Friday, June 7, 2013

Exploring Fort Worth's Cultural District Is A Sophisticated Cultured Undertaking


The above is an advertisement in this week's Fort Worth Weekly. A time or two I've had people, who do not live in Texas, suggest that I am making up the fact that Fort Worth has an area it calls its Cultural District.

When I first arrived in Fort Worth a thing or two perplexed and confused me.

One perplexing confusion, I distinctly remember, was the futile search to find Sundance Square. All I could find was parking lots. Yet there were all these signs pointing to Sundance Square. It took years for me to learn there is no Square in Sundance Square.

Currently there is a project underway, that is long past its due date, to finally add an actual Square to Sundance Square.

The same directional signage that pointed me to the non-existent Sundance Square, and which is still misdirecting, all these years later, also pointed to the "Cultural District."

Yes, it really is true, Fort Worth has an area it calls its Cultural District. Apparently culture needed to be restricted to one designated district. When I first learned of the Cultural District it seemed really embarrassingly uncultured to me, to so label a district, as in unsophisticated nonsense not worthy of what some locals (Betsy Price) believe to be one of the greatest cities on the planet earth.

Other towns have districts they assign a designation to, like the Arts District or the Theater District or the Museum District.

But, Cultural District?

Methinks there is likely only one town on the planet that would be so goofy as to label a part of its town as its Cultural District.

It is sort of poetic, and apropos, that Fort Worth's Cultural District is so close to its Rockin' the River Happy  Hour Inner Tube Floats and the Panther Island Music Venue, with the World's first Drive-In Movie Theater of the 21st Century, nearby.

Methinks Fort Worth's Cultural District should be expanded to include the wonders that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bestowing on Fort Worth.

That would be the sophisticated, cultured thing to do...........

1 comment:

Fifth-gen Texan said...

Actually, a quick Google of "Cultural District" pulls up several cities with Cultural Districts, including Pittsburgh and Cambridge, Mass. It may not be common in Washington State but it isn't a totally unique designation.