If a city’s coolness is generated by its citizens, how do you suppose Dallas ranks? Think about it: a conservative population sprawled over flat, searing, Bible-belted territory. Pretty low, huh?
Wrong. Scratch the surface, and Dallas comes up surprisingly cool.
In his 2002 landmark book, The Rise of the Creative Class, economist Richard Florida defined a crucial and growing slice of an urban population as those people “whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content.” Not just for themselves, but for all of us.
Turns out Dallas abounds with such people. According to Florida, among the 49 American cities with populations of a million or more, Dallas ranks 10th on the Creative Index—above slick Atlanta (13), GenX-y Portland (16), and even vast and smoggy Los Angeles (12). In fact, all-powerful New York slides in just above us at number 9.*
Cool folks, a.k.a. the Creative Class, are thick on the ground here, and by cool we don’t just mean that they can pull off Prada and Goodwill with equal aplomb. We’re talking people whose actions give Dallas a bright edge on the nation’s cultural face and, in turn, make your local world richer, broader, more interesting. Cooler.
What’s new is the increasing concentration of these people in industries that rely on ideas: technology, media, education, the arts, and urban development. Money changes hands, but not for anything so ordinary as real estate, oil, or banking. Rather, the hot commodity is the contents of people’s brains. It’s their very thinking processes that have become so valuable, and we’re moving into a new economy fueled by it: the Economy of Ideas.
The ideas of Dallas’ Creative Class rub off on this city every day, and the trickle-down benefits are tangible. The more of these creative people thriving in our area, the more sophistication, resources, and cultural layers we can access.
Creative types are drawn by Dallas’ central location, its low cost of living, its potential for expansion (both culturally and geographically), and, really, its overall quality of life. Dallas benefits from both the brain drain—that is, the seduction of educated, talented people from smaller markets (say, Round Rock or Lubbock)—as well as a kind of reverse brain drain. Not long ago, North Texas would lose its talented, educated young people to happening cities on either coast. Now they’re willing to stick around, see what becomes of their efforts.
Anyway, cool people would never dwell on the definition of cool; they’re too busy doing what makes them cool in the first place. So we’ll stop here and get on with the list of people who make your city a cooler place to live. —Christina Rees
* In case you’re wondering, San Francisco, Austin, and San Diego take slots 1, 2, and 3, respectively. And we leave some notably creative cities in the dust: Nashville, 38, Phoenix, 19, and, well, Las Vegas, 47. Okay. No surprise there.
The Artman
Arthur James, 32
Commercial Illustrator
Actor Bill Paxton owns one of his originals. Elton John bought a hat created by the Deep Ellum artist known as Artman. And local bars couldn’t keep Arthur James’ posters for Miller Lite’s 2002 “Live Responsibly” campaign on their walls, as patrons walked off with them. James’ in-demand style is influenced by his appreciation of history, his love of kitsch, and the community in which he lives. One of the hottest commercial illustrators in the country, the Dallas native’s clients include Coors, American Airlines, and Nike, and his latest work can currently be seen on Fox Sports new animated spots.
The Teacher
Virginia Arbery, 54
Professor of Political Science, Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture
Virginia Arbery claims she is not cool. As proof, she offers her eight children and the fact that she has thus far declined to have liposuction. But her job puts her on the superhero level of coolness, because Virginia Arbery is doing nothing less than saving civilization (and, in the process, convincing teachers to go to summer school).
Arbery works at the Dallas Institute, a wonderful cultural institution whose stated purpose is “to enrich and deepen the practical life of the city with the wisdom and imagination of the humanities.” One way it does this is through its summer Teachers Academy, which encourages educators (and ordinary citizens in search of master’s degrees) to reconnect with the fundamental human questions: what is God? What is death? What should a city be? Each summer session is a total immersion into the Great Books—Aristotle and Plato seven hours a day for three weeks. Arbery says that getting teachers to enroll is simple.
“We trick them,” she says. “We never say this is going to make you a better teacher or help your students. Because if you tell them they’re going to read 30 books in three weeks and they’re going to be dead tired and their family is going to hate them and when they go back to work the other faculty will find them strange because they’ll look at things differently, their life will be changed—that won’t work. But they come. And that’s what happens.”
