CAF DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, DULARI MEHTA, ONE OF eight 2019 Leadership Arts Institute graduates
Collin and Denton Counties—Dulari Mehta has been honored by the North Texas Business Council for the Arts by successfully completing nine months of training to become part of the next generation of arts and cultural leaders in the region.
The Leadership Arts Institute graduate joins the hundreds of business professionals who have prepared annually over the last 30 years to assume board leadership positions in the region’s non-profit arts community. Institute members are selected annually from a field of applicants who seek to learn valuable leadership skills, non-profit board best practices, and knowledge of critical needs of North Texas cultural organizations. After graduation, Leadership Arts Institute participants are prepared to pursue board of directors placement with area arts and cultural organizations.
The Business Council for the Arts and its Leadership Arts Institute were founded in 1989 by philanthropist, noted art collector and NorthPark Center developer Raymond D. Nasher, for whom Dallas’ Nasher Sculpture Center is named.
Each year the Leadership Arts Institute class selects an arts project. This year Mehta participated in successfully organizing the “Playing the Board Game” nonprofit board workshop. The program was strategically developed for nonprofit arts and cultural boards and their teams and included sessions from expert speakers such as Carole Rylander on the ins-and-outs of fundraising and development and Katherine Wagner on the lifecycle of nonprofit organizations. To conclude, guest panelists Charles Eisemann, Stacie Wheelock Adams of Axxess, and Galen Smith of Communities Foundation of Texas were led by Bruce Kosub of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in a panel discussion on how organizations can effectively approach fundraising requests for corporate, individual, and philanthropic donors.
Notably, North Texas’ non-profit arts and cultural organizations contribute $1.5 billion annually to the region’s economy, making it the fifth largest regional arts economy in the nation, according to Business Council for the Arts CEO Katherine Wagner.
Arts enthusiasts interested in applying for the 2020 Leadership Arts Institute class are invited to submit applications no later than July 21, 2019 at https://ntbca.org/lai/.
