UPDATE – August 15, 2024: Following advocacy efforts and community concern, the Lubbock city council considered whether to fully reinstate the funding without any restrictions. In the final vote, the City Council approved a greatly reduced grant of $5,000 for security at FFAT. The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) expressed disappointment, but assured its commitment to continue to serve the community.
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NCAC is alarmed by reports that the City Council of Lubbock, Texas recently passed an amendment eliminating $30,000 in funding that had been earmarked for Lubbock’s First Friday Art Trail (FFAT), because Lubbock City Council Member Glasheen and Mayor McBrayer have spoken on the record suggesting that drag and LBGTQ-related performances and workshops at FFAT—even those that are specifically calibrated to serve young audiences —represent an “inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”
Public art funding should, by its designation, serve the public in all its eclectic interests, and such offerings should not be limited to any given politician’s personal taste and subjective evaluation of what is or is not “appropriate.”
Read NCAC’s full letter to Lubbock City Council here:
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