Denton Music & Arts Collaborative

Denton Music and Art Collaborative (DMAC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to preserve, promote, and continue the unique and culturally significant musical and artistic heritage of Denton by providing vital healthcare subsidies for local artists and musicians. We also seek to provide them with networking opportunities to assist them in building both career and community here in Denton. We're supported financially through a combination of grants, community fundraisers, annual fundraising events organized by our all-volunteer board, but primarily through the generous donations of people in our community and abroad who care about keeping those who inspire us thriving.

In early 2017, a  group of friends assembled in a living room to figure out ways to help Denton creatives remain healthy and live longer. After working on staff for the Denton music festival 35 Denton, these dozen or so folks had formed a family-like bond and wanted to continue furthering the success of Little D's creative community. A few weeks after that first meeting, the founding members of what would become the Denton Music and Arts Collaborative (DMAC Denton) held board elections, filled out paperwork, and by June of that year, officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 

Since then, DMAC has provided support for 60-75 local artists and musicians annually, including several families. We do this in three ways:

• Monthly financial assistance for health insurance
• Networking opportunities for our members through volunteering
• Partnerships with other Denton-based organizations to help them build career and community

We also partner with a local independent insurance agent, who is paid by insurance companies directly for her service. This allows us to provide our members with an Agent of Record with those companies. She assists them with picking out an appropriate plan for their individual or family needs, explains their benefits and responsibilities, and advocates for them with the insurance companies when there is a benefit decision made that is confusing or incorrect. This allows us to both safeguard the privacy of our members' medical and financial information, and ensure that the funds DMAC pays monthly are going directly to their intended purpose. It also enables us to provide transparency to our donors that their funds are going directly to keeping our members healthy.

DMAC organizes two anchor annual fundraising events - Monster Dash, a 5k costume run held each October in partnership with Denton's 31 Days of Halloween, and Amplify Denton, held each Spring in partnership with the Greater Denton Arts Council to showcase the talents of the members of both organizations. More info about both can be found here: https://dmacdenton.org/dmac-events. We meet twice monthly as a board, in person and online. Our meetings are open to the public, so if you want to attend or just find out more about what we're working on, please reach out to info@dmacdenton.org. We would love to meet you, in person or virtually!