Texas Commission on the Arts

Texas Commission on the Arts The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) provides grants, information, and services in support of the

Our September newsletter is out, with news about four newly approved cultural districts, over 1,100 new grants, Poetry O...
09/03/2026

Our September newsletter is out, with news about four newly approved cultural districts, over 1,100 new grants, Poetry Out Loud, Texas State Artist nominations, grant closeout reports, TCA listening sessions, and more! Read all about it at https://conta.cc/4A7tIZk

Photo of the Mitte Cultural District in Brownsville by Carlos A. Bravo.

Mitte Cultural District

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists, including Daniel Pardo!Daniel Pardo is a Colombian-American flutist whose...
08/30/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists, including Daniel Pardo!

Daniel Pardo is a Colombian-American flutist whose vibrant programming blends classical music with Latin jazz and world music, engaging audiences of all ages. A former U.S. Military musician, he brings artistic excellence, professionalism, and a strong commitment to community engagement to every performance. Based in Houston, Texas, Pardo is Associate Professor of Flute and Interim Department Head of Music and Theatre at Prairie View A and M University. An award-winning performer and arranger, he is recognized for his imaginative fusion of world music with jazz and is in demand as a presenter and performer at festivals, universities, conferences, and concert series throughout the United States and abroad. His touring programs—including The Flute Around the World, From Mozart to Corea, and Classical Boleros—are designed to be flexible and accessible and may be presented in formats ranging from flute and guitar to flute with rhythm section and strings. Pardo's 2024 album Ese Momento earned two Gold Medals from the Global Music Awards and the Absolute First Prize and Innovation Award at the Beethoven International Competition (UK). He has appeared on National Flute Association Gala concerts and serves as Program Chair for the 2026 NFA Convention. Daniel Pardo is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician. Photograph by Teresa Rafidi.

See Daniel Pardo's full Texas Touring Roster profile at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/daniel-pardo/

The Texas Touring Roster has dance groups who can perform in multiple styles, and who offer TEKS-aligned student program...
08/29/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has dance groups who can perform in multiple styles, and who offer TEKS-aligned student programming, like Dallas Black Dance Theatre!

Founded in 1976 by Ann Williams and currently under the direction of Richard A. Freeman, Jr., Dallas Black Dance Theatre positively impacts lives and bridges cultures through the transformative power of dance from an African American perspective. As the largest and oldest professional dance company in Dallas, DBDT is the fourth-largest Black dance company in the nation and among the 10 largest contemporary modern dance companies and 50 largest ballet companies in the U.S. Touring has reached numerous Texas cities, 32 states, and 16 countries. Audiences have watched virtually in 35 states and 45 countries. DBDT’s main professional company (12 dancers) and second professional company DBDT: Encore! (10 dancers), provide a variety of performance types and fee ranges to accommodate audiences of all sizes and ages. The company’s repertoire is broad, from masterworks by nationally and internationally renowned choreographers to today's most talented emerging artists. Dance styles include modern, ballet, jazz, African, and tap. Multidisciplinary works incorporate various dance styles, projected images, and speaking/singing roles for the dancers. Multicultural collaborations authentically unite communities by reflecting America’s rich cultural landscape. Student matinees include a TEKS-aligned educational study guide. DBDT received the Texas Medal of the Arts Award for Arts Education in 2017. Photo by Brian Guilliaux.

See DBDT's full Roster profile at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/dallas-black-dance-theatre/

Dallas Black Dance Theatre

The Texas Touring Roster has artists and groups that help bring communities together and foster healing and connection, ...
08/28/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has artists and groups that help bring communities together and foster healing and connection, including Community Arts!

Community Arts LLC is a Texas-based, community-engaged arts organization specializing in large-scale mosaic mural projects and art-based learning experiences across the state. Led by Founder and Senior Clinician Wanda Montemayor, the organization integrates public art, social-emotional learning, and collective storytelling to create accessible, inclusive creative spaces for participants of all ages. With deep roots in education, Community Arts LLC brings a strong foundation in curriculum design and facilitation. The organization works closely with schools, campuses, libraries, nonprofits, and community partners to deliver art-based workshops that support emotional literacy, collaboration, and resilience. Programming also extends to veterans, first responders, educators, and families, offering trauma-informed, strengths-based creative experiences tailored to each community’s needs. Engagements range from short-form, one-day workshops and public art activations to long-term, year-long programming that embeds the arts into broader wellness, recovery, and community-building initiatives. Community Arts LLC also provides public speaking and professional development focused on community-engaged art, creative placemaking, educator wellness, and healing-centered practice. Through hands-on art-making and participatory facilitation, Community Arts LLC creates enduring public artworks and shared experiences that honor individual voices while building joy-filled, resilient communities across Texas. Photo by Wanda Montemayor.

