PICKING UP THE TAB: Over the weekend, dallasnews.com posed an interesting question: As Dallas’ philanthropic heavyweights get older, who will be there to replace them and keep the arts strong? “A lot of organizations that rely on unearned income, gift income, have not necessarily done a real good job of developing relationships with the new generation,” champion fundraiser Bill Lively says.  And as Michael Granbury writes in the story, “A global economy, coupled with a far more mobile society, threatens donor ties to a single community.” Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to this one.

REAL WOMEN AT TeCO: TeCo Theatrical Productions opens its news season on Thursday Josephina Lopez’s Real Women Have Curves. The play centers on a Mexican-American teenager with body image issues, an issue that TeCo founder Teresa Wash thought would resonate with the community that surrounds her company. “We’re in a largely Hispanic area; many residents have never come to our theater,” Wash tells theaterjones.com. “When [director]Jonathan [Norton] suggested Real Women Have Curves, about five Latina women in a dress shop, it struck me as the ideal vehicle for us.”

LISTEN UP: If you’re visiting this site, chances are you see the value of arts education in schools. But in case you ever need to make the argument for it, here’s another weapon in your arsenal. A study of kids between the ages of 4-6 shows that studying music at that young age actually goes a long way in developing verbal skills. “Our findings represent the first demonstration of broad transfer of an educationally vital skill,” the researchers write. “Training in music-listening skills transfers to verbal ability.”