The Film Gods
Norry Niven, 40, director and Peter Besson, 34, director
Stone Core Films
Director Norry Niven and executive producer Elaine Sibert were the driving forces that brought Stone Core Films to its 10-year anniversary in 2003. Recruits Peter Besson and Kevin Sarnoff were taken onboard this year to help with the increasing workload. Clients Sea World, Showtime, Diesel, and Wal-Mart skip Los Angeles studios for this trio’s brand of slick commercials. Vivid color and abstract settings make Niven’s spots look more like expensive 30-second movies instead of bland breaks in your regularly scheduled programming.
The Radiohead
Dave Chaos, 40
Station Manager,KNON-FM 89.3
Dave Chaos has been with KNON-FM 89.3 (“The Voice of the People”) for 16 years, starting as a volunteer deejay and working his way up to promotions manager and development manager and, as of last August, station manager. Chaos still has his own airtime on Wednesday nights, playing hardcore punk, grindcore death metal, and other hard rock music you probably wouldn’t like. But that’s the beauty of KNON—there’s something for everyone. From Tejano to Rockabilly to Cajun and Zydeco, the play lists are as varied as the community itself. “There should be at least one station like KNON in every city,” Chaos says. The station recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and should be in its new digs—the basement of Southside on Lamar—by the end of the year.
The Book Lady
Kay Cattarulla, 69
Founder, Arts and Letters Live
Kay Cattarulla is no longer in charge of “Arts and Letters Live,” but to speak of the literary series without mentioning her name would be disingenuous at best, disrespectful at worst. Twelve years ago, Cattarulla founded the annual event that invites Texas actors to read the works of Texas writers and distinguished guests to read their own at the Dallas Museum of Art and other venues. Cattarulla has passed the executive director duties to Carolyn Bess and has started a new project: she’s collaborating with KERA on a one-hour documentary about Margo Jones. “I simply moved over to a different area of the arts,” Cattarulla says.
The Gifted Droog
Brian Smith, 21
Actor
Thanks to Brian Smith, people across the country are taking note of Quad C Theatre. Last year, as a student at Collin County Community College, Smith wowed audiences as Alex, the head “droog” in A Clockwork Orange. This spring, he was accepted by Juilliard. Yet another talented person fleeing Dallas for New York? Well, for the next four years anyway. But Smith says he’s committed to doing regional theater, and, if we’re lucky, we’ll get him on his summer breaks.
The Composer
Cindy McTee, 50
Regents Professor of Music Composition, University of North Texas
Working in her Denton home, built on land that she chose for its mature trees, Cindy McTee writes only about a half hour of music every year. But her “less is more” approach to composing symphonic works has made her a rising star. The Dallas Symphony commissioned her to write a piece for its 1999-2000 centennial season, and last year the New York Times praised her Symphony No. 1: Ballet for Orchestra, which was premiered by Leonard Slatkin’s National Symphony Orchestra.
The Cartoonists
Keith Alcorn, 46 and John Davis, 41
Owners and Directors, DNA Productions
In 1995, DNA Productions had only two employees, John Davis and Keith Alcorn. Then a 40-second short they’d created turned into the Oscar-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the first 3-D animated feature film ever made outside Hollywood. Nickelodeon recently picked up the Neutron TV series for a third season, and DNA is hard at work on another feature film called The Ant Bully. And they’re doing it all right in Irving—with about 98 more employees.
The Talent Scout
Donna Baker-Brittingham, 36
Principal, See Pictures
Donna Baker-Brittingham’s 15-year-old artist-management company often puts up its own money to produce daring ads that mainstream agencies won’t touch. SEE Picture’s roster of success includes Tabasco’s controversial burning ship inside a bottle, which won at Cannes Film Festival, and the experimental bleach print ads for Hummer’s U.S. launch. Her secret to success? “We provide everything an artist needs to do award-winning work,” says Brittingham. “They don’t have to worry about anything except being creative.”
