A working library.
Ex Libris is where the Foundation publishes its own research and gathers the work of other organizations that informs how we invest in arts and culture in Duncanville. New entries appear as work is completed or commissioned.
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Cultural Investment Strategy: Foundational Framework
The Foundation's operating framework for measuring arts demand in Duncanville and building privately funded, locally rooted cultural infrastructure from demonstrated participation.
Forthcoming
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Duncanville Community Arts Index: Inaugural Report
Baseline measurement of arts and cultural participation in Duncanville. Annual reporting on attendance, memberships, sponsorships, and patterns of cultural spending across the city.
Forthcoming
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Cultural Investment Field Study: Two-Year Findings
Comprehensive findings from the Foundation's twenty-four-month cultural investment field study, with recommendations for the next stage of work.
Forthcoming
A curated selection of research, reports, references, and field reporting from other organizations that inform the Foundation's understanding of cultural investment, arts participation, and the civic and economic life of arts and culture.
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Arts Commission
Official page of the Duncanville Arts Commission, the city's appointed advisory body on arts and culture. The Commission is among the Foundation's principal civic partners on arts policy and programming in Duncanville.
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Creative Economy State Profiles
NASAA's interactive dashboard of state-by-state creative economy figures, drawn from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account and the North American Industry Classification System. Allows comparison of employment, compensation, and value added across the arts and cultural sector by state and region.
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Cultural Districts Program
The Texas Commission on the Arts' state designation program for cultural districts, recognizing geographic areas where cultural and artistic activity concentrate. The framework informs the Foundation's work in and around the Armstrong Park Cultural District.
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Grants for Arts Projects: Artistic Disciplines
The NEA's primary federal grant program, organized by artistic discipline. A reference for understanding the categories the federal government funds (visual arts, music, dance, theater, literature, design, folk and traditional arts, media arts, museums, and more) and the criteria that frame national arts funding policy.
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Hotel Occupancy Tax
Duncanville's official information page on the local Hotel Occupancy Tax, the city's primary funding mechanism for tourism-related and arts activities permitted under state law.
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Local Hotel Occupancy Tax Overview
The state's reference on local Hotel Occupancy Tax administration, including statutory restrictions on the use of HOT revenue and the categories of arts and tourism activities eligible for HOT funding under Texas law.
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SMU DataArts: National Center for Arts Research
The largest national database on the financial health and operations of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. The Foundation is pursuing a cultural data management arrangement with SMU DataArts to inform its measurement work.
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State of the Arts Report
The Texas Cultural Trust's program page for the State of the Arts Report, the Trust's biennial flagship study. Provides access to the current edition and an archive of prior editions, useful for tracing the Texas arts economy across time.
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Arts and Cultural Industries Grew at Twice the Rate of the U.S. Economy, Adding $1.2 Trillion
The most recent national figures, drawn from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, show the arts and cultural sector growing at more than twice the rate of the broader economy from 2022 to 2023. The sector contributed $1.2 trillion in 2023, 4.2 percent of national GDP, and supported 5.4 million workers.
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Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, U.S. and States, 2023
The federal satellite account tracking arts and cultural economic activity by industry and by state, with downloadable national and state-level data tables. In February 2026, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced it would discontinue regular production of these statistics.
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The Power of the Arts in Texas: New Report Quantifies Impact of the Arts on Education, Health, and Economy
Dallas-Fort Worth coverage of the Texas Cultural Trust's 2025 State of the Arts Report, summarizing the biennial study's economic, educational, and health findings for a regional audience.
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State of the Arts Report 2025
The Trust's biennial Texas-wide study of arts impact across economy, education, and health. The 2025 edition finds the Texas Arts and Culture Industry has grown 63 percent over the past decade, generates $7.3 billion in economic activity, and supports nearly 960,000 creative careers, or roughly one in fourteen Texas jobs.
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Arts & Economic Prosperity 6: North Texas Region
North Texas regional findings from the sixth Arts & Economic Prosperity study, conducted by the Business Council for the Arts in partnership with Americans for the Arts. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $1.5 billion in economic activity across the region in 2022, supported 25,174 jobs, and produced $313 million in local, state, and federal government revenue.
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Creating a “Life at Night” Plan for Your Community: A Three-Step Guide
A practical framework for municipal leaders building a night-time economy strategy. Sarah Hannah outlines three steps for understanding, planning, and activating after-dark cultural and economic life, useful for any city extending its civic calendar past the close of business.
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The U.S. Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (1998-2021)
The NEA's Arts Data Profile #34, presenting U.S. ACPSA findings for 1998 through 2021. Includes the national brief, detailed data tables, interactive industry visualization, and the NEA's methodological guide to the satellite account.
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What’s the economic impact of the arts? In Texas, about $6 billion
KERA News coverage of the Texas Cultural Trust's 2023 State of the Arts Report, with detail on the $6 billion economic contribution of Texas arts and culture, the Trust's methodology for tracking the sector's employment and tax revenue, and a focus on Fort Worth's cultural district.
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Arts and Culture Industry Generates $6.1 Billion for Texas Economy, Study Says
Key findings from the Texas Cultural Trust's 2021 State of the Arts Report. Documents the Texas Arts and Culture Industry's growth of more than 30 percent over the preceding decade, with $6.1 billion contributed to the state economy and nearly $380 million in state sales tax revenue, supporting roughly 900,000 creative-sector jobs.
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Creative Power: How Cultural Entrepreneurship Could Shape the Post-Covid World
Brendan Ciecko's argument that cultural entrepreneurship, the work of artist-led ventures bridging creative practice and business, will shape how communities recover and rebuild cultural life in the wake of pandemic disruption.
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Understanding Cultural Entrepreneurship
An introduction to cultural entrepreneurship as a field combining artistic practice, community engagement, and economic strategy. Shivang Saxena describes the distinctive characteristics of cultural ventures and the civic value they contribute.
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Hot Toolkit
A practitioner's guide to Texas Hotel Occupancy Tax funding for arts and culture, produced by Texans for the Arts. Explains how municipalities, hotels, and arts organizations can use HOT revenue to support cultural programming, with sections tailored to each stakeholder type.
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Destination Duncanville Comprehensive Plan
Duncanville's first city-wide comprehensive plan, adopted by City Council in October 2017 as a twenty-year framework for land use, infrastructure, and economic development. Superseded by the Duncanville 2040 Comprehensive Plan adopted in October 2025; preserved here as historical context for the evolution of city policy.
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Creative Placemaking
The white paper that named and defined creative placemaking as a strategy for community development. Commissioned by the NEA's Mayors' Institute on City Design, the seventy-seven-page report established the framework that has guided two decades of arts-led community revitalization work.
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The Arts, Culture & the Texas Economy: The Catalyst for Creativity and the Incubator for Progress
M. Ray Perryman's pro bono economic impact study for the Texas Cultural Trust, examining how the arts integrate across Texas economic production. The framework anticipated the approach that later Texas Cultural Trust biennial reports would refine.