See Community Arts' full Roster listing at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/community-arts/.

Community Arts LLC

The Texas Touring Roster has energetic teaching artists who can help students learn key concepts, like Chris EspinosaXYZ...
08/27/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has energetic teaching artists who can help students learn key concepts, like Chris EspinosaXYZ!

Students buzzing around like bees! Kings and queens fracturing fairy tales! A melodramatic storytelling performance! This is what you can expect (and more) when Chris EspinosaXYZ bursts into your classroom with his over-the-top drama and bins of costumes. His sessions are laugh-out-loud funny, but Chris is serious about providing drama experiences that support any state standard. He even has lessons in SOCIAL STUDIES (character-driven civil rights monologues), SCIENCE (acting like a Rube Goldberg machine to understand force/energy/motion), and MATH (Shakespearean Geometry). Chris always motivates a new level of student creativity and participation. Even your quietest students will want to perform! It will surprise and amaze you. One teacher wrote, "Chris Espinosa provided an engaging week…His exuberant personality hooked the fourth-grade students...The connections we made with him and the artistry we experienced have left a lasting impression." After a visit from Chris, many schools have experienced higher scores on state-mandated tests. Chris is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist and a Certified Arts Integration Teaching Specialist; he has presented hundreds of assemblies and arts-integrated residencies at elementary and middle schools throughout Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. He's an actor, writer, director, and producer with over 30 years of experience.

See Chris's full Roster listing at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/chris-espinosa-xyz/

Apparently, today is National Dog Day, and the Texas Touring Roster has artists who can help you mark the occasion, incl...
08/26/2026

Apparently, today is National Dog Day, and the Texas Touring Roster has artists who can help you mark the occasion, including Chris Barton, author of How to Make a Book (About My Dog), among others!

With 25 books, Chris Barton has been the first author that many thousands of young Texas readers have ever met. His fiction picture books include We Match! (2025) and bestseller Shark vs. Train. His nonfiction includes three biographies included on the prestigious Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, among them Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions and What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. Through his main program, "Write What You'd Love to Learn," Chris encourages audiences—preschool and up—to turn the things they're passionate about into the subjects of their own fiction and nonfiction writing. After reading from his host's choice of his books, Chris uses that story as a jumping-off point for an age-appropriate discussion of research, revision, and/or collaboration, followed by answering as many audience questions as time allows. In addition to keynote addresses for adult audiences, he also provides workshops to writers of all ages—fun, informative, engaging opportunities for students to work with a published author to improve their own writing. Chris is happy to customize workshops to meet his hosts' needs, zeroing in on techniques students can continue to use long after they have left the classroom. Photo by Elizabeth McGuire.

See Chris's full Roster profile at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/chris-barton/

Chris Barton, Author of Books for Young Readers of All Ages

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists like Chloe de Souza, one of two sisters on the Roster!Houston-based concer...
08/25/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists like Chloe de Souza, one of two sisters on the Roster!

Houston-based concert pianist Chloe de Souza is a soloist, chamber musician, and educator who engages audiences through warmth, expressivity, and storytelling. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, she brings a versatile musical voice shaped by her cultural heritage and classical piano and vocal training, blending Western Classical with South Asian traditions. A DACAMERA Young Artist and a recipient of the Houston Arts Alliance Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant, she performs widely across the U.S. and internationally. Highlights include appearances at the Wortham Theater Center, The Menil Collection, a flute-and-piano recital in San Miguel de Allende, and a masterclass tour for Steinway India. She was also featured as soloist at the 2024 Inter-Asian Cultural Exposition in Baltimore. De Souza holds a BM in Piano and Vocal Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an MM in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and is a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Institute. She serves as adjunct faculty at Texas Southern University and Kinder HSPVA. Concert offerings include Scenes from Childhood, an interdisciplinary program exploring childhood through music and theater; Reflections in Sound, featuring Impressionist repertoire by Debussy and Charles Griffes; and Voices Unbound: Music by Women Composers, featuring American-Indian composer Reena Esmail. Photo by Sara Anderson.

