Texans for the Arts 

February 4,2015  
Empowering Arts Advocates Across Texas
Board of Directors

Cristina Balli, Austin

 

Lynn Barnett, Abilene

 

Secretary

Amy W. Baskin, Tyler

 

Cathy Neece Brown, Fort Worth

 

Boyce Cabaniss, Esq., Austin

 

Laurette Canizares, Houston

 

Mary Grace Carroll, Laredo

 

Catherine Cuellar, Dallas

 

Cissy Segall Davis, Houston

 

Linda Donahue, Lubbock

 

Jane Estes, Georgetown

 

Ben Fyffe, El Paso

 

President

Jonathon Glus, Houston

 

Chris Heinbaugh, Dallas

 

Danny Holeva, Midland

 

Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, Austin

 

JoLynne Jensen, Bedford

 

Treasurer

Linda Lee, Fort Worth

 

Perryn Leech, Houston

 

Kathryn McNiel, Houston

 

Parliamentarian

Mary Padgett, Austin

 

Immediate Past President

Felix Padron, San Antonio

 

George Ramirez, Brownsville

 

Jennifer Ransom Rice, Austin

 

Vice President

Cookie Ruiz, CFRE, Austin

 

John Kerr Smither, Huntsville

 

Penelope Speier, San Antonio 

 

Glenda Thompson, Fort Worth

 

Ex Officio

Jim Bob McMillan, Texas Commission on the Arts

 

Executive Director

Ann S. Graham, Austin

Dear Arts Advocacy Day attendees:

 

I can't thank you enough for registering for last Wednesday's Texans for the Arts 2015 Arts Advocacy Day.  We had over 160 people in attendance and visited 98 different legislative offices!  THANK YOU!  

 

I know we squeezed a lot of content into a brief training. We provided vital and impressive facts and figures about the economic and education impact of the arts across Texas and then sent you off on visits with your legislators - giving you significant responsibility to synthesize and then impart all that you had learned!  Thank you for rising to the challenge and for taking this charge most seriously.

 

More work lies ahead...and your strong commitment is still needed!  We promise to send legislative updates as we proceed through the 84th Legislative Session!

 

Next steps:

 

* Please write a personal thank you to each legislator with whom you met!  This template 'thank you' provides some ideas, but please put into your own words what resonated for you AND what resonated with the legislator/aide with whom you visited. Find the thread that connected your passion with his/her interests, curiosity or even questions about the arts.

 

* Please spread the word about the Texas Cultural Trust's "Invest in the Arts" study that was shared at Arts Advocacy Day.  With the arts generating $5.1 billion for our state's economy and with data showing how the arts help prepare students for greater success, we need to insure that this critical information is shared far and wide.

 

* Please add your legislators to your own artist's and/or organization's database and make sure they hear regularly from you about your work in your community and in their legislative district.  Take advantage of the connections you started to build at Arts Advocacy Day.

 

* Please complete the AAD Survey to give us feedback on the day and how we can build a stronger event in 2017!

 

* Please complete the Legislative Visit Notes and Follow-Up RequestsThis information is vital for us to insure that the legislator's requests are met and that we provide them with up to date information about our efforts.

 

* Please Join Texans for the Arts! If you or your organization are not already a member, please join us!  You can join online at texansforthearts.com or you can send in the membership form included in your AAD packet.  As I say, "We work for you!"  As a solely membership funded organization, we really DO work on behalf of artists and arts organizations across the state of Texas!

 

* Please continue to post Arts Advocacy Day photos on social media, to include mention in your organization's newsletters, and to help spread the word about how your own constituents can also become arts advocates!

 

* Check out the opportunity to become a Texans for the Arts Certified State Arts Advocate.

 

* If you thought Texas was BIG, consider joining us in Washington, D.C. on March 23-24th for National Arts Advocacy Day!  February 5th is the early bird deadline for registration. Visit Americans for the Arts to register
Texans for the Arts will be there, so please join us!

 

Thank you, again, to every one of you for your hard work and for your passion for using the arts to build a better Texas.  If you have any questions, ideas or thoughts to share about our work to increase funding for the arts, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

 

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Texans for the Arts, "thank you", again!

 

Kind regards,

Ann

 

Ann S. Graham

Executive Director

 

Texans for the Arts | (512) 914-8096
PO Box 4549, Austin, TX 78765