OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Houston Arts and Culture Committee Meeting - May 21, 2026: HOT Contract Update, Cultural Districts Marketing Plan, and Public Testimony

Committees and Commissions — Thursday, May 21, 2026
BodyHouston, Texas
SessionCommittees and Commissions
DateThursday, May 21, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:29:31
Transcript — Verbatim
0:13

To order the arts and culture committee meeting.

0:16

I'm the vice chair of the committee, Mario Castillo, here joined by Councilmember Sally Alcorn and Chambers, as well as staff from Councilmember Twila Carter's office, staff from Councilmember Joaquin Martinez's office, staff from Councilmember Julian Ramirez, and Councilmember Tiffany Thomas.

0:36

With that, we will begin.

1:03

Okay.

1:03

Um I don't have a ton to update on.

1:06

I did want to say that because it's a question that's come up a few times, and and I think it's relevant and of course very timely.

1:14

The arts community, I think, has continued to ask this office since coming in about opportunities to be more connected to the festivities happening, celebrating the World Cup and you know, opportunities for artists and and uh different public art opportunities.

1:30

And I think there's been a lot of really great questions.

1:33

I don't have all of the answers, but I did want to share uh a few things that I know, and I can share the uh links with all of the council offices, uh, but I do know that for the um organizations, institutions that are going to have uh arts programming during the summer that you would like visitors to be steered toward.

1:55

There is a microsite that Houston First has created to allow you to go in and input your information and and um they're doing a lot of SEO investment to be able to direct folks there.

2:08

Um so that's one opportunity, and then I believe in today or yesterday there was a a story um in the paper about another project.

2:18

I'm not entirely certain how that's being funded, maybe through the host committee, but a project um with a number of different murals around town, and I don't have tons of details.

2:29

I just found out about that one, but I believe there's there it's a project managed by Batiri, who's a a um muralist, and um there will be opportunities for local artists to participate in those.

2:42

I think there's 10 of them.

2:44

And um there is also uh Dan, can you tell me the name of the project, the ribbon cutting?

2:52

Uh, okay.

2:56

Oh, thank you.

2:57

Easting Gateway.

2:57

They're the East End Gateway mural um project, which is another very collaborative project that's celebrating uh the World Cup, and there's a ribbon cutting for that coming up very soon as well.

3:08

So I'll share all of those dates and details with the council offices via email.

3:12

But I I just wanted to say that I know that I recognize the community's been asking those questions and I've been asking those questions and as I'm receiving information, trying to get it out to you all.

3:22

Um and then beyond that, I I don't want to delay us because I know there will probably be lots of of questions, and this uh presentation will take a little bit of time, so we can move into that.

3:31

Great.

3:31

We can roll right into the joint presentation with the Houston Arts Alliance on the hot contract update and timelines.

3:39

Um Taylor will be joining you for that.

3:42

And thank you for the update around the activities with uh opportunities related to FIFA.

3:48

I know folks are excited about that, and the ribbon cutting is actually uh in district H, so that'll be happening on Saturday.

3:55

Thank you.

3:56

We're yes, we're excited, and I know the arts community is very excited to have this influx of visitors and be able to really showcase all that Houston has to offer.

4:04

So, however, I can do, whatever I can do to help.

4:07

I'm here to do that.

4:08

So thank you.

4:10

Um before we dive into the slides, I want to just say a little bit about um, and you can probably go to the next slide, but um, I want to just say a little bit about the um hotel occupancy tax program, which is uh, as you all know, it is a uh contract of the mayor's office of the arts.

4:29

It is a program that has existed for many years.

4:32

These are local hotel occupancy tax dollars that the state specifically allows via state legislation municipalities to invest in the arts, with the understanding that the arts is a driver of tourism and that it would generate further hotel occupancy tax dollars.

4:53

And so there's there's a number of parameters that are laid out by the state, including, you know, what percentage is allowed and um and how that's able to be executed.

5:02

And so the city of Houston allocates uh the maximum allowable, the 19.3% to the arts from its local hot.

5:10

And uh in doing so, we contract with Houston Arts Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization who was a which was established 20 years ago now, where they're celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, out of the reorganization and restructure of several local municipal arts agencies, um and in order really with the idea that that this work could be more community centric and more efficiently executed on if there was this nonprofit administrative partner to run very transparent um fair grants processes on our behalf.

5:50

And so that's what Houston Arts Alliance does for us, specific to this contract.

5:55

We also have another contract with Houston Arts Alliance, but specific to HOT, that's what they do for us.