The Agent
David Hale Smith, 35
Owner, DHS Literary
A literary agent? In Dallas? Actually, David Hale Smith says that with so many agents hustling in New York, his location is a competitive advantage. Smith launched DHS in 1994, and even though it’s a mom-and-pop shop—wife Elizabeth is his partner—he now regularly does six-figure deals with the likes of Knopf and Simon & Schuster. Recent coups include selling the film rights to Bill Minutaglio’s book City on Fire (to Tom Cruise’s production company) and fielding bids from nine publishers for Skip Hollandsworth’s new book, The Midnight Assassin, about the first serial killer in American history.
In Dallas, you’d think you’d have to make things big and flashy if you want to attract the crowds. But the ladies of Local felt a little restraint was in order—both in décor and on the menu—and thus turned their new Deep Ellum restaurant into one of the freshest ideas to hit our city in ages. Housed in the old Boyd Hotel, Local is old-school in service and warmth; slickly contemporary in style; to the appetite, it’s always clean and tasty. The result: sold-out rooms every night with nary an ounce of pretense.
The Movie Maker
Michael Cain, 42
President and Founder, Defman
In 1999, Michael Cain started the Deep Ellum Film Festival to raise awareness of independent filmmakers in Dallas and also to raise money for cancer relief (his father died of pancreatic cancer). He’s had success on both fronts. Cain is founder and president of DEFMAN (Deep Ellum Film, Music, Art, and Noise), executive director of the Deep Ellum and Santa Monica film festivals, and president of Deep Ellum Pictures. After earning his masters at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, Cain moved back to his native Dallas rather than staying in movie-crazed LA. “The arts scene in Dallas is supportive without being competitive,” he says. “In LA, it’s very ’What’s in it for me?’ Here, it’s ’What’s in it for us?’” The fifth year of the festival opens October 22 at the Majestic Theater.
The Dinner Duo
Alice Cottrell, 39 and Tracy Miller, 40
Owners, Local
In Dallas, you’d think you’d have to make things big and flashy if you want to attract the crowds. But the ladies of Local felt a little restraint was in order—both in décor and on the menu—and thus turned their new Deep Ellum restaurant into one of the freshest ideas to hit our city in ages. Housed in the old Boyd Hotel, Local is old-school in service and warmth; slickly contemporary in style; to the appetite, it’s always clean and tasty. The result: sold-out rooms every night with nary an ounce of pretense.
The Trendsetters
Cally Bybee, 33 and Terence Reynolds, 44
Creative Group Heads, Richards Group
The Richards Group has long been known for its fresh, take-no-prisoners handling of advertising clients. Cally Bybee, one of the Group’s witty, strong writers and a creative group head, invented the endearing Florida Citrus spots, is in charge of the Travelocity campaign, and has revived the Motel 6 chain. Creative director Terence Reynolds heads up Shift, the Urban Marketing division, with the inventive handling of such campaigns as Corona Beer, Hummer, and Target. If you’ve seen their stunning television and print ads for Dr Pepper featuring Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila, you’re likely as impressed as we are.
The Builder
Diane Cheatham, 52
Founder, Urban Edge Developers
Not only is she a woman in a male-dominated business, but she’s also the only developer in town doing cutting-edge contemporary spec work. Heck, she brags about how little money she makes on every project. Diane Cheatham should have gone bust long ago. Instead, her duplexes and condos—all designed by the best architects in town, most in the Knox/Henderson area—keep going up and keep winning awards, along the way teaching Dallas how to appreciate serious architecture and how to take risks. “You gotta do what you do,” Cheatham says. “I guess if I really wanted to make money, I’d be a brain surgeon. But I don’t like blood.”
The Earth Mother
Ida Papert, 73
Founder, Farmers Market Friends
Ida Papert makes a blue-ribbon watermelon-rind preserve as easily as she gets high-level city officials to take her phone calls. Her tireless efforts to make the Farmers Market a vibrant force in downtown Dallas are well-known among foodies, farmers, and bureaucrats alike. In 1991, she formed the Farmers Market Friends, an advocacy group that boasts more than 400 members, and, in 1993, she joined forces with the American Institute of Wine and Food to start cooking classes in the Market’s Shed No. 2. The classes are the best in Dallas, and, on Saturday mornings, you’ll find the stars of local cuisine cooking for a full house. Or, rather, shed.
