The mission of the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is to implement the City of Houston's vision, values, and goals for arts grantmaking and civic art investments. They work under contracts with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, executing privately funded special projects for disaster preparation, arts education equity, research on the arts state, and temporary public art to vitalize neighborhoods.
The City’s Initiative grant program, funded by the City of Houston through the Hotel Occupancy Tax, supports arts and cultural programming that enhances accessibility for the Houston community and its visitors. This grant program is focused on three main funding areas: Art + Disaster Resilience Awareness, Art + Neighborhood Cultural Destinations, and Art + Conference Tourism. Each area emphasizes projects that leverage the arts to address environmental risks, highlight cultural assets of local neighborhoods through arts activation, and enhance conference tourism with local arts and culture attractions. Grants are administered separately from other HOT-funded grants, ensuring dedicated support for these specific initiatives.
The criteria for successful projects entail the incorporation of various elements, detailed as follows:
Community Engagement: The initiative should engage in collaborative efforts with groups tied by either geographical proximity or shared interests.
Impact on Tourism/Neighborhood: The initiative should aim to draw attention from and market to individuals beyond the City of Houston's borders, whether through physical or digital means.
Strong Social Media Strategy: The initiative should present a detailed marketing strategy that includes a prominent social media component.
Support for Local Talent: The budget should demonstrate financial support for artists and creatives based in Houston.
Compatibility with Funding Objectives: The initiatives should clearly align with one of the specified three areas of funding mentioned in the overview.