WHO ARE WE?

A3 Art Alliance Austin is a Local Arts Agency serving the greater Austin area that fund-raises and distributes funding to the diverse artists, musicians, performers and technicians who make Austin a vibrant, creative city.

Formerly the Texas Fine Arts Association, the organization was known for its annual Arts and Crafts Fiesta in association with Laguna Gloria Museum.

A later iteration of the organization, Art Alliance Austin, produced the event Art City Austin and other programs until 2020 when the COVID pandemic forced the organization to cease programming.

A3 will continue the legacy of providing support to artists by expanding its reach to musicians, performing artists, curators, and arts organizations focusing on direct financial support.

WHAT IS A LOCAL ARTS AGENCY?

Per Americans for the Arts:

“The nation’s 5,000 local arts agencies (LAA) promote, support, and develop the arts at the local level ensuring a vital presence for the arts throughout America’s communities. LAAs are diverse in their makeup—they have many different names and embrace a spectrum of artistic disciplines. But each LAA, in its own way, works to sustain the health and vitality of the arts and artists locally, while also striving to make the arts accessible to all members of a community.”
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Austin’s current LAA is the Cultural Arts Division operated by the City’s Economic Development Department (EDD.)

Grant making efforts of A3 would seek to extend and complement Austin’s arts ecosystem by funding a variety of artists and organizations with profiles outside of those covered by the EDD.

A3 will continue the legacy of providing support to artists by expanding its reach to musicians, performing artists, curators, and arts organizations focusing on direct financial support.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Laura Esparza

Laura Esparza has devoted more than 40 years to the development of diverse communities through the arts with her skills and experience as a professional arts administrator, facility planner and organizational consultant. Her work has taken her throughout the country, having founded programs and facilities in Bellingham, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, San Antonio, Phoenix, Redwood City, San Jose and Austin.

For 17 years, she served as the Division Manager of the City’s 11 Museums and Cultural Centers which she ran for the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department. She successfully completed and opened three new cultural facilities, the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), the Asian American Resource Center and Oakwood Cemetery Chapel.

Learn more about Laura

She assisted with the completion of four additional projects including the reconstruction of the People’s Renaissance Market, the renovation of the Susannah Dickinson House, the renovation of the Carver Genealogy Center, and phase one of the restoration of the Ney Museum. In addition, she supervised the operations of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, the Dougherty Arts Center, the Old Bakery and Emporium and the O.Henry Museum.

As the founding Artistic Director for the Mexican Heritage Plaza, a $35 million cultural complex in San Jose, CA., she was responsible for the design development of a 6.2-acre cultural facility including a professional theater, a museum and the facilities’ public art. She then used her skills in design and program development for Museo Alameda in San Antonio where, as Director, she completed the design process with architects Jackson & Ryan and opened the museum in April 2007.

As the Administrator of First ACT Silicon Valley, she co-founded an industry-led movement to create a new and innovative paradigm for the development of an integrated “Creative Community” in the South Bay region based on the theories of the “creative economy.” To coalesce multicultural arts organizations in her community, she founded First Voice—South Bay Arts Forum, an advocacy organization empowering diverse arts organizations to connect and succeed in a changing economic climate. In 2014, First Act merged with Arts Council Silicon Valley to become Silicon Valley Creates, a non-profit LAA.

Ms. Esparza’s training is in theater; she was the recipient of the esteemed San Diego Fellowship at UCSD where she received her M.F.A. in Latino Theater. In 1994, she received the NEA-TCG Director’s Fellowship, an honor given to only four theater directors in the nation, every other year. Her undergraduate degree from Fairhaven College, Western Washington University, was entitled “Community Arts Development,” an original degree promoting community development through the arts.

Media, Design & Tech

Monisha Saggi

Artist and programmer, Monisha has called Austin home for the past 12 years, the longest she has lived anywhere, drawn by the city’s vibrant arts culture and supportive community.

After over a decade in tech, she is now focusing on her own project in design research and storytelling.