The Metabolism Messiahs
Dr. Michael S. Brown, 62 and Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, 63
Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology/Medicine; Professors of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine at UT Southwesern Medical School
Who would’ve thought? In a state notorious for slowing nearly everyone’s metabolism with its abundance of barbecue and Tex-Mex, major advances have emerged in the field of cholesterol regulation. UT Southwestern’s venerable researchers, Drs. Michael S. Brown and Joseph S. Goldstein, were educated in Boston and moved their scientific partnership to Dallas in the early 1970s. After figuring out something crucial about, uh, hypercholesterol being spurred by a lack of cell receptors that control cholesterol uptake, Brown and Goldstein were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985. Through their findings, diseases related to abnormally high cholesterol levels, such as arteriosclerosis, are entirely more treatable.
The Eye
Misty Keasler, 24
Photographer
Most photographers try to tell a story. Misty Keasler, instead, documents the scene and lets the audience find the story, which lends her work a stark realism, void of sappy sentimentality. It also makes her one of the most promising and refreshing photographers in the country. She first gained national recognition with her photo essay on the Plano heroin epidemic, published in D Magazine in 2000. Since then her work has appeared in such publications as Nest and Texas Monthly. From exposing the realities of Parkland Hospital’s ER to documenting the lives of Romanian gypsies, Keasler is merely a visitor to these worlds, and her work conveys voyeuristic appeal without sacrificing the subject’s emotional power. Photo District News recognized her gift by recently naming her one of the country’s 30 emerging talents. She’s currently spending a year in Japan, working as a photographer for Newsweek, and her pictures from a recent trip to several Russian orphanages, revealing their somber conditions, will appear in an upcoming issue of D.
The Lyricists
GNO, 34 and Emotion Brown, 31
Authors, Poets
When entering the Sankofa Arts Kafe on Martin Luther King Boulevard, check your expectations at the door. The modest bookstore/cafe/performance space is the focal point of the Dallas slam-poetry circuit. Your host is GNO (an acronym for Geometric Nubian Orator), author and performance poet. A veteran of National Poetry Slam events since 1997, his talent has established him as the voice that will not go unheard. Any given Friday or Saturday night, he bounds through the crowded performance room of Sankofa, joking, giving credit to the band and his fellow poets, and then releasing mesmerizing spells of impromptu verse to an eager audience. GNO’s work is as stoic and humorous as it is introspective. He claims influences Prince, Reg E. Gaines, Malcolm X, and Steve Cokely.
Camika Spencer, who made her mark under the pseudonym Emotion Brown at Sankofa’s slam nights, kept a journal and sometimes wrote plays when she was younger, but she never considered her own gift for writing. She dreamed of becoming a disc jockey or program director, until, discouraged by her initial career path, she took a job at Black Images, an African-American bookstore. While perusing its books on her down time, she discovered that she could write just as well as the authors on the shelves, and she eventually self-published a novel, When All Hell Breaks Loose. The novel was ultimately picked up by Random House in 2000.
THE GREAT WHITE HOPE
Ward Williams, 29, Dave Monsey, 35, Carter Albrecht, 30, Danny Balis, 35, and Brant Cole, 33
Musicians, The Sparrows
Derby Days, the Cosmetics, the Limes. Never heard of ’em? No matter. Carter Albrecht is putting his more obscure Dallas band days behind him with his newest outfit, the Sparrows. Raunchy, knowing, slick, and snarly, the Sparrows are causing a stir in the North Texas music scene—they sound amazing, they look good, and they carry themselves like the bona fide rock stars they’ll likely be by next year. Not to mention the songwriting. Albrecht packs the composing instinct of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and then tempers it with the decadence of vintage Roxy Music. Dallas has needed someone like this for a long time. • Why stay put when bigger cities like New York or Los Angeles open their doors for such talent? “I’m here because of the people,” Albrecht says. “We’ve formed what feels like an unbreakable chain.” By that he means not only his bandmates, but also the rest of his friends and family. • This Kansas native (he moved to Dallas for a music scholarship at SMU, and his parents followed) has also helped out on Edie Brickell’s latest venture; another local act he’s joined, Sorta, is basking in its own regional acclaim. Later this season, after the Sparrows record their second LP (for Robert Jenkins’ Summer Break label), Albrecht will be looking a national tour in the eye and daring the critics to blink.
