Our Mission
DAAART’s mission is to connect & cultivate the Asian American creative community in Dallas.
Our values
Inclusion
There are infinite ways to be Asian American. We welcome, edify, and amplify all the diverse voices of the Asian American story. South Asians, South East Asians, West Asians, Central Asians, and East Asians all, we value & support. We counter the narrative of who and what is defined as Asian by the American mainstream and build shared narratives of our own.
Creativity
Creativity is what fuels and unites us. We welcome and celebrate creatives across industries, mediums, and practices. Whether it's visual, musical, performance, literary, or a previously unimagined category - we uplift creativity in all its forms!
Community
We are stronger together. We want to create in community, not a vacuum. We seek to provide inspiration, constructive criticism, and feedback to one another. We share opportunities, skills, and networks with one another.
Solidarity
We stand in solidarity with all people of the global majority in the US. We all deserve to live in dignity.
We identify the model minority myth as a poison pill that seeks to divide communities of color. We reject the model minority myth that has been placed on many of us, which is also disproportionately applied across different ethnicities within Asian Americans. We reject and fight against colorism within our own ethnicities. We reject and fight against anti-Blackness within our own communities, and take it to be our responsibility to educate those in our communities who seek to put other marginalized people of the global majority beneath our own.
Dallas is built on the land of Caddo, Wichita and Comanche people. As a diverse diasporic community of individuals whose families have experienced colonization and live in the shadow of its legacy, we acknowledge that we live on stolen land. We know and express gratitude for the civil and human rights that Black and brown people in America have fought for, paving the way for many other POC, including Asian Americans to be able to exist in America. We know there is a history of Asian American activists who have fought alongside them, and seek to emulate their example.