Dallas Cultural Plan- Dallas, TX

Project Rationale: In 2017, the City of Dallas launched a comprehensive cultural planning process to engage artists, cultural organizations, and residents in shaping the future of arts and culture. Dallas faced inequitable access to arts and cultural opportunities across neighborhoods and needed a unified vision to ensure equitable distribution of resources and support for artists citywide.

Goals: 

• Create a collective vision for Dallas arts and culture
• Expand equitable access to cultural programming for all Dallas residents and visitors.
• Strengthen youth engagement through arts-based learning, creative workforce training, and community collaboration.
• Foster a connected, inclusive, and resilient cultural ecosystem.

Project Summary: 

Following a year-long process with more than 150 public, committee, and taskforce meetings and participation from nearly 9,000 residents, the Dallas City Council unanimously adopted the Dallas Cultural Plan on November 28, 2018. The plan outlined six priorities, 31 strategies, and 140 initiatives to guide citywide arts investment and programming.

The Cultural Organizations Program (COP) is the primary mechanism for implementing the plan. Through COP, the Office of Arts & Culture (OAC) funds nonprofit cultural organizations to deliver arts programming across Dallas, ensuring alignment with the plan’s equity and inclusion priorities.

One of Dallas’s most impactful COP grantees, Big Thought, supports youth through creativity-driven education programs that close the opportunity gap for young people of color. Three youth-focused programs funded through COP best demonstrate the Cultural Plan in action:

• Dallas City of Learning (DCoL): A partnership among Big Thought, the Mayor’s Office, Dallas ISD, and 400+ organizations providing free and low-cost STEAM programs citywide. In 2022, DCoL reached 22,632 youth through 1,308 programs totaling 1.4 million learning hours.
• Artivism: A social-justice-through-art program empowering teens (ages 15–18) to express themselves through visual and performance art guided by professional artists. Each session concludes with a student-led public showcase.
• Creative Solutions: An arts-as-workforce intervention for justice-involved youth ages 10–17, offered year-round in juvenile facilities and through a summer intensive at Southern Methodist University.

Engagement Strategies: 

• Extensive citywide engagement process (150+ meetings, 9,000 residents).
• Public funding (COP) tied to plan priorities and reviewed annually through open application and panel process.
• Partnerships with schools, universities, nonprofits, and community organizations to expand youth access to arts and culture.
• Collaboration with SMU’s Center on Research and Evaluation for data tracking and program evaluation.
• Public art exhibitions, youth showcases, and creative workshops connecting residents through art.

Outcomes: 

• Cultural Plan unanimously adopted by City Council in 2018; priorities embedded in city funding.
• DCoL: Students attending ≥10 days were 25% more likely to pass STAAR Math and Reading; high schoolers were 40% more likely to pass English I. Post-pandemic, participants maintain higher GPAs and test scores than peers.
• Artivism: 36 youth, 1,139 learning hours; 84% reported higher confidence and 83% better self-expression.
• Creative Solutions: 8-year recidivism average of 10% (vs. 38% county average); 82% of participants report improved emotional expression.
• Shared best practices nationally through the Wallace Foundation’s National Summer Learning Project.

Resources

• Dallas Cultural Plan
• Dallas’ 2023 AAC Presentation