History


	The Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County (now Houston Arts Alliance) was founded in 1977 through the efforts of the Cultural Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz. This group of civic-minded community and business leaders believed that the arts organizations in the City deserved a consistent level of support. At the time, Houston had for some years been providing financial support to a number of arts organizations through the City’s General Fund. The rationale for this support was that the arts and culture of the City were appreciated as an aid to the community’s quality of life and to business growth and to Houston’s national and international prestige. Committed to supporting the arts yet concerned about fluctuations in the availability of funds through the General Fund, the Chamber of Commerce and City leaders had been looking for another funding model since the late 1960s. With the passage of state legislation in the 1970s allowing municipalities to fund the arts through the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT), the groundwork for the creation of an independent entity, charged with support of the arts, was laid. Thus, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston was created, awarding close to $1 million in grants in its first cycle of operations. In this first cycle, 11 established organizations and 30 new and emerging groups received grant funding through the Cultural Arts Council’s nascent grant program. After a quarter century of serving Greater Houston, the number of organizations being served through the Cultural Arts Council programs exceeds 160—ranging from world-class museums and performing arts organizations to experimental and avant-garde groups to neighborhood-based arts centers. The City of Houston has been a key partner in the Cultural Arts Council’s efforts, investing Hotel Occupancy Tax in the arts for over 25 years. The cumulative investment over this quarter-century exceeds $50 million. In addition to the arts investments made through the Cultural Arts Council, the City of Houston also operates a number of arts facilities which include the Wortham Center, Jones Hall and Miller Outdoor Theatre. Throughout its history, the Cultural Arts Council has sought federal funding and foundation grants to support initiatives in public art, training of artists and arts administrators, diversity and audience development. The organization conducted the first economic impact study for Houston’s nonprofit arts sector in 1989. The Cultural Arts Council has also been the leader in the development of cultural policy in Houston, including the community-wide planning process that resulted in the Houston Framework, a comprehensive plan for civic and public art in Houston. Following the publication of the Framework, the Cultural Arts Council worked with the City of Houston to adopt a percent for civic art ordinance and today manages the City’s highly successful Civic Art Program.
	Milestones of the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County 1977 (August) Cultural Arts Council of Houston is incorporated as a nonprofit organization. The board’s first meeting was held on September 26, 1977. 1978 (March) Cultural Arts Council appoints its first director, John Blaine. 1978 (April) John H. Lindsey elected chairman of the board. 1978 Cultural Arts Council awards $1 million in grants through its first contract cycle with the City of Houston for the distribution of Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. Seventy-five percent of the funds are awarded to 11 groups (those with revenues exceeding $250,000), with the balance of 25% awarded to 30 emerging organizations and special projects. 1979 Erwin Heinen is elected chairman of the Cultural Arts Council. 1979 Cultural Arts Council receives CETA funds for artists-in-residence and administrative staff (a federal program authorized by Congress through the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act to provide employment and training services). 1979 First time that the Cultural Arts Council faces a shortfall in the collection of Hotel Occupancy Taxes; first quarter collections down 10% from previous year’s first quarter. 1980 (December) S.I. Morris is elected chairman of the board. 1980 (June) Cultural Arts Council appoints its second director, Mary Ann Piacentini (then assistant director). 1981 (May) Houston Civic Center Improvement Committee and its engineering firm, Wilbur Smith & Associates, propose as part of a convention center proposal to fix the amount of Hotel Occupancy Tax for the arts at $2.1 million (then the funding level for the Cultural Arts Council). As the issue was discussed by City Council, Houston Mayor Jim McConn writes to City Council favoring the continued funding of the arts at the one percent of tax collecting without a specific dollar ceiling. 1981 (September) Cultural Arts Council receives $75,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Expansion Arts Program. 