About Arts and Culture

A department of the City of Irving that runs five public destinations, keeps the collections, funds local arts organizations and books the rooms. Here is who does that, and how to reach them.

Contact the department Rent a space

Department City of Irving Arts and Culture
Arts Center opened 1990
Campus Ten acres on MacArthur Boulevard
Office hours Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm

About us

One department, five front doors.

Arts and Culture is a department of the City of Irving. It runs the venues, keeps the collections, funds local arts organizations and answers the phone when a resident wants to book a room. This page explains who does that and how to reach them.

The Irving Arts Center opened in 1990 on ten acres off MacArthur Boulevard and has been the anchor of the department ever since. Two theaters, five galleries, a sculpture garden and a walled courtyard sit on one campus, and eight resident companies use them across the season.

The rest of the department is spread across the city. The Irving Archives and Museum holds the record of how Irving became a city of 250,000 people. The Mustangs of Las Colinas Museum sits under the sculpture that put the city on postcards. The Jackie Townsell Bear Creek Heritage Center preserves a freedmen's settlement founded by people who had been enslaved. The Ruth Paine House Museum is the ordinary suburban house where an ordinary week in November 1963 turned into American history.

Those five places have almost nothing in common as visits, and today they are scattered across separate sites and buried sub-pages. All of them consolidate under one Irving Arts and Culture website. The Arts Center and the Archives and Museum keep the names people already search for, the other three stop being sub-pages of somewhere else, and every destination uses the same navigation, the same page patterns and the same booking and ticketing paths. What changes between them is the photography and the practical detail each visit needs, so learning one destination teaches a resident how to use all five.

A docent leading a group through a gallery at the Irving Arts Center — Free docent tours run on the first Saturday and second Sunday of every month.

Five Public destinations Two museums, a heritage center, a historic house and an arts center
Eight Resident companies Symphony, chorale, theater and series partners
712 Seats in Carpenter Hall Plus 253 in the Dupree Theater
Free Gallery admission Every gallery, every open day, no ticket

Boards, grants and the collection

Irving Arts Board

A city board of resident volunteers appointed by the City Council. It reviews grant applications, advises on public art and meets in public. Agendas, minutes and vacancies belong on this site, not in a separate portal.
Meeting agendas and minutes
Grants for artists and organizations

The city funds local arts organizations and individual artists each year. Eligibility, deadlines, award ranges and the reporting a grantee owes afterwards should all sit on one page with the application form.
Grant guidelines and deadlines
Public art collection

Sculpture in the courtyard and garden, work in the lobbies, and the pieces installed around the city. Each piece deserves a record with the artist, the year, the medium and where to stand to see it.
Browse the collection

Talk to a person.

Every department page ends with a named way in rather than a general inbox. If the question is about a ticket, the box office answers it. If it is about a room, an event or a grant, administration does.

Box office: (972) 252-2787
Administration: (972) 252-7558
Address: 3333 North MacArthur Boulevard, Irving, Texas 75062
Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm

Secure portals

Two private areas, one sign in, no second system to buy.

The Arts Board needs somewhere to read agendas, packets and minutes that is not a public page and not an email thread. The partner organizations need somewhere to send an event without asking a staff member to type it in for them. Both run on the same accounts as the website, so there is no separate login for anybody to lose.

This is a live demo. Pick a role to see what that person sees after signing in. No password, because there is nothing real behind it.

Irving Arts and Culture, private area

Signed in as Marcia Reynolds, Arts Board member. Read only.

Meeting papers

Arts Board regular meeting Papers published Irving Arts Center, Suite 200 Agenda (PDF, 180 KB) Board packet (PDF, 4.2 MB) Grant recommendations (XLSX)
Arts Board regular meeting Minutes approved Irving Arts Center, Suite 200 Agenda (PDF, 176 KB) Approved minutes (PDF, 240 KB) FY27 budget briefing (PDF)
Grant review subcommittee Minutes approved Virtual, link in the packet Agenda (PDF, 120 KB) Approved minutes (PDF, 198 KB)

Every download is recorded against a named account, which is what makes a records request answerable later.

Notices

Action needed Conflict of interest disclosure, FY27 Chapter 176 disclosure forms are due before the September meeting. Four of fifteen members have filed. Due 5 September
Open Meetings Act Posted notice, September regular meeting Notice posted 72 hours ahead as required, and mirrored on the public About page automatically. Posted 5 September, 9.02am
Training Open Records certificate renewal Two members are inside 60 days of expiry. The reminder goes out again on the first of the month. 2 of 15 outstanding

Signed in as Irving Symphony Orchestra, partner organization. Can submit, cannot publish.

Submit an event

Event title

Venue

Date and time

Your submissions

Autumn Chamber Series, opening night Published Carpenter Hall, 2 October, 7.30pm Approved by staff 22 August. Live on the calendar.
Family workshop, printmaking In review Suite 200 studio, 11 October, 10am With staff since 26 August. No changes requested yet.
Winter gala, save the date Changes requested Carpenter Hall, 6 December, 7pm Staff note: add the ticket link and confirm the box office on sale date.

The organization sees its own submissions and nothing else. Eleven organizations, eleven separate views.

Signed in as Department administrator. Can approve, publish and manage accounts.

Submission queue

3 waiting for review

Family workshop, printmaking Irving Symphony Orchestra Suite 200 studio, 11 October, 10am. Submitted 2 days ago.
Dia de los Muertos community altar Irving Hispanic Chamber Cultural Committee Courtyard Gallery, 1 November, all day. Submitted yesterday.
New Philharmonic open rehearsal New Philharmonic of Irving Dupree Theater, 18 October, 2pm. Submitted 4 hours ago.

Who can do what

Arts Board member 15 accounts Read the board area. Download agendas, packets and approved minutes. Nothing on the public site. Cannot edit any page, and cannot see another group's area.
Partner organization 11 accounts, one per organization Submit events and updates for its own organization, and edit its own drafts until they are approved. Cannot publish. Cannot see or edit another organization's submissions.
Venue editor City staff, per destination Edit the pages for its own destination and publish them without a developer. Cannot change site-wide navigation, templates or another venue's pages.
Department administrator A small named group Approve the queue, publish anywhere, manage accounts and post board papers. Actions are logged, so every publish and approval has a name and a timestamp against it.

Built on the content management system's own accounts and capabilities rather than a bolt on membership plugin, so there is one user list, one password policy and one place to remove somebody when they leave the board. It works with the City's single sign on if you want it to, and without it if you do not.