2026 Greater Houston Arts Forum + Texans for the Arts Summit & Awards

The Hobby Center is playing host to a double-header on Monday, October 12: the Greater Houston Arts Forum and the Texans for the Arts Summit & Awards. It's a long day that runs from 9 AM to 9 PM, combining the city's regional arts forum with the biennial statewide summit and advocacy awards show put on by the Texas Arts Council. The Houston Arts Alliance, HouArts, The Hobby Center, and the Texans for the Arts Foundation are presenting it, with support from the Houston Endowment.

It's built for a crowd of artists, nonprofit leaders, funders, educators, and policymakers, and the schedule is designed so you can carve out your own path. There are three curated tracks—Artists, Arts Organizations, and Advanced Leadership—that run through the day, with interactive sessions and shared learning in between. The morning kicks off at 9 AM, and by 10:45 AM you're into the first set of concurrent sessions: Arts on the Ballot, Sculpting Words, and Advocacy Leadership. At 11 AM, there's a live taping of Hello Houston!, followed by lunch at noon.

The afternoon picks back up at 1:15 PM with another round of concurrent sessions—Public Funding for Artists, Public Funding for Arts Orgs, and Strategic Funding Leadership—and then deep dive sessions and a hackathon starting at 2:30 PM. Around 4 PM, things shift toward the social side with Dine-Arounds at Diana American Grill.

The whole day builds toward the finale: the Texans for the Arts Awards, which start at 6:30 PM. It's a full-day commitment, from the first session at 9 AM to the awards that wrap things up by 9 PM, all under one roof at The Hobby Center, 800 Bagby St, Houston, TX 77002.