AUSTIN The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) announced in a press release it has approved funding of 929 grants in the first funding round for fiscal year 2024. The grants total over $15 million and will go to nonprofits and units of government in 110 Texas cities. These grants include the Arts Create program, 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 2024 grants is at www.arts.texas.gov/cities24/cities.
“We are honored to provide these grants to help sustain the Texas arts industry, which is still recovering economically from the effects of COVID-19. In the 2023 legislative session, TCA received a generous increase in funding, which is reflected in these grant awards,” said Gary Gibbs, executive director of TCA, in the release. “We are grateful to the Legislature for this increase, and we are proud to invest these funds with arts organizations to support the creative economy in Texas.”
TCA Commissioners also approved the designation of two new cultural districts. Cultural districts are special zones that harness the power of cultural resources to stimulate economic development and community vitality. These districts can be focal points for generating business, attracting tourists, stimulating cultural development and fostering civic pride. The new cultural districts are Garland’s Bankhead Cultural Arts District and the Granbury Cultural District. These designations bring the total number of cultural districts in Texas to 54.
Arts Create grants provide year-round operational support to Texas arts organizations with budgets over $50,000. For fiscal year 2024, 449 Arts Create grants totaling over $4.5 million are allocated to 449 organizations in 88 Texas cities.
Arts Respond Cultural District Project grants provide support to projects that use the arts to diversify local economies, generate revenue, and attract visitors and investment. These grants are available to arts organizations and government entities verified as based in TCA-designated cultural districts. For fiscal year 2024, 94 applicants from 33 different cultural districts in 23 Texas cities will receive funding totaling just over $7 million.
Arts Respond Project grants fund arts-based projects that address one of the priority areas of economic development, education, health and human services, natural resources and agriculture, or public safety and criminal justice. For the first round of these grants in fiscal year 2024, applications from 288 arts organizations in 63 cities will receive funding, for a total of over $1.2 million.
Arts Respond Performance Support grants provide partial support to help applicants host an artist from the Texas Touring Roster in their community. The 95 grants for this quarter total $180,446 and will go to 73 organizations and units of government in 41 Texas cities.
The Commission Initiatives and Designated Funding program for this quarter distributed $55,000 received from the National Endowment for the Arts via one $20,000 grant to conduct the Poetry Out Loud high school competition in Texas and another $35,000 grant to conduct folk arts apprenticeships and related programs and documentation. Lastly, the Commission approved $2.1 million in funding designated for a new performing arts center in Flower Mound, as allocated by the 2019 Texas Legislature.
Through tourism, the historic Bankhead Highway’s cultural and economic impacts were significant to Garland’s development starting in the 1920s. Now, Garland’s Bankhead Cultural Arts District includes signature cultural institutions such as the Granville Arts Center, the Landmark Museum and The Plaza Theatre. The district features two culturally noteworthy parks, industrial space repurposed as artist studios, and a historic neighborhood. The heart of the district is downtown Garland, filled with independently-owned businesses featuring investments in infrastructure and amenities to attract visitors and residents for arts and culture programs. Garland celebrates a vast array of shopping, arts, outdoor activities and special events.
The Granbury Cultural District is centered around Granbury’s historic downtown square and is the home of many of Granbury’s best amenities, including museums, restaurants, wineries, live theater, live music venues, retail shopping, art galleries, art studios and pop-up art spaces, parks, the trolley and Segway rides, the public beach with lake access, deluxe and affordable accommodations, Lake Granbury Conference Center, Granbury’s Visitor Center, and abundant free public parking. The Cultural District is the hub of virtually all of the festivals and major events in Granbury. Granbury has been voted the Best Historic Small Town in America three separate times by USA Today as its Readers Choice.
“We are pleased to highlight the wonderful work these cultural districts are already doing to attract visitors to their communities, and to enhance the quality of life in our great state,” said Gary Gibbs, executive director of TCA. “Their applications to the designation process provided extensive information on their qualifications, and were considered through a highly rigorous review process. We congratulate them on this achievement.”
The mission of the Texas Commission on the Arts 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.
