St. Matthew's Cathedral Arts

For centuries, cathedrals, temples, and mosques have been awe-inspiring structures at the heart of great cities. Western cathedrals, large and small, have traditionally included spaces for learning and the arts, providing venues for visual artists, composers, performers, orators and dramatists to engage, entertain, teach, and inspire their community. This ancient practice continues today as a celebration of human creativity at Dallas' historic Saint Matthew's Episcopal Cathedral. Founded in 2011, St. Matthew's Cathedral Arts is a self-sustaining nonprofit center for the arts, discovery, inspiration and community in an extraordinarily diverse Old East Dallas neighborhood. St. Matthew's is one mile from the nation's largest Arts District, in the heart of an area of rapidly changing demographics and development. With proximity to Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Deep Ellum, the Swiss Avenue Historic District, Lower Greenville, Uptown Dallas, and the Park Cities, Cathedral Arts resides on a beautiful campus, first completed in 1889. The cathedral complex on Ross Avenue at North Henderson has recently undergone profound changes, including the construction of MAA Cathedral Arts, two adjacent apartment buildings with covered parking, positioning St. Matthew's and Cathedral Arts for major growth. Cathedral Arts provides an annual season of world-class arts programming on an entirely self-supported basis, with facilities provided in-kind by St. Matthew's Cathedral and without funding from the Cathedral budget or the Episcopal Diocese. In addition to donor-advised funds at the Communities Foundation of Texas and the annual North Texas Giving Day initiative, our primary financial and volunteer support comes from an engaged community of individual patrons across the Metroplex. An integral part of the Cathedral Arts philosophy is to share superb examples of the performing and visual arts with our entire community, regardless of one's ability to pay. Cathedral Arts events are open to the public at no charge.

Our Needs

To underwrite an annual season of free public events, Cathedral Arts pursues funding suited to its unique situation in a historic building serving a multi-cultural community with a broad range of socio-economic demographics. Partnerships with professional artists and arts organizations are key to Cathedral Arts' continuing success, by providing fine performing and visual artists with appropriate compensation and access to a superb arts venue. Sustained administrative support is key to the proper functioning of Cathedral Arts, particularly as the Cathedral's presence in the community undergoes a profound transformation. In addition to identifying volunteer hours to support the planning and execution of Cathedral Arts events, approximately 1,000 hours of skilled contract labor must be budgeted annually to ensure success in the critical areas of administration/operations, website management, fund development, marketing, media, and communications.