ARTS FORT WORTH
Wesley Gentle, Executive Director and President of Arts Fort Worth recently announced that Arts Fort Worth will be moving out of the building at 1300 Gendy, across the street from the Amon Carter Museum.
Here is the letter we received and wanted to share with our readers:
After 22 years of incubating arts initiatives and empowering local artists and performers in Fort Worth’s historic Cultural District, Arts Fort Worth will wind down its management of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center at 1300 Gendy Street.
Through its programming and services, Arts Fort Worth has created a space for tens of thousands of visual and performing artists to share their voice, deepen their practice, and grow their careers. The galleries, offices, theaters, and studios have served as vital spaces for the community to gather, produce, perform, and experience the arts. For those two decades, the Arts Center has been a cornerstone of the Fort Worth arts community and impacted the arts far beyond. Nevertheless, repairing, maintaining, and managing this important 77,000 square foot public facility has presented a significant challenge, and the cost of continuing its operations has become unsustainable.
The circumstances that make managing the building untenable do not signal the end of Arts Fort Worth’s mission. Instead, we are making this transition to ensure long-term sustainability for Arts Fort Worth’s mission and commitment to creating belonging through advocacy, strengthening community partnerships, and developing resources that can meet the real and evolving needs of your community. We will continue incentivizing arts and culture programs through grants, engaging neighborhoods in producing one-of-a-kind works of art through the Fort Worth Public Art program. In March of 2025, we will again celebrate our arts community through the Heart of Gold awards and introduce our first-ever local arts summit.
While changes like this can feel surprising and concerning, we aren’t turning our back on the local arts community. In fact, we have a renewed focus on leading the growth of our arts ecosystem into an even more accessible, sustainable, and vibrant future.
I, the board and the staff are so grateful to the people who visited the Arts Center, the artists who shaped its legacy, the City of Fort Worth for granting us stewardship of this facility, and the donors who supported bold new ideas here. I am so appreciative of the staff who made each experience possible. I hope that each of you will join us in the next phase, as we redirect the energy and dedication we gave the Arts Center into expanding opportunities so that every individual in our city can see themselves through the arts.
With gratitude,
Wesley Gentle, CFRE
Executive Director & President
Arts Fort Worth
For more information visit: www.artsfortworth.org.
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