Arts and Culture Collective Aims to Draw Tourists to Tyler, TX

This community resource in Tyler is a voice for the arts.

By Erica Buehler on August 3, 2022

Ronald Juarez

The minds behind Visit Tyler are helping to foster a vibrant arts community that will be a draw for visitors.

Shari Lee, president of Visit Tyler, says promoting the arts in one unified, collective voice is new territory for the organization, but arts and culture as a draw is exactly what locals and visitors are asking for.

The Tyler Arts and Culture Collective isn’t meant to be an arts council, but rather a community and resource for local artists and those visiting Tyler interested in perusing the local art scene. “We really see this as being different from your other destination arts councils,” says Lee, who credits a survey of Tyler’s arts partners and residents as the catalyst for the initiative.

“Residents and arts partners felt we needed a unified, overarching brand, calendar and messaging that could be easily found.”

Lee says that, because Tyler has many different areas of the arts, Visit Tyler chose the word “collective” to reflect being a shared voice for the community as a whole.

Lee also envisions a comprehensive calendar of events to create a larger arts and audience presence for each, including art viewings, live performances and wine tastings, among others. “By collecting the artists’ information and sharing that among each other, on social media and in newsletters, we’ll build a recognizable art brand for the Tyler Arts and Culture Collective,” she says.

Marketing the community as an arts and culture destination and conveying that to prospective visitors is a top priority for the Collective.

“The cultural traveler is interested in the most personalized, community-focused experience that they can get,” says Lee. “They want to know who the citizens are and how it feels to live inside the city and where people live and create.”