cities. TCA also has declared three new Cultural Districts: the Fair Park Cultural District in Dallas, the Laredo Cultural District in Laredo, and the Westside Cultural District in San Antonio. These zones are intended to “harness the power of cultural resources to stimulate economic development and community vitality… and can be focal points for generating business, attracting tourists, stimulating cultural development and fostering civic pride.” (For news on Texas city cultural district designations announced last year, please go here.) The new additions brings the total number of cultural districts in Texas to 51.
TCA Grants provide year-round operational support to Texas arts organizations and government entities with budgets over $50,000 that are located in TCA-designated cultural districts. In response to the economic blow to the arts in Texas due to the pandemic, TCA executive director Gary Gibbs states:
“We are honored and humbled to provide these grants to help sustain the Texas arts industry … Over the last 18 months, we have seen many arts organizations and artists find creative and flexible ways to bridge distances and to find new ways of conducting their work and connecting communities. The arts have brought much comfort and means of expression to people across our state. However, it is important to note that most organizations and artists are not making the money they were before the pandemic. We are proud to invest these funds with arts organizations toward recovering the creative economy in Texas.”
These grants include the Arts Create program, which provides operational support to established arts organizations; the Cultural District Project program; the first of two funding rounds for the Arts Respond Project program; the quarterly Arts Respond Performance Support program; and the quarterly Commission Initiatives and Designated Funding program. TCA’s full list of fiscal year 2022 grants can be found here.
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The mission of the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) is to advance our state economically and culturally by investing in a creative Texas. TCA supports a diverse and innovative arts community in Texas, throughout the nation and internationally by providing resources to enhance economic development, arts education, cultural tourism and artist sustainability initiatives. For more information on TCA and its programs, please visit www.arts.texas.gov.
