TL;DR
The arts don’t take up space in elections. Candidates have limited reporting on their involvement in the arts industries, but that is beginning to change.
The last legislative session gave Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, began the conversation on AI replicas (SB 1960 ❌), Art Therapy (HB 4557 ❌) and others.
The Texas 90th legislation session begins in January where all Texas elected officials convene and vote on bills. New legislative rosters, new bills.
Here are some seats WORK is keeping an eye on.
📚 Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman (1986)
🎶 Listening to Distance in Static by Bonobo (2026)
Elections for the Arts
Texas Senate
Sen. Judith Zaffirini [D] Authored the BOTS act (2023) to counter ticket scalping. Working on amending the bill for easier enforcement.
Sen. Charles Schwertner (R) Authored SB 1960 on AI replicas. The bill did not pass.
Chair Sen. Charles Schwertner
Vice Chair Sen. Phil King
Members
TEXAS House
Rep. Bumgarner, Benjamin Authored HB 5508 (2025) to establish the Texas Film Academy (did not pass)
Chair Rep. Will Metcalf
Vice Chair Rep. Lulu Flores
Members
Austin City Council
District 9 is home to many Austin music venues like the Moody Center, ACL Live, the Red River Cultural District and more. Incumbent Zohaib “Zo” Qadri is Part of the RRCD task force, authored the resolution to fund RRCD.
District 3 is home to Canopy art galleries, Rich’s art gallery, Almost Real Things Studios, Emo’s and others. José Velásquez incumbent.
In my opinion, voting is the bare minimum, but keeps us informed on who is making decisions. It’s hard to email, call CEO or even find the contact info for CEOs, but elected officials must have an open line of contact for us.
