Media Contact: Brett Gray, brett@brettgraypr.com, 214.557.6233
Junior Players at the 2019 TACA Grants Celebration
DALLAS – TACA – The Arts Community Alliance – announced last night that 48 North Texas arts organizations – representing theater, music, dance, youth performance – and for the first time, visual arts – will share in its 2019 Arts General Operating Grant distribution of $753,000, an increase over 2018’s distribution of $700,000. Grant amounts ranged from $50,000 to $5,000. Representatives of each grant recipient, as well as local arts managers, patrons and volunteers attended the event in the lobby of One Arts Plaza.
TACA Board Members Carol March, Debbie Lively, and Cheryl Alston
Guests enjoyed special performances from Junior Players’ production of Green Day’s “American Idiot” at the celebration sponsored by The Richards Group, One Arts Plaza, Platinum Parking, and Peticolas Brewing Company.
“This year TACA has placed a priority on funding organizations that are excelling in their missions and most closely align with our five evaluative criteria,” said Tara Lewis, chair of TACA’s grants committee. “Similarly, it’s important that we make early investments in young, artistic entrepreneurs. Our awards to Lumedia Musicworks and American Baroque Opera exemplify that philosophy as do grants to organizations like Cry Havoc Theater Company and Dark Circles Contemporary Dance.”
Beginning in 2016, TACA instituted a deeper strategic granting process based on more detailed evaluative criteria.
TACA Board Chair, Michelle Thomas
This year, 54 volunteers spent 2,600 hours observing performances by grant applicants, and evaluating each on:
- Artistic excellence
- Innovation and originality
- Support of local artists and local creation
- Access, diversity and inclusion of all Dallas County residents
- Financial and administrative stewardship
“For the first time, TACA is thrilled to include unrestricted funding for the visual arts among our traditional grant categories,” added Michelle Thomas, chair of TACA’s board of directors. “This gives us an opportunity to support worthy organizations across a greater segment of our arts and culture sector. If we are to realize our vision for the arts community, we must invest in all segments of it, and this year’s funding is representative of that mission.”
TACA’s 2019 grantees are:
| African American Repertory Theater | $5,000 |
| American Baroque Opera Company | $5,000 |
| AT&T Performing Arts Center | $25,000 |
| Avant Chamber Ballet | $5,000 |
| Ballet Dallas | $5,000 |
| Blue Candlelight Music Series | $5,000 |
| Bruce Wood Dance | $16,000 |
| Cara Mía Theatre Co. | $19,000 |
| Chamber Music International | $7,000 |
| Chamberlain Performing Arts | $9,000 |
| Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas | $26,000 |
| Cry Havoc Theater Company | $8,000 |
| Dallas Bach Society | $5,000 |
| Dallas Black Dance Theatre | $47,000 |
| Dallas Chamber Symphony | $14,000 |
| Dallas Children’s Theater | $50,000 |
| Dallas Contemporary | $21,000 |
| Dallas Museum of Art | $25,000 |
| Dallas Symphony Orchestra | $41,000 |
| Dallas Theater Center | $43,000 |
| Dallas Winds | $13,000 |
| Dark Circles Contemporary Dance | $15,000 |
| Fine Arts Chamber Players | $14,000 |
| Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra | $19,000 |
| Irving Symphony Orchestra | $5,000 |
| Junior Players | $21,000 |
| Kitchen Dog Theater | $15,000 |
| Lone Star Wind Orchestra | $11,000 |
| Lumedia Musicworks | $5,000 |
| Nasher Sculpture Center | $25,000 |
| Orchestra of New Spain | $10,000 |
| Orpheus Chamber Singers | $5,000 |
| Plano Civic Chorus | $5,000 |
| Plano Symphony Orchestra | $20,000 |
| Sammons Center for the Arts | $12,000 |
| Second Thought Theatre | $11,000 |
| Shakespeare Dallas | $5,000 |
| Soul Rep Theatre Company | $5,000 |
| Texas Winds Musical Outreach | $11,000 |
| The Dallas Opera | $42,000 |
| The Women’s Chorus of Dallas | $5,000 |
| Theatre Three | $10,000 |
| TITAS Presents | $26,000 |
| Turtle Creek Chorale | $13,000 |
| Undermain Theatre | $15,000 |
| Uptown Players | $15,000 |
| Voices of Change | $5,000 |
| WaterTower Theatre | $14,000 |
About TACA
TACA (The Arts Community Alliance) supports excellence and impact in the arts through grant-making, capacity building, and thought leadership. TACA envisions an innovative, inclusive, sustainable cultural sector recognized for its essential contribution to a vibrant, prosperous community. Since its founding in 1967, TACA has worked to establish North Texas’ cultural community as one of the strongest in the nation. TACA’s growing investment in the arts translates to new premieres and productions, impactful residencies and community initiatives, and more opportunities for artists and audiences to connect – all striving to make Dallas a dynamic city and a great place to live and work.
For more information about TACA, call 214-520-3930 or visit taca-arts.org. Connect with TACA on Facebook at facebook.com/tacadallas, Twitter at @TACADallas or on Instagram at @TACADallas.
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