Fast Cities: Culture, Front and Center: Dallas | Fast Company
Fast Company considers the top cities in many different categories. Dallas’ new AT&T Performing Arts Center has propelled the City of Dallas to be at the top of the list for putting Culture Front and Center. I have written articles about the Arts District and there are a lot of cultural activities not only in the Arts District but all over the DFW Metroplex.
It seems that all the cities are committed to giving the Metroplex a haven for all North Texans to not only experience different cultures and the arts, but to also participate in many family events, sporting events (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS and the list goes on).
According to Estimates for 2008 from the US Census and Harvard University’s “Diversitydata.org” minority populations such as Hispanics have grown by over 50% since 2000 to 2008 and accounting for 30% of the population in the DFW area. During the same time period, Asian and Pacific Islander populations have also grown by about 50% comprising of just 5% of the total DFW population with African Americans accounting for 14% of the population and growing by about 27%.
New Census figures will shed some light on the actual changes that will make up the face of the DFW area in terms of diversity. The city is currently on track to be at the forefront of what Fast Company predicts in terms of being at the forefront of Culture.
The City of Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs and is ever present in the social media scene. Having a city sanctioned office devoted to culture and perpetuating the arts also puts the city at the forefront of Culture. Per their website: They oversee 19 city-owned cultural facilities. “These facilities consist of many of our community’s most important cultural venues, and when combined, represent more than 1.5 million square feet of space dedicated to arts and cultural functions in our community.”
The Cultural Centers are as follows: Bath House Cultural Center, Latino Cultural Center, Meyerson Symphony Center, South Dallas Cultural Center, and Oak Cliff Cultural Center.
We also can’t leave out the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
Arts Council programs address three main areas:
* advocating for and funding local arts organizations through a competitive grants program;
* providing first class public art services, enhancing the visual environment of the city; and
* managing the Community Arts Center as an affordable and accessible venue for artists arts organizations, and the community as a whole.
So where ever you are in the DFW Metroplex, the abundance of cultural, arts and family activities are plentiful.
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