1981 (October) Controversy arises over the Houston Festival’s desire to be funded as a line item rather than through the competitive grants process. After much discussion, a compromise is reached in November. 1981 (October) Rouse Company offers a 2,000 square feet space at Carrillion West (1000 Westheimer) for the Cultural Arts Council to use as a performing and exhibition facility. 1981 (November) Jonathan Day is elected chairman of the board. 1982 (June) Cultural Arts Council and City of Houston Community Development Division receive an award through the Environmental Improvement Program, co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the Municipal Arts Commission, for the Luis Jimenez sculpture Vaquero, located at Moody Park. 1983 Hotel Occupancy tax dips again after a three-year period of growth, resulting in a fiscal 1984 budget almost one-half million smaller than the year before. 1984 (January) The Cultural Arts Council and the City of Houston Community Development Division dedicate a public sculpture by local artist Mac Whitney in Stude Park, commissioned with grants from the Housing and Urban Development Department and the National Endowment for the Arts. 1985 Cultural Arts Council initiates the Creative Artists Program Awards to recognize and support the work of artists in the city and stimulate a greater awareness of the arts in general. 1985 (June) James Falick is elected president of the board. 1986 (February) The Cultural Arts Council is selected as one of six national pilot sites for the Administrative Manager Program, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Through this program, the Arts Council paid over 50% of the salaries of administrative managers for mid-size arts organizations. 1986 (December) As part of a long-range planning process begun in 1985 and facilitated by the national firm The Wolf Organization, Inc., consultant Tom Wolf proposed abolishing the statutory split of funding (75/25), a proposal that generates great controversy in the local arts community. 1987 (September) Cultural Arts Council adopts the Wolf Plan, changing its bylaws to eliminate the 75/25 statutory split of the funds. Now in its 10th year of operations, the Council’s grants were distributed to 13 large-budget organizations (‘majors’) and 88 other groups and projects. New evaluation criteria are adopted for the grants process along with the requirement that all organizations apply and be reviewed for funding. Board also adopts the Expansion Arts Program to fund minority arts groups in the city. 1989 Publication of The Arts & The Houston Economy, an economic impact study commissioned by the Cultural Arts Council and conducted by the University of Houston Center for Public Policy. Funding for the study was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Dayton Hudson Foundation and the City of Houston. 1989 (March) Houston arts organizations mobilize in opposition to a bill introduced at the State Legislature that would have prevented the use of the Hotel Occupancy Tax to support arts programs by limiting the use of the HOT funds to support only the advertising of arts and tourism. 1990 (June) Cultural Arts Council executive director Mary Anne Piacentini resigns to become head of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state arts agency. 1990 (September) Marion Andrus McCollam appointed executive director of the Cultural Arts Council. McCollam was at the time head of the Arts Council in New Orleans, La. 1991 Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire and Harris County Judge John Lindsay and the Cultural Arts Council appoint the Houston/Harris County Task Force, a group of over 100 members charged with creating a shared vision of the cultural future of Houston and Harris County. Cultural Arts Council supported and staffed the Task Force, whose work and vision is summarized in ArtWorks (published in 1993). 1992 (October) The City of Houston allocates additional funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax to the Cultural Arts Council. This increase is the result of the one-penny increase in the Hotel Occupancy Tax approved the year before to support the Republican National Convention. After the convention, the City splits the one-penny between the Cultural Arts Council (35%) and the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau (65%). 1992 (June) Craig Smyser is elected president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 1993 Completion of ArtWorks, A Cultural Arts Plan for the Houston/Harris County Region produced by the Arts Task Force of Houston and Harris County. 1993 (September) The percentage of City of Houston Hotel Occupancy Tax contracted to the Arts Council increases from 15% to 19%. 1993 National Endowment for the Arts awards a $250,000 grant to the Arts Council for the implementation of the recommendations of the ArtWorks plan. At this time, this was the largest grant awarded to a local arts agency by the NEA. 1993 The Cultural Arts Council, following the recommendations of the ArtWorks plan, broadens its scope to serve the surrounding Harris County in addition to the City of Houston. 