6:00

Um from a timeline standpoint, this was a five-year contract with two one-year extension options, both of which were executed uh by this administration, and the final extension option expires at the end of this year.

6:15

However, because of the uh lead time needed for HAA to run its grants processes, we need to get that secured pretty quickly this summer.

6:24

And so we're going through this process.

6:28

We've had a number of stakeholder conversations between myself and Taylor with different um parts of the sector.

6:37

We've met with the um leadership of the large institutions that mostly sit in our theater and museum districts, and uh we have also met with the seven cultural districts and their leadership.

6:49

We've met individually with some of your offices.

6:52

We will be reaching out to meet individually with all of the council offices.

6:56

Um, and we've met with a number of different artists and community members and really kind of workshop this through a lot of feedback.

7:04

So I hope that we are, you know, we we have a pretty good um plan in place, and and it doesn't look vastly different from what it looked like before.

7:13

Uh if we can go to the next slide.

7:18

Next slide, please.

7:28

I guess I'll touch on this for a second.

7:29

That this is just the structure of how it works.

7:32

The hotels collect the the dollars via hotel occupancy tax, remit them to Houston First.

7:37

Houston First makes quarterly payments to the city, and the city dedicates, as I said, that 19.3%.

7:44

The city retains as part of the contract, and as is being proposed under the new contract, the city retains 7% to support some of the arts and cultural initiatives that happen inside the city, including work in my office as well as the Office of Special Events and Trade and International Affairs, and and someone was just asking me a few minutes ago about the consular core program and the sister cities program and some.

8:06

So a number of those initiatives that um have qualifying activities according to the state statute are supported, and that's where that 7% gets allocated.

8:16

Um, and then the rest of it goes to Houston Arts Alliance to administer the grants process.

8:22

Um so if we could go to the next slide.

8:26

I think this slide is really, really important because I think sometimes, you know, especially as we're having difficult budget conversations, there is uh there are questions about why we would invest resources in one place and not another, and why we would invest these resources here.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Arts And Culture█████████████████████████████████████████████91%
Community Engagement█3%
Youth Programs█2%
Economic Development█1%
Fiscal Sustainability█1%
Procurement█1%
Marketing█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Houston Arts and Culture Committee Meeting - May 21, 2026

The Arts and Culture Committee, chaired by Vice Chair Mario Castillo, convened on May 21, 2026, with Councilmember Sally Alcorn and staff from multiple council offices. The meeting featured updates on World Cup arts opportunities, a joint presentation on the proposed renewal of the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) contract with Houston Arts Alliance (HAA), a presentation on the Houston Cultural Districts' summer marketing plan, and public testimony from 11 speakers. No votes were taken; the committee discussed proposals and heard community input.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Catherine Noser (President, Company on Stage Community Theater) urged support for community theaters, noting their budget constraints and role in providing affordable live theater. She highlighted that their tickets cost roughly one-third of average Houston ticket prices and that volunteer-driven organizations are often overlooked by grantmakers.
  • Tony Diaz (Founder, Nuestra Palabra) praised the new leadership at the Mayor's Office of the Arts and HAA, expressed support for the contract changes, and thanked the city for maintaining arts funding while other cities cut back.
  • David Cortez (Co-founder, Houston Latino Film Festival) thanked the city for HOT-funded grants that helped the festival grow from a two-day event to a year-round organization serving over 5,000 attendees.
  • Shaman Austin (Three-time HAA grant recipient) emphasized the importance of grants for emerging artists and youth, noting that HAA is seeing younger applicants each year and that investment in the next generation is essential for Houston's global cultural standing.
  • Claire Havens (Houston Grand Opera) expressed gratitude for the HOT contract renewal efforts, citing HGO's economic impact (20,000 full-time jobs, $1.3 billion in economic activity) and recent Grammy win.
  • Alison Hall (Education Chair, Company on Stage) advocated for funding to support accessible theater education, describing Library Days partnerships with nonprofits and the need to keep arts affordable for families.
  • Paul Robinson (Artist) urged better communication between the city and artists, and stressed the importance of evenly distributed arts funding to give youth opportunities.
  • Angie Finn (Board Member, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts) supported the HOT contract renewal, highlighting the Hobby Center's expanded programming that attracts cultural tourists.
  • Jason Oliver (Manager, Third Ward Cultural District) thanked HAA for support, noted that each HOT dollar generates $28 in economic activity, and invited officials to the June 6 Juneteenth festival.
  • Crystal Toussaint (Board Member, Company on Stage) called for more equitable funding for smaller organizations and for city support to help students attend performances, citing her experience with Title I schools.
  • Jose Diaz (Founder, Gills Music Institute) highlighted the success of youth music programs funded by HAA grants, including national awards and performances at prestigious conferences.