See Chloe's full Roster profile at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/chloe-de-souza/

Chloe Desouza

Opportunity alert!Submission deadline: September 14, 2026Prize: $10,000Application fee: $35The Gibbes Museum and Society...
08/24/2026

Opportunity alert!
Submission deadline: September 14, 2026
Prize: $10,000
Application fee: $35

The Gibbes Museum and Society 1858’s Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is awarded to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South. Presented annually, the Prize recognizes the highest level of artistic achievement and welcomes applications from artist working across any media. Artists who reside, work in, or are from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia are encouraged and eligible to apply. Previous winners have subsequently received awards from the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Additionally, winning artists’ work has been received into the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Gibbes Museum of Art. In addition to the $10,000 monetary award, artwork will be chosen by the Gibbes Curatorial Team, in collaboration with the artist, for display in the Mary Jackson Modern and Contemporary Galleries for the duration of the year following the winner’s announcement.

Applications are accepted exclusively through this website: https://www.gibbesmuseum.org/1858-prize/

the Gibbes museum

Performance poets? The Texas Touring Roster has them, including Chibbi!M.R. "Chibbi" Orduna is a Mexican-born, Texas-rai...
08/23/2026

Performance poets? The Texas Touring Roster has them, including Chibbi!

M.R. "Chibbi" Orduna is a Mexican-born, Texas-raised poet, performer, and community organizer whose work lives at the intersection of identity, culture, and social reckoning. A 3x San Antonio Poetry Grand Slam Champion, Chibbi has performed and facilitated workshops across the US in theaters, schools, universities, libraries, and community spaces. Chibbi's work has been featured by Button Poetry, BuzzFeed, We Are Mitu, Texas Review, Wax Wing, and Acentos Review, among others, and has garnered over three million views online. Chibbi is the author of OTRO/PATRIA and the spoken word album The Target Shoots Back, a one-person performance work blending poetry, music, and theater. Available touring programs include: The Target Shoots Back – A one-person spoken word performance exploring borderlands identities, violence, and resilience, adaptable for theaters, festivals, and community events; Spoken Word Performance Sets – Curated performances ranging from 15–60 minutes, tailored for general audiences, schools, and literary events; Writing and Performance Workshops – Interactive workshops focused on voice, craft, revision, and writing from lived experience, suitable for middle school through adult learners; Talkbacks and Community Conversations – Facilitated post-performance discussions centered on art, identity, and civic engagement. All programs are scalable and adaptable. Photo by Cory Garcia.

See Chibbi's full Texas Touring Roster listing at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/chibbi/

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists like Chelsea de Souza, one of two sisters on the Roster!Concert pianist Ch...
08/22/2026

The Texas Touring Roster has instrumentalists like Chelsea de Souza, one of two sisters on the Roster!

Concert pianist Chelsea de Souza is a Steinway Young Artist internationally acclaimed for her dynamic artistry and imaginative recital programming. Born in India and based in Houston, the four-time All-India Piano Competition winner brings together a diverse range of musical influences from Western and Indian classical to jazz in her genre-defying artistry. A captivating performer and lecturer, she weaves together personal anecdotes, historical context, and musical improvisation to create immersive concert experiences that are appealing to all audiences. Her recital project The Silk Road: Musical Exchange between East and West—praised on tour across the US and India—intertwines performance and storytelling to illuminate cultural identity and migration. Additional programs include Crossroads, examining the East–West duality of her heritage, and Elemental, inspired by the four natural elements. Recent performance highlights include the world premiere of "Do You Remember," a new piano concerto by Nicky Sohn; an artist residency on Performance Today's Rhone Valley cruise with radio host Fred Child; and an ongoing series of live improvised recital-experiments using EEG-based brain interfacing. De Souza is co-founder of the Houston Music Festival and a former Mitchell Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Houston. She holds a DMA from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Photo by Jeff Fitlow.

See Chelsea's full Roster listing at https://www.arts.texas.gov/product/chelsea-de-souza/

Chelsea de Souza, pianist

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