Wendy Taliaferro

For those readers who may not know a ton about Fort Worth, our city has an incredibly unique and growing arts and culture scene. Approximately 40 minutes from Dallas, Fort Worth has a little bit of everything. From world-class museums, eclectic gallery spaces, and an emerging music scene, this city has a fantastic variety for arts lovers.

As an employee of the Arts Council of Fort Worth, I work in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, a public space that promotes the talents of local artists, musicians, actors, and dancers. During my time at the Arts Council, I have quickly learned that public programs and spaces are a vital piece to Fort Worth’s cultural success. With that said, I started my job at the Arts Council of Fort Worth over six months ago with an inactive Business Volunteers for the Arts® (BVA) program on my desk. In the past, our BVA program had blips of success, offering assistance to local arts organizations here and there. However, I began looking into the chapters in larger cities and noticed that this program could and should have a greater impact on our community with the amount of artists and business professionals working closely together.

After speaking with cities such as New York, Miami, Houston, and Chicago, I noticed that the standard BVA model is extremely time intensive, and our staff was pretty small in comparison. In Fort Worth, we have six staff members that put on four major events a year, provide grants to over forty local arts organizations, and manage a local events calendar service. In my mind, kicking-off a fully-fledged BVA program on top of that started to feel like a big undertaking.

In order to improve our program, maintain involvement, and still be able to offer effective matching services, I outlined our goals based on what I believe will be manageable for us, and the most useful for volunteers and artists. First, I want to make our program more event-based for active discussion and networking. Many times, connections happen organically and we can use this program to facilitate that. Second, I know there is a need in Fort Worth for more workshop and seminar-based programming. We are working towards partnerships with similar organizations like BVA, getting arts and business professionals to collaborate, and making the learning process about different professional sectors more interesting. Lastly, there are many fantastic projects in the Fort Worth area that need a kick start. I know BVA can be a great way to get some projects off the ground by helping individuals find the guidance they need on a project-by-project basis.

Managing Fort Worth’s BVA program will certainly be an ongoing process, but that is a good thing in my mind. I want local artists to feel like they can come to us with ideas, and I want professionals to feel like they can reach out for collaborations and ask questions about how to get involved with the arts in Fort Worth. It is great to be in a growing, changing city that is embracing new ideas. We have the ability to get people involved and the options should be endless.