Who helps Dallas Artists?

An Important Question that only you can answer

Listening to the Glen Mitchell Show's Anything You Ever Wanted to Know on KERA-FM last week, I heard someone ask Which local institutions help local artists? It wasn't a stumper, but the answer took awhile.

The question was asked late in the hour-long program, so I won't give Glen grief over his simplistic answer, but all they (it's a group effort) could come up with was The MAC and the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art (DCCA). Those are what I thought of first, too, of course.

But there's got to be better answers. Because neither institution helps local artists that much.

The MAC has a Project Room that includes a few local artists a limited exhibition opportunity, and it offers member artists a couple of chances each year to show one or two pieces. The DCCA used to, but has shunned that policy in favor of becoming Museum Lite, showing only the best and most celebrated Dallas artists.

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Which sounds remarkably like the standard operating procedure of the other Contemptuary. Except that The MAC only shows Dallas Artists if they've made it big elsewhere and Big Time Art Guys from Out of Town (I call it the BTAGsFOOT Syndrome). The Dallas Museum of Art, of course only shows BTAGs from anywhere but here. Any institution afflicted with that syndrome tends to not be much help to local artists, who are deemed less important.

All three institutions show interesting art, which is nice for artists. But if we're going to discuss local institutions that actually help artists, we'll have to look a little further than the two big names that hog a lot of attention without really serving local artists.
 

Oddly enough, it is the City of Dallas to the rescue here. Their satellite art centers — they call them Cultural Centers, because they usually have some sort of cash flow device like a theatre included in their mix. My favorite is the Bath House Cultural Center, but the others serve artists also. Lots of artists.

They each have their own criteria for accepting work, but together, they show a lot of Dallas artists who have not yet become acclaimed or moved out of town to become acclaimed.

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Another institution which shows a lot of artists — some local — is the Dallas County Community College District. The DCCCD employs dozens of local artists, mostly as teachers, although some have risen to their level of incompetence to be administrators also.

The obvious other way the DCCCD serves local artists is with a long spectrum of classes in various media for various levels of competence. They're also a great place to learn the ropes for proposing shows and exhibiting work.
 

Which leads to two other important, but significantly smaller local stalwarts of extended learning. The Creative Arts Center and the Dallas Crafts Guild. Both employ artists and craftspersons as teachers. And those teachers teach many artists, young and old.

The Guild leans toward crafts, and the Center leans toward fine art, but both mostly lean toward the middle. Both help advance a lot of local artists' skills and understandings.

I mentioned KERA-FM in the introduction to this story. I've listed several of their ongoing programs in the Members-Only Resources area called Media. The TV sister station, Channel Two also has a superb show on Sunday evenings. And, of course, there's this very website.
 

So my question is: Which institutions, organizations or groups in Dallas help you as an artist? How do they help and how good a job do they do?

I'll 'print' your replies here. You can sign them or not — that's up to you. As editor, I'll correct spelling or grammar and edit for space and sense, but I won't change your opinions. Those are what we most want to see.

E-mail me with your responses. And thanks, in advance. -JRC