Art Attack

A nosy questionnaire about how well Dallas arts groups run their businesses touches off a revolt against the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts

Comments (0) By Thomas Korosec Thursday, Apr 22 1999

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Drew, whose organization has grown to a point where its annual budget exceeds $1.1 million, says arts-group managers who complain about what DBCA or others are saying about them aren't doing their jobs.

"You have to manage your own reputation," she says. "If I heard such and such company had been speaking to the Business Committee about us, I'd call them [the company] and find out what was said." Drew--who comes off as hard-charging as anyone on the corporate side of the table--appears uniquely equipped to make Porter's organization work in her favor.

As for many of the rest of the city's groups, they seem happy to get by in spite of the Business Committee's grading of their financial health.

Porter, always a diplomat, claims ignorance about any specific groups that aren't up to snuff financially. "There aren't any badly managed arts groups to my knowledge," she says. "At least not any of the ones that returned our questionnaire.