The Urban Cowboy
Tim Love, 31
Chef and Owner, Lonesome Dove; Developer
If Tim Love has his way, the Fort Worth Stockyards will never be the same. Which is good, because when the chef and owner of Lonesome Dove isn’t in the kitchen whipping up his award-winning cowboy cuisine, he’s upgrading the Marine Creek Riverwalk running behind the restaurant or preserving the integrity of the 115-year-old White Elephant Bar. Invited to cook in the “Rising Stars of American Cuisine” series at the acclaimed James Beard House in New York in August, he didn’t just fly in; he loaded up his staff for a four-day drive across the country, picking up fresh ingredients along the way. His motto: “If I’m not having fun, I’m out.”
Keeper of the Flame
Dan Shipley, 50
Architect, Shipley Architects
In some uppity architectural circles, the phrase “Dallas architecture” is considered an oxymoron. But thanks to Dan Shipley, the inventive and thoughtful designer who has devoted his career to making well-crafted buildings, modernism’s tenants of form and function continue in our evolving neighborhoods. Imagine, an architect who cares enough about budget and details to roll up his sleeves and pound nails.
The Public’s Artist
Pamela Nelson, 56
Artists; Advocate for Homeless Artists
Pamela Nelson does not mind being called a utilitarian. As the only Texas member of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, Nelson has dedicated much of her time to promoting public art alongside her gallery work, as well as helping homeless shelters create art programs for their residents. You may have seen her animal-skin mosaics adorning columns in the Dallas Zoo Light Rail station, and you’ll soon be checking out her lively “game board” designs when you get off the train at American Airlines Center.
The Collector
Wlodek Malowanczyk, 53
Owner, Collage Classics
Wlodek Malowanczyk and his wife and business partner, Abby, know how to take a risk. Thirteen years ago, the couple moved their modern furniture and accessories store from Laguna Beach, California, to Dallas, a city known for its deeply traditional design roots. Today, their store is a mecca for modernists from all over the globe, and the Malowanczyks remain the exclusive Dallas dealers of many important modern designers and architects, including Finn Juhl and Hans Wegner. But, more important, has Dallas learned to embrace modern design? Slowly, but surely, Wlodek says. One couch at a time.
The Conduit
Joe Cripps, 38
Percussionist; Producer; Owner, Fast Horse Recordings
The one-time percussionist of local legends Brave Combo, Joe Cripps struck out as a gun for hire four years ago and hit sonic gold when R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and former Screaming Trees member Barrett Martin tapped him to contribute to their ethno-ambient project Tuatara. Soon Cripps was a full-fledged member of that busy outfit, as well as the co-founder and president of the group’s new indie label, Fast Horse Recordings. Between touring the world, running the label, and producing other bands’ projects (not to mention traveling to Cuba and Brazil to study Afro-Cuban rhythms with old masters), Cripps has helped re-ignite the career and critical acclaim of Delta blues man CeDell Davis.
The Responsible Entrepreneur
Craig Hall, 53
CEO, Hall Financial Group; Philanthropist; Author
Craig Hall thinks there should be more to see from your office window than a parking lot. That philosophy gave birth to Frisco’s chic Hall Office Park. Hall launched his financial group with savings from his childhood ventures, one of which was selling soft drinks when he was 10 years old. Together with his wife Kathryn, they funded a program to teach the elements of entrepreneurship to students in Eastern Europe. Today he is a longtime art collector, author, and businessman working to enrich our area’s aesthetic and business values.
The Maverick
Talley Dunn, 35
Owner and Curator, Dunn and Brown Contemporary
When Talley Dunn left her position as the right hand of Gerald Peters, no one doubted she’d succeed on her own terms. With five of her represented artists appearing in 2001’s Whitney Biennial, she and gallery co-owner Lisa Hirschler Brown proved themselves to be the new major players in the Texas art world. Including Texas artists such as photographer Nic Nicosia, videomaker Brian Fridge, and autobiographical surrealist Trenton Doyle Hancock, Dunn’s stable of both established and upcoming artists is unrivaled. Now she’s bringing her artists into the international spotlight with Hancock’s inclusion in the Lyon and Istanbul Biennials and Mel Ziegler’s “Stuffed” exhibition at Vienna’s Secession Gallery.
