The Arts Community Alliance announced its largest-ever single-year financial gift, at a time when arts funding from the federal government faces steep cuts.
The $500,000 donation to the Dallas-based arts nonprofit came from the Eugene McDermott Foundation and is intended as a long-term investment in the city’s arts and cultural community.
“Creativity is one of Dallas’ greatest natural resources,” Grace Cook, a TACA trustee, said in remarks at a lunch event this week, “and protecting it is essential if we want the spirit of this city to keep growing and reaching every corner of our community.”
In a statement, Maura Sheffler, TACA’s executive director, called the gift “a historic moment for our organization” and “a true testament of the generosity and dedication to our arts community.”
Based downtown, TACA was founded in 1967 and hosts various cultural workshops and symposiums.
The nonprofit also awards grants each year, including what it calls “Catalyst Grants,” unrestricted financial donations to Dallas County arts groups. Recent recipients have included the Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Deep Vellum.
For the 2023-24 fiscal year, the nonprofit reported about $2.1 million in revenue from contributions and grants and nearly $1 million awarded.
In 2023 the organization also launched a new initiative, called “Arts Accelerator,” that was intended to provide a boost specifically to small and emerging Dallas-area arts nonprofits.
The Dallas-based Eugene Mcdermott Foundation, a charity founded in 1972 by a Texas Instruments cofounder of the same name, awards various cultural, educational and health-focused grants.
It has previously donated to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Opera and UT Southwestern, among other D-FW institutions. Last fiscal year the organization reported a fair market value of nearly $250 million in assets and nearly $61 million in grants paid.
In her remarks at the luncheon, Cook called the foundation’s gift “an invitation” to other community members. “The future of Dallas’ creative life,” she added, “depends on the choices we make today.”
‘Confusion and chaos’
The donation is notable because it comes at a moment when arts funding around the country — and in Dallas — faces the reality of steep cuts in federal funding putting severe strains on the budgets of arts and cultural institutions, and amplifying pressure on private donors.
Earlier this week, as part of President Donald Trump’s broad proposed cuts in federal spending, the administration revealed a proposed budget that calls for the wholesale elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Together, the two independent federal agencies provide hundreds of millions of dollars in grants annually and largely underpin American cultural life. The president has also moved to fire caretakers of federal arts collections and overhaul prized cultural institutions such as the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution.
The federal cuts have also sent many Dallas-area arts organizations scrambling. On Friday, at least six North Texas groups who were recipients of NEA grants received an email alerting them they’d lost their federal funding, because the agency was now allocating money “in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.”
“What this kind of means for us right now is confusion and chaos,” Will Evans, founder of the Deep Vellum Bookstore & Publishing Co. and one of the email recipients, told The Dallas Morning News.
Several of the Dallas groups plan to appeal the fundraising terminations. “It’s a scary time,” said Shavonne Davis, founder of the community organization Maroon 9, which offers out-of-school programs for underserved teens and had been awarded a $10,000 NEA grant for a summer production inspired by the abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
“It’s just another fire that I feel like I have to really put out and try not to worry my staff and worry our parents.”
Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.
This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.