1994 (October) City of Houston Convention and Entertainment Facilities department director Gerard J. Tollett proposes limiting to $5 million the Arts Council’s share of the Hotel Occupancy Tax (rather than the full 19%) and use the difference to refurbish Civic Center facilities. The proposal is approved by Mayor Bob Lanier and City Council. 1995 Cultural Arts Council negotiates a three-year $150,000 contract with Harris County. 1995 Cultural Arts Council’s Management Assistance and Organizational Development Enterprise (MODE) is recognized as a model program in the Ford Foundation’s report Rethinking Stabilization: Strengthening Arts Organizations During Times of Change. 1995 (June) Marcia Noebels is elected president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 1996 The Cultural Arts Council partners with Central Houston, Inc. for the development of a civic art project at Sesquicentennial Park. After a national competition, artists Mel Chin and Dean Ruck are selected to create work for this downtown park. 1996 (June) Janiece Longoria is elected president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 1996 (June) The members of the downtown Theater District request that the City of Houston fund them directly via a guaranteed percentage of the Hotel Occupancy Tax rather than be considered for funding through the Arts Council’s reviewed grants process. The Houston Chronicle publishes two editorials supporting the direct funding proposal, while the Houston Business Journal editorializes against the proposed direct funding. Gerard Tollett, director of the City of Houston Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department (the city agency that oversees the annual city contract) also publicly supports the Theater District proposal. 1996 (July) In response to the Theater District proposal, 36 mid-size and small arts organizations band together as the All Arts for All Houston group expressing their opposition to the direct funding proposal. On July 30, the group stages a protest in front of City Hall. 1996 (August) City Council approves the annual contract with the Cultural Arts Council with specific percentages set aside for the Theater District, Museum District, and Miller Theatre. Due to the change in the contract process, the Arts Council’s operating budget is cut significantly, resulting in program staff lay-offs and reduction of program services. 1997 (June) Debbie Haley is elected president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 1998 (January) Cultural Arts Council publishes The Houston Framework, a comprehensive approach to process and funding public art and urban design for the Greater Houston region. 1998 (April) Marion McCollam submits her resignation, effective in June, as executive director after a seven-year tenure at the helm of the Cultural Arts Council. 1998 (May) As part of the City of Houston budget process, Mayor Lee P. Brown and City Council lift the $5 million cap on Hotel Occupancy Tax for the arts. 1998 (July) Lucille Dabney, director of management services, is appointed interim executive director. 1998 (July) Texas Society of Architects awards the Cultural Arts Council a Citation of Honor in recognition of the agency’s efforts in the public art and design arena and the publication of The Houston Framework. 1998 (July) As part of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport expansion, five artists are selected to create artwork for terminals A and B through a partnership of the Cultural Arts Council with the City of Houston Aviation Department. The artists are Terry Allen, Ed Carpenter, Rachel Hecker, Leamon Green and Dixie Friend Gay. 1998 (July) City Council approved the first increase to the annual Cultural Arts Council Hotel Occupancy Tax contract since 1994, due to the lifting of the $5 million cap. 1999 (January) American Planning Association/Houston Section awards the Cultural Arts Council the Highest Honor for Strategic Planning for The Houston Framework, recognizing excellence in planning and development in the Houston area. 1999 (April) American Institute of Architects/Houston Chapter awards the Cultural Arts Council a Citation of Honor for providing leadership and direction in the development of the Civic Art + Design program and raising public awareness of the value of urban planning. 1999 (June) W.O. Neuhaus III is elected president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 1999 (August) Houston Endowment awards a $225,000 grant to support a stabilization grant program and technology initiative. 1999 (August) Cultural Arts Council appoints Lucille Dabney as executive director. 1999 (December) Houston’s City Council approves the Civic Art Ordinance, designating 1.75% of the capital projects budgets for the inclusion of art, naming the Cultural Arts Council’s Civic Art + Design department to administer the projects. 2000 (July) Elizabeth Lyons Ghrist begins her tenure as president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 2000 (August) Buffalo Bayou ArtPark is selected as the fourth participant in the Cultural Arts Council’s Arts Incubator Program. 