GCDN Annual Convening – Los Angeles 2025

Lily Cabatu Weiss is the Executive Director for the Dallas Arts District and served as theArtistic Director for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts (BTWHSPVA), 2nd Artistic Director since Paul Baker, founder of the school. She served as Chair of the Dance Department that is now a national model; she holds advanced degrees from Texas Woman’s University, has taught on the dance faculties at Southern Methodist University and Houston’s HSPVA, and joined the faculty at BTWHSPVA in 1978. She taught thousands of students in her four-decade career who are leaders in the arts, education, science, entrepreneurship, and more. Much of her work was instrumental in BTWHSPVA’s distinction as the Top 8 Magnet Schools by the U.S. Department of Education and the prestigious Texas Medal of Art award. Additional awards include the National Young Arts Foundation Distinguished Teacher, Distinguished Teacher by the Commission on Presidential Scholars twelve different years, SURDNA Arts Fellowship, Bates Dance Festival Teacher Fellowship, features in two articles in Dance Teacher magazine (2007, 2009) for her work at BTWHSPVA, and features in the December 2018 and March 2021 issue of Arts + Culture Texas, in Patron, D Magazine, and D CEO Magazine in 2016 and 2022, among others. She received the 2022 Obelisk Award for Visionary Nonprofit Arts Leader and the 2023 DCEO’s Dallas 500 award for the Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Her commitment to the arts in Dallas is reflected by serving on the boards of TITAS / DANCE UNBOUND, Booker T. Washington HSPVA Advisory Board, Texans for the Arts, Steering Committee for the City’s Cultural Plan, Visit Dallas Cultural Tourism Committee, the Dallas Assembly, and a member of the Global Cultural DistrictsNetwork. In 2020, she received the Women Who Steam award from the Dallas Chapter of Links, Inc. She continues to work tirelessly over the past four decades to further the arts and education in the community. Her goals to create access and connectivity in the Dallas Arts District are demonstrated byher collaborative work on the Connect Master Plan, producing the Signature Block Party Series--a free, family- friendly event attracting over 50,000 visitors along with smaller activations throughout the year while providing education outreach to 1,500+ students annually. Dallas Arts District is proud that it was named third in the 2021 and 2022 USA Today’s 10 Best Arts Districts in the nation. Dallas Arts District is celebrating its 40th Anniversary.