Discussion Items

World Cup Arts Opportunities (Vice Chair Castillo)

  • Castillo reported that the arts community has been asking about connection to FIFA World Cup festivities. He shared that Houston First has created a microsite for arts organizations to input programming, and that a mural project (10 murals managed by Batiri) and the East End Gateway mural project (ribbon cutting Saturday, May 23, 2026) are underway. He promised to share details with council offices via email.

HOT Contract Update and Timelines (Joint Presentation: Michelle Leal, Director of Mayor's Office of the Arts; Taylor Jackson, HAA)

  • The current five-year HOT contract with HAA (with two one-year extensions) expires at the end of 2026. A new five-year contract with two one-year extensions is proposed.
  • Context and ROI: Houston dedicates the maximum allowable 19.3% of HOT revenue to the arts. The city retains 7% for qualifying initiatives (e.g., special events, sister cities). The remaining funds go to HAA to administer grants. Each HOT dollar generates $28 in economic activity; 68% of funded programming is free.
  • Workload Growth: Applications rose 59% (from 554 in 2019 to 883 in 2025); grants awarded up 27% (from 329 to 419); active contracts up 50% (from 600 to 900). HAA’s staff workload has increased significantly.
  • Proposed Structural Change: HAA’s administrative fee (9%) would be deducted from the arts and culture HOT share before the allocated pool is distributed (currently it is included within the pool). This separates admin costs from community grants. The city’s initiative grant program (formerly 2.5% separate line item) would be folded into the under-$10-million operating grant category to ensure full spending. The program itself continues; approximately $300,000 annually will still go to city initiatives through this pool.
  • Financial Impact: Using a $101 million HOT revenue example, the arts and culture share is $19.4 million. Under the current structure, after the city’s 7% fee ($1.36M), the allocated pool is ~$18.1M, from which HAA’s 9% fee (~$1.63M) is taken. Under the proposed structure, both fees are taken before allocation: city 7% ($1.36M) + HAA 9% ($1.74M) = $3.1M, leaving an allocated pool of ~$16.3M. The net increase to HAA’s admin fee is approximately $122,000.
  • Use of Admin Fee: Supports the grant portal, translation, workshops, panelist honorariums, compliance, and data tracking. Panelists’ stipends and working group participants are paid from this fee.
  • Questions: Councilmember Alcorn asked about the city initiative program (examples: musical group recording, cultural neighborhood destinations). Taylor confirmed the fee increase is the maximum that preserves community investment. Castillo asked about contract term; the same five-year term with extensions is proposed. Staff from Councilmember Ramirez asked about the impact; the net delta to HAA is about $122,000 based on last year’s figures. Councilmember Thomas’s office expressed disappointment that District F was not included in the FIFA mural project; Leal said she learned of it through the paper and offered to connect with the host committee.
  • Timeline: The new contract is expected to be introduced to City Council around June 10, 2026, after budget discussions.

Houston Cultural Districts Summer Marketing Plan (Craig Haushields, Executive Director, Houston Theater District)

  • Seven cultural districts are launching a citywide summer marketing campaign with two components: an events calendar and a blog, hosted at HoustonCulturalDistricts.com, going live the week of May 25, 2026.
  • Audiences: 500,000 estimated FIFA visitors and all Houstonians.
  • Three Anchor Events: All free outdoor activities:
    1. Celebrate Freedom Fest – June 6, 2026 (Third Ward, Emancipation Park)
    2. Make Music Day – Father’s Day (Arts District Houston taking over from the city)
    3. 4th of July at Miller Outdoor Theater (Houston Symphony)
  • Promotion: Paid social media campaign by MDR; digital kiosks; coordination with Houston First and HAA to ensure all events are on all calendars. The effort is supported by the Texas Commission for the Arts.
  • Ask: Council offices are asked to share the calendar with artists and arts organizations, and to attend anchor events.
  • Sustainability: The infrastructure is built to continue beyond summer, but the campaign’s future will be evaluated afterward.

Key Outcomes

  • No votes or formal decisions were taken; the committee gathered information and public input.
  • The HOT contract renewal will be introduced to City Council around June 10, 2026, after full council briefings.
  • Vice Chair Castillo will email council offices with links to the World Cup microsite and details on mural projects.
  • Council offices were encouraged to promote the Cultural Districts summer calendar and events.
  • Staff from Councilmember Thomas’s office will follow up on FIFA mural representation for District F.