2001 (March) Executive director Lucille Dabney resigns from her position after a nine-year tenure at the Cultural Arts Council (first as management services director and since 1999 as executive director). 2001 (April) Cultural Arts Council appoints Karen Wendler, deputy director, as interim executive director. 2001 (April) Weave Dance Company is selected as the fifth participant in the Cultural Arts Council’s Arts Incubator Program. 2001 (July) The Cultural Arts Council, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, South Main Center and the Main Street Coalition, presents an exhibition of the artwork commissioned for the Metro light rail transit project. 2001 (July) Genevieve Rousseve begins her tenure as president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 2002 Publication of Profiles in Support, a guide to the programs and services of the Cultural Arts Council and the organizations that we serve. 2002 (June) Cultural Arts Council appoints María Muñoz-Blanco as its executive director. 2002 (July) David L. Benson begins his tenure as president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 2002 (October) Executive Director María Muñoz-Blanco is invited by Mayor Lee P. Brown to serve on the steering committee of the Blueprint Houston Committee. 2003 (April) National Endowment for the Arts awards $40,000 grant to the Cultural Arts Council for research and outreach program. 2003 (June) Four new Arts Incubator participants are selected: Bobbindoctrin Theatre Company, Nuestra Palabra / Latino Writers Having their Say, Mercury Baroque Ensemble and Fresh Arts Coalition. Their selection is part of the Cultural Arts Council’s expansion of the Arts Incubator Program to double the capacity from three to six organizations. 2003 (July) George Greanias begins his tenure as president of the board of the Cultural Arts Council. 2003 (July) Cultural Arts Council expands its physical plant to include a 1,500 sq. ft. gallery space at the Houston Center for the Arts, named Space 125 Gallery, dedicated to showcasing the work of the Individual Artists Fellowship recipients. 2003 (July) Cultural Arts Council publishes first issue of Houston ArtsView, a quarterly publication showcasing Houston’s arts industry. 2003 (July) SBC Foundation awards the Cultural Arts Council a $25,000 grant through the SBC Excelerator Program to support the development of HoustonArts.Net, a portal for the nonprofit arts sector in Houston. 2003 (October) Cultural Arts Council partners with the Fresh Arts Coalition, Houston Museum District Association, Miller Theatre Advisory Board and the Theater District Association to hold a Mayoral Arts Forum. 2003 (December) Cultural Arts Council kicks-off the operations of its Space 125 Gallery, with the exhibition emerging which featured recent work by five artists selected to receive the 2003 Emerging Fellowship awards. The artists are Marcia Chamberlain, Angela Maxwell, Whitney Riley, Ketria Scott and Anderson Wrangle. 2004 (January) Cultural Arts Council presents 38 for XXXVIII, an exhibition of artist-modified footballs created to join the city-wide celebration of Super Bowl XXXVIII. The exhibition was presented at Reliant Energy Plaza (1000 Main). 2004 (January) The Cultural Arts Council's civic art services reach an important milestone with the completion of Main Street Square, a pedestrian plaza in downtown Houston. Central Houston, Inc. once again evidences is commitment to art in civic spaces by commissioning artist Floyd Newsum and Michael Davis to create civic artworks for Main Street Square. The Cultural Arts Council provides the management and consulting services for the civic art projects. 2004 (April) Space 125 Gallery participants in FotoFest 2004, the international biennial of photography held in Houston. The gallery features the exhibition Through the Lens, which showcases the work of four fellow recipients: Bennie Flores Ansell, Serena Lin Bush, Wendy Levine and Sergio Santos. 2004 (July) George Greanias is elected to a second term as president of the Cultural Arts Council. 2004 (September) The Arts & Business Council Inc. invites the Cultural Arts Council to become a national program affiliate. As part of this relationship, the Cultural Arts Council partners with the City of Houston Mayor's Office to present in Houston the National Arts Marketing Project, sponsored by American Express. The program kicks-off in September with a reception hosted by Mayor Bill White. 2004 (October) The Cultural Arts Council partners with Art Colony, Inc. to produce the performing arts component of the Bayou City Festival in downtown Houston, featuring Houston performing arts groups and demonstration tent for visual artists. 2005 (January) The Cultural Arts Council joins the Houston Aviation Department in the celebration of the opening of George Bush Intercontinental Airports' new international services facility, which include nine significant civic art projects managed by the Cultural Arts Council as part of its work for the City of Houston Civic Art Program.