Clute and Lake Jackson, Brazoria County, Texas
Two communities came together to support—through the investment of Municipal Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) for the arts—a true flagship institution, the Brazosport Center for the Arts & Science, whose geographic placement literally straddles the two city’s property lines. Explore this unique and prosperous collaboration and partnership!
Presented by Wesley Copeland, Executive Director
In the years leading up to World War II, the multi-city Brazosport region in southern Brazoria County experienced remarkable industrial expansion and population growth. As workers migrated to the area, residents established cultural organizations that would benefit the new communities, such as an art league, community theater and historical associations. Two decades later, Brazosport Fine Arts Council, Inc. (BFAC) was formed to “coordinate, encourage and assist the functions and activities of the various existing cultural groups within the Brazosport area”.
In 1976, through the visionary leadership of community and local industry leaders, Brazosport Center for the Arts & Sciences was opened on the politically neutral grounds of Brazosport College, where the city limits of Clute, Lake Jackson and Richwood meet. BFAC was invited to manage the 44,000 sq. ft. facility and to support the programs that would reside there. The Center, as it is known by locals, features an art studio and art gallery, exhibit hall, a 391-seat proscenium theater, a 199-seat arena theater and a 72-seat full-dome planetarium. It is the home of Brazosport Center Stages (community theater in continuous operation since 1943), Brazosport Art League (established in 1955), Brazosport Symphony Orchestra (established in 1983), Brazosport Planetarium (established in 1984) and Brazosport Museum of Natural Science (established in 1966). While the resident programs generate enriching cultural activities and events, The Center maintains the facilities, provides administrative support as well as promotional support in the form of a robust marketing department that manages advertising, graphic design, an integrated website, hotel relations, direct mail and email campaigns, season/membership campaigns and more. (Brazosport Symphony Orchestra now performs in Brazosport College’s world-class music performance hall, The Clarion, located just across just across campus from The Center for the Arts & Sciences. The Center currently continues to provide administrative and marketing support as well as storage and an alternative performance space for the orchestra.) The Center’s long-term sustainability plan includes an endowment, which has been managed successfully over the past four decades and now funds approximately 25% of The Center’s operations.
To keep the spaces rent and utility-free for its resident programs, additional funds are necessary to maintain the facility and attract visitors. Annual campaigns and special fundraising events, in addition to exceptional programming, have contributed greatly to the success of The Center. Further, annual grants from the City of Clute and City of Lake Jackson’s Hotel Occupancy Tax funds have provided a critically consistent source of funding over The Center’s forty-plus years. Both the City of Clute and the City of Lake Jackson benefit from the wide variety of cultural programs offered at The Center. Plays, musicals, art exhibits, festivals, and concerts provide cultural enrichment for the community, opportunities for individuals to participate directly in artistic creation and performance, and to educate visitors in the arts and sciences. As such, The Center has been a pioneer in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) before that term found its way into our popular lexicon. The Center also works to contribute to its community’s economic development through tourism by offering programs worth traveling to southern Brazoria County to experience.
Visitors to The Center can expect to:
get inspired with art created by local, regional and international artists in the art gallery, with new exhibits on display every few weeks;
encourage creativity with art classes and workshops offered to both beginners and established artists;
take a peek at prehistoric cultures that once resided in the area;
view artifacts from pre-industrial life on the Texas Gulf Coast;
get close to an allosaurus, raptors, a megalodon jaw and other favorite fossils and investigate ocean life with the largest public display of seashells in the region in our Museum of Natural Science;
enjoy a variety of high production-value plays and musicals chosen to delight both families and grown-up audiences;
take a tour of the planets and moons of our solar system;
learn to identify constellations in the same planetarium as NASA astronauts and journey to the edge of the universe in The Center’s full-dome planetarium;
be transported on even-numbered years to the English Renaissance and a recreation of the Great Hall of Warwick Castle with the immersive Elizabethan Madrigal Feast music, dance, and theater holiday event;
experience fine art, regional food, live Texas music and interactive learning opportunities during The Center’s annual Spring festival, CenterFest.
In recent years, The Center ramped-up its efforts to attract tourists from out of the area. The Center engages with its funding municipalities by asking staff to serve on visitors’ bureau boards and by actively participating in city-sponsored tourism campaigns, all HOT-funded, to further leverage its in-house marketing efforts. As a result of a reorganization of The Center and its resident programs, Center professional staff assist each program to discover opportunities to attract more tourists to its activities and events. A redesign of The Center’s website includes local hotel listings, links to other local attractions and tourism-based websites, and perhaps most importantly, a comprehensive guide to planning a trip to The Center. Advertising placed in state-wide publications and links to hotel listings on every promotional email blast sent to an ever-growing email list work toward informing visitors about The Center and nearby accommodations. Informational campaigns with local hotels to educate hotel staff about the many entertaining and educational opportunities available to their lodgers is meant to encourage extended weekend stays. To measure promotional success, The Center staff tracks and reports out-of-area visitor counts to funding municipalities. Recent data compilations demonstrate that 43% of the visitors to the admission-free Museum of Natural Science and Art Gallery reside outside Brazoria County. Further, as many as 19% of the theatre’s sold-out musical performance audience members traveled to Brazoria County to attend the shows. Most remarkably, 25% of audiences attending sold-out performances of the Elizabethan Madrigal Feast also travel from out of the area to attend this special event. None of these programs would be possible without the support of Hotel Occupancy Tax. The Center continues to generate high-quality cultural activities for both residents and visitors to southern Brazoria County and assist the Brazosport community in reaping the benefits of cultural tourism.
