Greater Denton Arts Council

Greater Denton Arts Council: Where Creativity Connects Community

For more than 55 years, the Greater Denton Arts Council (GDAC) has worked to make the arts accessible, visible, and valued throughout Denton and North Texas. Located in the historic Patterson-Appleton Arts Center in downtown Denton, GDAC serves as a catalyst for creativity, advocacy, and collaboration—bringing artists, arts organizations, families, students, educators, and community members together through shared creative experiences.

What We Do:

GDAC is more than an arts center. We serve as an umbrella organization and community resource for the arts, providing foundational support to artists, creatives, and arts and cultural organizations while creating opportunities for the public to experience the arts.

Our work includes:

• Free exhibitions in our three galleries featuring local, regional, national, and international artists.
• Free and low-cost community programming, including workshops, performances, artist talks, interactive experiences, family activities, and large-scale community events.
• Direct support for artists through artist microgrants, exhibition opportunities, professional development, partnerships, and opportunities to share their work with new audiences.
• Support for arts and community organizations by providing space, partnerships, promotion, resources, and opportunities for collaboration.
• Arts education through summer camps, student exhibitions, workshops, and partnerships with local schools, the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University, and other educational institutions.
• Advocacy for the arts, working to ensure that arts and culture remain an essential part of Denton's identity, growth, quality of life, and economic vitality.

Who We Serve:

GDAC believes that everyone deserves access to the arts.

We serve children and families, students, educators, emerging and established artists, musicians, performers, arts organizations, cultural groups, seniors, visitors, and residents throughout Denton County and North Texas. Our galleries are always free to visit, and the majority of our public programs and events are offered at no cost.

We also recognize that supporting the arts means supporting the people who create them. Through microgrants and other opportunities, GDAC puts resources directly into the hands of local creatives, including visual artists, musicians, performers, writers, designers, and multidisciplinary artists.

What's Coming Up at GDAC:

This fall, the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center will continue to be filled with opportunities to experience art in unexpected ways.

Upcoming programming includes Arts & Autos: Art Car Alley on September 11, bringing local and visiting art cars to downtown Denton and GDAC; community programs and exhibitions throughout September; and Electric! on October 17, an immersive evening featuring approximately 20–25 light-based artworks created by UNT students from Alicia Eggert's Art in Public Spaces class and Zak Lloyd's New Media class. Electric! will transform spaces throughout and around the Arts Center with light as the artistic medium, accompanied by DJ Freakhorse and food trucks. 

Throughout the year, GDAC also presents rotating exhibitions - including one this fall dedicated to Dia de los Muertos, workshops, performances, educational programs, community collaborations, artist opportunities, and special events designed to give people new ways to experience and participate in the arts.

Why Your North Texas Giving Day Gift Matters

Keeping the arts accessible takes community support.

Donations to GDAC help us keep our galleries free, provide affordable and free community programming, compensate artists and performers, offer artist microgrants, provide educational opportunities for children and families, support community arts organizations, and care for the historic Patterson-Appleton Arts Center.

When you give to the Greater Denton Arts Council, you aren't supporting just one exhibition or one event. You are investing in the creative ecosystem of our community. You are helping an artist find an audience, a child discover a love of art, an organization bring an idea to life, and thousands of people experience the creativity that makes Denton and North Texas such a special place.

Your gift helps us support the people who make the arts happen—and ensures that everyone has a place to experience them.