Texas Cultural Trust Appoints Executive Director

 

 

 Texas Cultural Trust Gets New Leader
Jennifer Ransom Rice Steps Up as Executive Director

The Texas Cultural Trust—a nonprofit organization that since 1995 has promoted the importance of the arts in educating our children and sustaining our vibrant Texas economy—today announces that Jennifer Ransom Rice has been selected as the new executive director, effective July 15. She assumes this role following Amy Barbee, who stepped down after nine of the most fruitful and visible years in the Trust’s 18 year history. Most recently, Rice served as development director of the Trust, following 12-years experience at the State Capitol.

As executive director of the Texas Cultural Trust, Rice will continue to work to advocate for the arts in Texas, focusing on economic development and arts education, and bringing awareness of the arts to policy makers and elected officials. She will continue her involvement with the well-known biennial Texas Medal of Arts Awards, as well as the other diverse programs of the Trust.


“Jennifer has been an invaluable resource to the Trust since joining the organization almost four years ago,” said Karen Oswalt, Chair of the Texas Cultural Trust Board of Directors. “Her leadership and commitment to the Trust has raised the standard in stakeholder cultivation in the organization and we are thrilled to have her take the helm with this new challenge.”


Rice brings to the role decades of leadership in both her professional career and in her community involvement. Having served as chief of staff to State Senator Florence Shapiro and communications director for the State Comptroller, Rice brings a network of contacts and legislative knowledge that serves the Trust’s mission well. Further, she has taken the lead in many volunteer positions for numerous community organizations and efforts, particularly the arts, through her involvement with Art Alliance Austin, Texas Performing Arts, Zach Theatre, and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

The Role of the Innovation Workforce & Creative Sector

On May 1 state senator Florence Shapiro (Plano) and other notables released with ceremony the study The Role of the Innovation Workforce & Creative Sector in the Texas Economy.

Latifah Taormina, executive director of the Austin Circle of Theatres, had advised ACOT members by e-mail, reprising the press release from the Texas Cultural Trust characterizing the study as "a powerful report on value of arts, arts education & creative industries to growth of Texas economy." ACOT commented, "The report demonstrates direct links between creative sector and Texas economy at a time when state leaders are debating: (1) the best way to prepare Texas schoolchildren as the workforce for the future, and (2) state funding of the arts."

ALT has spent some time with the report, which is available at the website of the lobbying campaign Create Texas. It's an easy, generally anecdotal read, one that quotes pop sociology observers such as Richard Florida and Daniel Pink. The drafters from Texas Perspectives, Inc. (TXP) re-chew studies done in their own office and elsewhere, including particularly a 2005 national study by Americans for the Arts and a 2001 compendium issue brief The Role of the Arts in Economic Development: prepared for the National Governor's [sic] Association. These sources offer observations that pretty much all arts lovers will endorse:

• The arts generate employment, tourism, tax revenues well beyond modest subsidies, better students, mutual understanding and better citizens.

• Knowledge-based professions and industries tend to cluster in urban areas with lively arts communities.

• Disadvantaged students benefit disproportionately from participating in arts.

• America's global comparative advantage is the creativity of its people, a quality that can't be outsourced beyond our boundaries.

• Arts education enhances that creativity. (In this connection, my favorite quote from this piece: "The number of students obtaining an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) has dramatically increased in recent years, and corporate recruiters now routinely visit the top arts graduate schools in search of talent. The high-concept abilities of an artist are often more valuable than the easily replicated skills of an entry-level business graduate."

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .