Austin's Office of Arts unveils Creative Reset project and funding updates

The Austin Music Commission meeting on June 2, 2025, focused on the ongoing "Creative Reset" project aimed at enhancing cultural funding and community engagement in the arts and music sectors. Morgan Messick, the assistant director for the Office of Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment, provided updates on the project's progress and the feedback collection process.

Since the last commission meeting, the team has initiated focus groups and distributed a toolkit called "meetings in a box" to facilitate smaller community discussions. An online survey has been published, gathering responses from the community, with over 570 submissions reported by the end of May. The feedback collected is being analyzed to revise existing guidelines for cultural funding, with a goal to present draft guidelines by July.

Messick highlighted the importance of benchmarking against peer cities, such as San Antonio, Dallas, and Nashville, to explore different funding models and public art programs. Additionally, the commission is working on updating an ordinance that has not been revised since 1985, aiming to modernize the framework for creative funding in Austin.

The engagement efforts are set to conclude by June 5, after which the team will begin synthesizing the feedback into actionable guidelines. A community-facing dashboard has been established to keep the public informed about participation and progress, with weekly updates planned.

The meeting also addressed concerns about transparency and the influence of external parties on the funding process. Messick assured the commission that all feedback would be made public, while also committing to improve communication regarding external meetings and partnerships.

The next steps include presenting the updated guidelines to various commissions and ultimately to the city council on July 24, with the aim of launching new funding programs in the fall. The commission emphasized the importance of community involvement and encouraged ongoing participation in the feedback process.