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Diversity & Heritage
Goal 3: Diversity & Heritage
STRATEGY 3.1: Support Diverse Cultural Communities and Identities
Garland benefits from the diverse cultural communities that have made the city their home. Work to increase civic connections and representation for culturally diverse residents through increased participation in the arts.
ACTION ITEM
Barriers to Participation: Identify and address barriers to participation, in collaboration with leaders and community members from diverse cultural communities, the disability community, and more. Create recommendations for how to address barriers such as increasing Spanish, Vietnamese, and other language accessibility needs on City website and communications for arts activities.
Culturally Specific Offerings: Building from successes like the Dia de los Muertos celebration, collaborate with leaders of racial/ethnic community organizations to identify gaps, needs, and opportunities for culturally-specific creative offerings and celebrations, especially Garland's large Hispanic and Vietnamese communities.
Diverse Program Participation: Within City sponsored cultural programming, continue to cast, curate, program, and reach out to performers, participants, and audiences from diverse backgrounds that represent the current and future population and communities of Garland. LEAD AND PARTNERS
GAC/Plaza lead
Special Events, CMC, cultural nonprofits
GAC/Plaza lead /PRCAD
ACTION ITEM
Culturally Targeted Outreach: Target outreach and communications to Hispanic communities and other underserved communities about current and future cultural offerings. Establish targets for audience, participation, and other measurements that ensure that creative activities in Garland reflect the diversity of Garland residents.
Multicultural Festival: Explore the creation of a multi-cultural festival that reflects and celebrates the diversity of Garland cultures and residents and that could serve as a regional draw. This could be centralized or dispersed at different cultural hubs around the city.
Assist Emerging Cultural Leaders: Create a joint working group with the Community Multicultural Commission and other community leaders to investigate potential avenues for technical assistance, development needs, and training for the next generation of emerging young artists and cultural leaders. Cultivate "cultural ambassadors" to underserved communities. Provide existing cultural organizations with assistance in fostering youth relationships and leadership. LEAD AND PARTNERS
GCAC, GAC/ Plaza, other relevant departments and divisions
Special Events, Visit Garland, Downtown Development, GAC/Plaza, CMC, cultural nonprofits, other community groups
GCAC, CMC, cultural nonprofits
Celebrate Garland’s cultural history as a central part of the City’s narrative. Expand opportunities for Garland’s heritage to be appreciated by residents and visitors.
ACTION ITEM
City-Wide Historic Interpretive Signage: Explore the development and promotion of cultural heritage markers.
Historic Programming: Help residents and visitors connect with community history with free and innovative programming, such as wayfinding, interactive platforms, and more.
Heritage/GISD Collaboration: Strengthen partnership opportunity between Heritage Crossing/Landmarks with GISD - field trips, curriculum, youth-oriented programming
Heritage Crossing as Part of Downtown: Work to increase identification and promotion of Heritage Crossing as part of downtown cultural offerings and as city-wide cultural asset. LEAD AND PARTNERS
Visit Garland, Heritage Crossing, Landmark Society
PRCAD, Neighborhood Vitality, Heritage Crossing, Visit Garland, Landmark Society, community groups
Heritage Crossing, GISD, Landmark Society
Heritage Crossing, Downtown Development, Visit Garland, Landmark Society
ACTION ITEM
Heritage Facilities Needs: Develop plan for heritage facilities - office space, storage space, climate controlled
Heritage Collections Management System: Develop plan and timeline for updating collections management system to cloud-based, not physical storage - explore opportunity for digital curation and programming as publicfacing side of cloud-based digitization
Succession Plan: Identify opportunities and process for a succession plan for historic assets management.
Historic Asset Restoration: Search for and apply for grants to maintain and restore historic assets (e.g., Pullman Rail Car, digitization of materials, etc.). LEAD AND PARTNERS
Heritage Crossing, Landmark Society
Heritage Crossing, Landmark Society
Heritage Crossing, Landmark Society
Heritage Crossing, Landmark Society
STRATEGY 3.3: Maintain and Expand Festivals
Garland’s cultural festivals are cherished by residents. Continue to provide and expand cultural festival offerings that bring residents and visitors together to connect and celebrate in the city.
ACTION ITEM
Develop a Signature Festival for Garland: Establish a "signature" festival for the city that can be a regional draw and local point of pride by speaking to the community's identity, diversity, and heritage. For instance, a "Makers Festival" to celebrate Garland's identity as makers in all of its facets.
Maintain/Expand Funding for Cultural Festivals: Cultural festivals are a cornerstone of public cultural arts participation in Garland. Maintain all current cultural festival funding and expand funding where possible. Continue to provide technical assistance and other services to existing community-led cultural festivals in order to help them sustain and grow.
Neighborhood Block Parties: Help community groups host neighborhood block parties in all parts of the city that share and celebrate Garland's many cultures.
Cultural Festivals at Parks: Use the parks system to bring cultural festivals to different city neighborhoods and explore supporting or offering festivals, events, and activities throughout different areas of the city in order to reach diverse residents where they live, work, and play. LEAD AND PARTNERS
Special Events, other PRCAD and Office of Strategic Initiatives divisions, institutional and community partners
Special Events, other PRCAD divisions
Neighborhood Vitality, Special Events
PRCAD, Special Events
