The Center for Creative Connections (C3) promotes conversation and community through art. Artists and institutions collaborate to produce art installations and experiences for and about the community. The result of the collaboration is a mutual understanding of each other's creative process—everyone learns something new.
May–October 2021
“you broke the ocean in half to be here. only to meet nothing that wants you.” —Nayyirah Waheed
Displacement is a malaise that has affected people for centuries. To be torn from home, a place of solace and familiarity is, and has always been, a terrifying reality for too many. What might that feel like? What Happens Next invites you to experience a displaced person’s slice of life. Think of a date that holds significance for you—a birth, a death, a graduation, or today. Look for that date on these panels. Read the associated quote. Repeat. What Happens Next shares stories of displacement, pieced together from an array of sources, translated into a variety of languages, and arranged across a single year.
Learn about the wide variety of sources used to assemble this project in this document.
This is the debut project by a collaboration of artists (Nida Bangash, Maliha Hassan, and Kinza Zaheer) using the same moniker. The group’s aim is to collect stories authored by individuals from marginalized communities and present them to a wide audience. As a group, What Happens Next seeks to shift paradigms, cultivate empathy and gratitude, and challenge the status quo.
collective | connection
September 2019–December 2019
Poets, artists, storytellers, actors, and musicians create audio experiences inspired by works of art at the DMA
September 2018–December 2018
This quilt-like work by Lauren Cross is composed of visitors' responses to questions about common materials and identity.
Home: Neighborhood of the Heart
May 2018–August 2018
A participatory art installation by Ellie Ivanova in which visitor-contributed elements create a continuous, imaginary neighborhood.
Shay Youngblood: Writer-in-Residence
Fall 2013
Writer-in-residence Shay Youngblood gathered visitors' stories inspired by the painting Starry Crown by John Biggers.
May 2012–October 2012
The Free Association exhibition invites visitors to “free associate” using prompts taken from the African American experience in this country.
Skyline Architecture Cluster: DISD
March 2011–October 2011
Sculpting Space: 299 Chairs was created by students at Skyline High School, and uses simple chairs to sculpt space.
UNT New Media Program Installation
July 2009–January 2010
Electronic and digital technology, equipment, and materials are manipulated to behave in meaningful new ways.
May 2019-August 2019
Artist Spencer Evans explores notions of image and identity, helping participants discover their true selves.
January 2018–April 2018
Artist Timothy Harding examines the visibility of the artist’s gesture and mark-making in a work of art.
July 2017–September 2017
Artist Lisa Huffaker uses an antique vending machine to dispense small, handmade books of art and writing inspired by a work of art from the DMA collection.
Translating Culture II... Community Voices
October 2014–May 2015
Local students explored the DMA collection, then created interpretive resources from their unique points of view.
September 2014–March 2015
This collaborative project engages with women who lead the creative life of an artist while being a mother.
Tree of "Light" Community Exchange
March 2014-June 2014
In this community exchange project, visitors explored the potential meanings behind “Nur,” the Arabic word that means “light.”
Agence 5970 – Frank & Kristen Lee Dufour
November 2011-May 2012
Acoustic Shadows is an audiovisual immersive and interactive installation based on a modern interpretation of the myth of Orpheus.
SMU – Meadows School of the Arts
September 2010-February 2011
Living Room is the result of an intense collaborative process — it invites you to confront space while space, in turn, confronts you.
Booker T. Washington High School
November 2008–June 2009
Exploring concepts of self and identity, students installed large-scale self-portraits inspired by the Janine Antoni sculpture Lick and Lather
January 2019–April 2019
Inspired by the food carts commonly found across Mexico, this project explores the shared experiences of food.
October 2017–December 2017
This interactive installation by xtine burrough and Sabrina Starnaman invites visitors to explore the connection between labor and their bodies.
A. Kendra Greene: Writer-in-Residence
July 2014
Greene reviewed thousands of visitor responses from the Tree of "LIGHT" interactive, ultimately using them to compose numerous poems.
NOT WITHOUT A TRACE – David Herman
February 2016–March 2016
This installation presents a commentary on photographic memory and time, and the presence of our individual and collective experiences.
February 2015–April 2015
Artist Eliel Jones explores the idea of publicness in the museum with the goal of enhancing our understanding of democracy.
Translating Culture... Community Voices
Summer 2013
Participants learned about the DMA collection not merely through observation, but actively writing and sharing their impressions.
October 2013–January 2014
Inspired by the power of our individual voices, this project invited visitors to consider how they might use their voice in creative and positive ways.
November 2011–May 2012
Through 27 hours of workshops, Museum visitors contributed to making a single line out of strips of paper. The finished line is 2,490 feet long.
February 2010–July 2010
In Woven Records, artist Lesli Robertson led Museum visitors, volunteers, and community groups in creating collaborative collages.
May 2008–October 2008
Students and faculty from the UTA architecture program designed walls that examine the meanings of the materials used by architects and designers.