The Destination Dealers
Kevin Vogel, 48, director and Cheryl Vogel, 48, curator
Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden
Picking up where your parents left off can be a daunting task, but for Kevin Vogel, taking over Valley House Gallery from his parents, Donald and Margaret, has been a seamless process. Entering the family business just out of high school, Vogel apprenticed on the North Dallas grounds his mother and father cultivated. In 1978, he took over the proprietorship with his wife Cheryl. Boasting a splendid organic sculpture garden and a collection of regional, national, and European art—with special dedication to early Texas art—Valley House was the first gallery in the Southwest to gain membership in the Art Dealers Association of America.
The Sculptor
Erick Swenson, 31
Artist
You know the sculpture installed at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth—a delicate, hoofed creature is caught up in the vortex of a swirling black cape, a look of confused anguish on its face? This is the kind of stuff that has art people in both hemispheres swooning. Who is this kid? Erick Swenson’s is an inverse-Midas touch, because everything he touches turns spooky and melancholy. He often works taxidermic animals into haunted and half-comic projections of his own social anxieties, and the results are sublime: rabid snow weasels hotly pursue a fairy-tale deer; an unseen, sinister gravity pins an albino stag—by his rack—to a Persian rug.
A former member of Denton’s much-missed Good/Bad Art Collective, Swenson spent his college years at the University of North Texas, steadily building his absurd vision in the collective’s group shows. When many of his peers started relocating to New York, Swenson balked and moved from Denton to Dallas, and the results of the area’s stabilizing influence on his career are notable. He’s had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and Germany, and he’s been in group shows in New York, Sydney, New Orleans, and at the Modern in Fort Worth.
Represented by the Angstrom Gallery in Dallas and the James Cohan Gallery in New York, Swenson recently completed the prestigious International Artist-in-Residence program at ArtPace foundation in San Antonio, where he departed from whole creatures to partial ones—in this case, layered cross-section sculptures of whale flesh and blubber. Like all his art, they’re luminous, odd, noble, and far more complex and personal than any mere surface reading.
The Brand New Funk
Tony Miglini, 32, executive producer and Chris Smith, 31, director
Sugar Film Production
If you’ve seen the Nokia commercial where the guy spells “I [heart] you” in ketchup, or the one for WFAA when two ladies in a beauty parlor exchange football commentary, you’ve seen the work of local upstart Sugar Film Production. Chris Smith and Tony Miglini celebrate the company’s second anniversary this year, with every completed project opening the door for a new one. Currently the duo is “in the mix” for three new spots—two regional and one national.
The Political Machine
Rob Allyn, 43
Political Consultant; President, Founder, Allyn & Company
He’s famous for electing Mexican president Vincente Fox and Laura Miller, mayor of Dallas. But for years, Rob Allyn has been quietly building a small political powerhouse. Corporations and candidates alike vie for his attention—from the Bahamas, where he elected the new prime minister, to the wilds of the Park Cities, where he did county judge Margaret Kelleher’s campaign.
The Seeker
Russell Buchanan, 42
Architect, Russell Buchanan Architects
Russell Buchanan knows that Dallas architecture is brimming with potential, and he’s hoping to cultivate it through his work with the Architectural Exhibitions Initiative, a program launched earlier this year by a group of concerned citizens and the Dallas Architecture Forum. He travels across the country and Canada in search of architectural exhibitions to bring home to Texas venues. When not scouring San Francisco or New York for Initiative potentials, he splits his time between his local architectural firm and his passion for furniture design.
The Rain Maker
Terry Martin, 44
Producing Artistic Director, Watertower and Theatre
In 1999, Addison’s once-tiny theater community got a big kick in the pants. When Terry Martin was named producing artistic director to the city’s WaterTower Theatre Company, attendance jumped and membership doubled. After studying at New York’s Carnegie Hall Studios and working with the Village Theatre Company, Martin hopes to “produce a diverse canon of theater” for fans of the performing arts. Plays like the currently showing Das Barbecü—set in Texas and irreverently based on Wagner’s Ring Cycle—explain why area theater buffs are anticipating his scheduled season of performances, which are housed in the Gary Cunningham-designed Addison Theatre Centre.
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