$290 raised by 5 donors
6% complete
$5,000 Goal
The Dallas Asian American Art Collective is a 501-C3 non-profit organization with a (DAAART)’s mission to connect and cultivate the Asian American creative community through creating spaces for AAPI creatives to thrive, amplifying and advocating for AAPI artists in North Texas.
DAAART was first conceived of online in December 2022 during an online discussion on the Asian Creative Network: Texas Facebook group and officially began in February 2023 when a group of four Asian American creatives in Dallas met at a local coffee shop. In December 2023, the group gained 501-C3 status and is currently run by a volunteer board of directors. Since its foundation, DAAART has hosted monthly meetups that now boast 30-40 people, taught artist workshops, hosted AAPI art markets, engaged in commissioned work for Dallas cultural institutions, screened AAPI short films at a local Asian-owned microcinema, and organized its first ever Ginger Roots: AAPI Arts Festival: two weeks of AAPI arts programming showcasing the diverse array of AAPI artists in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (and paid artists honorariums!). Outside of its in-person events, DAAART has a digital community on Discord of 250+ AAPI creatives, which is used to organize member-led events, sketch sessions, photography walks, and more.
Our work serves the greater AAPI community through providing a space for AAPI creatives to gather, produce artwork that increases the representation of AAPI artists, and create a sense of pan-Asian solidarity within the North Texas community. Our public events such as visual arts exhibitions, music showcases, open mic nights, and AAPI-centric zines give the local AAPI community a means to connect with one another, understand the importance of art, and see themselves in the vast social landscape of Texas. We serve as a platform for amplifying local AAPI artists and refer our artists to outside arts institutions and businesses seeking Asian Texan talent. Additionally, we have become a de-facto advocacy arm for Asian American artists, working to gain representation within pre-existing cultural entities in Dallas such as the Asian Film Festival of Dallas and the Crow Museum of Asian Art while also supporting and working with newer AAPI-led organizations such as the Dallas Asian American Historical Society.
DAAART’s mission is to connect & cultivate the Asian American creative community in Dallas through creating spaces, arts opportunities, and public educational programming to advocate for and amplify the voices of Asian Texan artists
Your donations will help us expand our organizational capabilities through hiring part-time staff, paying our artists honorariums that can qualify for Working Artists and Greater Economy (Livable Wage) W.A.G.E.-certification standards in the near future, and helping contribute to a physical space for AAPI artists to gather.
Specifically, these funds will advance our work by launching us into the next phase of organizational maturation. For the past three years, we worked to build a pan-Asian Texan community of creatives who have produced artistic projects, taught workshops, and engaged with the greater community of Dallas. With our community's help and fundraising, we seek to make this effort sustainable for long-term growth by dedicating funding for operational, programming, and staffing budgets.
Operationally, this funding would enable us to maintain our website, contribute to space rental (we are currently receiving an in-kind donation in space from the Dallas Asian American Historical Society), and hire accountants for filing taxes. In programming, we would be able to continue to pay our artists honorariums (with a target of becoming Working Artist and Greater Economy W.A.G.E.-certified in the next three years), pay application fees for art exhibitions, and help fund our bi-annual Ginger Roots: Asian American Arts Festival. In staffing, we are seeking to hire legal counsel to protect artists’ work, a part-time accountant to manage our finances, and a part-time grantwriter to expand our organizational capacity.
We have already been able to do so much for our community together, we hope that we can sustain this effort to help our future generations of Asian Texan artists and beyond!
We stand in solidarity with all people of the global majority in the US. We all deserve to live in dignity.
We identify the model minority myth as a poison pill that seeks to divide communities of color. We reject the model minority myth that has been placed on many of us, which is also disproportionately applied across different ethnicities within Asian Americans. We reject and fight against colorism within our own ethnicities. We reject and fight against anti-Blackness within our own communities, and take it to be our responsibility to educate those in our communities who seek to put other marginalized people of the global majority beneath our own.
Dallas is built on the land of Caddo, Wichita and Comanche people. As a diverse diasporic community of individuals whose families have experienced colonization and live in the shadow of its legacy, we acknowledge that we live on stolen land. We know and express gratitude for the civil and human rights that Black and brown people in America have fought for, paving the way for many other POC, including Asian Americans to be able to exist in America. We know there is a history of Asian American activists who have fought alongside them, and seek to emulate their example.
Organization name
Dallas Asian American Art Collective Inc
Causes
Arts & Humanities
Operating Budget
Less than $100,000
Counties Served
Collin, Dallas, Tarrant
BIPOC Serving
Asian/Pacific Islander, Other
BIPOC Leadership
Both the Executive Director/CEO and Board Chair
Address
11409 Botham Jean Blvd Suite 107