Is there an audience for conversation about what’s on North Texas artists’ minds and how they go about their business? Based on the packed house last Thursday at State of the Arts, I’d say yes.

Here are a few clips from the discussion led by Jeff Whittington. (Art&Seek partners with the DMA to present the series.) We’ll post the whole conversation soon.

Carlos Donjuan is a professor and part of Sour Grapes, a group from Oak Cliff that has morphed from a graffiti crew into a loose collective of artists attracting attention from the “legit” art world. A perennial question is what, if any, responsibility artists have to their audience.  Donjuan had an interesting take:

Equally refreshing was Kim Cadmus Owens’ take on Dallas’  self-consciousness about its image. She suggests that the arts scene in Dallas isn’t “on the verge” of anything; it just is, and that’s great.

Lucia Simek, know best for her criticism in Glasstire and D magazine, is also an artist,  working toward her MFA at Texas Christian University. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the interesting collectives and projects that have caught her attention.  There are really exciting things going on in our region right now. And one reason that’s happening, Simek points out, is because artists aren’t asking for permission or waiting for funding. They’re just doing it.

But that’s not to say artists, and the creative community, can survive without support. She has strong opinions about the responsibilities of collectors and patrons.