TACA is best known for raising money and distributing it to performing arts organizations in North Texas. But every year, the non-profit whose acronym stands for The Arts Community Alliance, also holds a convening called Perforum to

discuss a particular issue bubbling up in the arts community. Past Perforums have addressed topics like collaboration, supporting artists and cultural diversity.  Art&Seek is partnering with TACA to livestream this year’s Perforum, Monday at 9:30 a.m. 

Zannie Voss

We invited some of the folks who will be involved to give us a preview. 

First up is Zannie Giraud Voss, professor and chair of arts management and arts entrepreneurship at SMU. She’ll moderate Monday’s conversation, so we asked her to tell us what it’s about and who we’ll  hear from. 

Each year following Perforum, we spend time talking with TACA grantees and examining survey feedback from attendees to get a sense of the issues on everyone’s front burner.  Many vital issues were brought to light last year but one that stood out was a desire to coalesce. How have other cities built a central backbone for arts and culture?  What are models of ‘conveners’ that create cohesion in a community, serve as a nexus of activity and move a community forward?

We titled this year’s Perforum Community Connections: Models for Building a Shared Vision for Arts and Culture.  The actual building of a shared vision for arts and culture in Dallas will take time and a considerable amount of input from everyone who cares about and is part of our arts community.  Before we can build, though, it is worth spending a morning hearing about the ways other communities have come together and understanding the cornerstones that are important to have in place before building,

We have invited four individuals with varying perspectives on the topic to share with us their experience.

• David Brown, General Manager of Cultural Access Washington in Seattle. Mr. Brown currently serves as the Chairman of Culture PAC, a non-partisan political action committee that supports issues of importance to the cultural community in Washington State.
• P. Carl, Co-Artistic Director of ArtsEmerson in Boston, and Director and Co-Founder of HowlRound, a think tank and knowledge commons actively making community among theatremakers worldwide through online resource sharing and in-person gatherings.
• Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Emerita of Brooklyn Academy of Music, Senior Fellow in Residence at the Mellon Foundation in New York, and Nasher Haemisegger Fellow with the National Center for Arts Research.  During her 36-year tenure at BAM, Hopkins transformed the organization into one of the world’s preeminent cultural institutions and helped revitalize Brooklyn, playing an integral role in the creation of the Brooklyn Cultural District.
• Carlton Turner, Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS in Atlanta, GA, a regional non-profit arts organization based in the south supporting artists working at the intersection of arts and social justice.  Through the theme of Creating Vibrant Communities, ROOTS Weekend-Dallas, which will take place the weekend before Perforum, will gather artists and activists from throughout Texas whose work cultivates health, safety, and sustainability in and with their communities.

We will open up a conversation for how we want to approach coming together to build a shared vision.  If there are key ingredients that are necessary or nice to have in place, let’s hear about them.  Then let’s talk.