Meeting Transcript

To order the arts and culture committee meeting. I'm the vice chair of the committee, Mario Castillo, here joined by Councilmember Sally Alcorn and Chambers, as well as staff from Councilmember Twila Carter's office, staff from Councilmember Joaquin Martinez's office, staff from Councilmember Julian Ramirez, and Councilmember Tiffany Thomas. With that, we will begin. Okay. Um I don't have a ton to update on. I did want to say that because it's a question that's come up a few times, and and I think it's relevant and of course very timely. The arts community, I think, has continued to ask this office since coming in about opportunities to be more connected to the festivities happening, celebrating the World Cup and you know, opportunities for artists and and uh different public art opportunities. And I think there's been a lot of really great questions. I don't have all of the answers, but I did want to share uh a few things that I know, and I can share the uh links with all of the council offices, uh, but I do know that for the um organizations, institutions that are going to have uh arts programming during the summer that you would like visitors to be steered toward. There is a microsite that Houston First has created to allow you to go in and input your information and and um they're doing a lot of SEO investment to be able to direct folks there. Um so that's one opportunity, and then I believe in today or yesterday there was a a story um in the paper about another project. I'm not entirely certain how that's being funded, maybe through the host committee, but a project um with a number of different murals around town, and I don't have tons of details. I just found out about that one, but I believe there's there it's a project managed by Batiri, who's a a um muralist, and um there will be opportunities for local artists to participate in those. I think there's 10 of them. And um there is also uh Dan, can you tell me the name of the project, the ribbon cutting? Uh, okay. Oh, thank you. Easting Gateway. They're the East End Gateway mural um project, which is another very collaborative project that's celebrating uh the World Cup, and there's a ribbon cutting for that coming up very soon as well. So I'll share all of those dates and details with the council offices via email. But I I just wanted to say that I know that I recognize the community's been asking those questions and I've been asking those questions and as I'm receiving information, trying to get it out to you all. Um and then beyond that, I I don't want to delay us because I know there will probably be lots of of questions, and this uh presentation will take a little bit of time, so we can move into that. Great. We can roll right into the joint presentation with the Houston Arts Alliance on the hot contract update and timelines. Um Taylor will be joining you for that. And thank you for the update around the activities with uh opportunities related to FIFA. I know folks are excited about that, and the ribbon cutting is actually uh in district H, so that'll be happening on Saturday. Thank you. We're yes, we're excited, and I know the arts community is very excited to have this influx of visitors and be able to really showcase all that Houston has to offer. So, however, I can do, whatever I can do to help. I'm here to do that. So thank you. Um before we dive into the slides, I want to just say a little bit about um, and you can probably go to the next slide, but um, I want to just say a little bit about the um hotel occupancy tax program, which is uh, as you all know, it is a uh contract of the mayor's office of the arts. It is a program that has existed for many years. These are local hotel occupancy tax dollars that the state specifically allows via state legislation municipalities to invest in the arts, with the understanding that the arts is a driver of tourism and that it would generate further hotel occupancy tax dollars. And so there's there's a number of parameters that are laid out by the state, including, you know, what percentage is allowed and um and how that's able to be executed. And so the city of Houston allocates uh the maximum allowable, the 19.3% to the arts from its local hot. And uh in doing so, we contract with Houston Arts Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization who was a which was established 20 years ago now, where they're celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, out of the reorganization and restructure of several local municipal arts agencies, um and in order really with the idea that that this work could be more community centric and more efficiently executed on if there was this nonprofit administrative partner to run very transparent um fair grants processes on our behalf. And so that's what Houston Arts Alliance does for us, specific to this contract. We also have another contract with Houston Arts Alliance, but specific to HOT, that's what they do for us. Um from a timeline standpoint, this was a five-year contract with two one-year extension options, both of which were executed uh by this administration, and the final extension option expires at the end of this year. However, because of the uh lead time needed for HAA to run its grants processes, we need to get that secured pretty quickly this summer. And so we're going through this process. We've had a number of stakeholder conversations between myself and Taylor with different um parts of the sector. We've met with the um leadership of the large institutions that mostly sit in our theater and museum districts, and uh we have also met with the seven cultural districts and their leadership. We've met individually with some of your offices. We will be reaching out to meet individually with all of the council offices. Um, and we've met with a number of different artists and community members and really kind of workshop this through a lot of feedback. So I hope that we are, you know, we we have a pretty good um plan in place, and and it doesn't look vastly different from what it looked like before. Uh if we can go to the next slide.

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