When the Black Academy of Arts and Letters returns to the downtown Dallas convention center in December 2028 as projected, it’ll do so in a revamped home.
In a Monday briefing at the academy, TBAAL, as the group is called, previewed its proposed renovation plans.
Upgrades will target the nearly 70-year-old building’s theatrical system, ADA accessibility and mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure. The facilities will also be expanded via a reconfiguration of the space.
Curtis King, the founder of TBAAL, said it took the organization nine years to secure a permanent home.
“Thirty-eight years later, we’re still here,” he added later.
The Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center, where TBAAL is based, is set to be demolished in phases as part of a city master plan to revitalize the center and its surrounding area.
Accordingly, TBAAL will relocate this fall to The Women’s Museum in Fair Park, which has been vacant.
In February 2024, the Dallas City Council awarded a four-year, $9.2 million contract to engineering consulting firm Dikita Enterprises for TBAAL’s renovation. The council also approved a $22.3 million contract with architecture firm KAI Enterprises in January 2025.
Brien Graham, an architect at KAI Enterprises, said at the Monday briefing that the firm traveled to and studied cultural venues including New York City’s Apollo Theater and Lincoln Center and the Hale Centre Theater in Utah as inspiration for TBAAL’s overhaul.
Construction for the renovation is expected to begin in May 2026.
The origins of TBAAL
In his opening remarks Monday in TBAAL’s Naomi Bruton Theatre, King spoke about the origins of the academy. As a then-graduate student at Texas Christian University, he was inspired by New York’s Black Academy of Arts and Letters, which counted artists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee among its fellows.
That academy, however, became defunct and its legacy was almost lost to history when archives were thrown in a dumpster. A friend of King’s who worked in the same building recovered four boxes from the trash and gave them to him.
“As a director, as an artist, if we don’t salvage and save our history … then it doesn’t have a purpose,” King said.
As he spoke, piano music from outside the theater filtered inside. “That’s why they got to fix this sound equipment when you come back, so we don’t hear all of the noise,” he joked.
King was joined by Dallas officials and civic leaders, who praised the academy’s community engagement.
Former Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Diane Ragsdale reflected on helping the academy secure its initial 10-year contract with the convention center in the 1980s.
“That moment marked a new beginning,” Ragsdale said.
“TBAAL has provided a vital platform for artists to showcase their work. TBAAL has preserved and elevated African American history and culture.”
Performers over the years at the academy have included comedian Dave Chappelle and Dreamgirls actress Jennifer Holliday.
Several speakers Monday referenced TBAAL’s summer youth arts institute, which offers classes in film, video, lighting, costume design and photography.
Martine Elyse Philippe, director of the Office of Arts and Culture, said the program is “changing lives,” while Dallas Independent School District board president Joe Carreón described it as a “key pathway” for admission into Booker T. Washington High School.
Dallas neo-soul singer Erykah Badu and actress Rachel Simone Webb, who has starred as the titular character in the touring Broadway musical & Juliet, are among TBAAL’s alumni.
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