A new program is offering Dallas residents free tickets to cultural events, and it’s confirming our theory that the Dallas arts community is getting it right. The program, called Culture Pass, is the result of a partnership between the Dallas Public Library and the city’s Office of Arts and Culture. And it’s supported by dozens of local arts organizations including the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Anyone with a Dallas library card can log into a secure portal at culturepassdallas.com where they can browse offers for free tickets from participating arts organizations. Similar programs have launched in New York City and Minneapolis-St. Paul. There are also statewide versions of this program in Arizona and California.

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This is an example of city servants thinking up good ideas. The leaders who created this program, including cultural affairs director Jennifer Scripps and libraries director Jo Giudice, weren’t content to simply reshelve books and complain about arts funding. They looked for and found a way to enrich our city. One of them, Heather Lowe, a library administrator, told KERA, “We try to view ourselves as a cultural center, especially in those neighborhoods that don’t have access to a lot of cultural opportunities.”

Lowe’s hope, and ours, is that Culture Pass provides cultural experiences to audiences who wouldn’t otherwise have them. If one flute player in a middle school band gets to hear a world-class orchestra for the first time, if one mom gets to stand in front of Rodin’s Eve with her kids, then this project has paid off.

We have voiced our frustration before about neglect of our city’s cultural venues — crumbling Fair Park venues, molding Kalita Humphreys Theater — but the people who use those venues to enrich the lives of Dallasites have always had our respect. They are a can-do bunch. As Ken Novice, the president of Dallas Summer Musicals, told us about coming here two years ago, "My discovery when I got to Dallas and started working with people here was that if I have an idea or if I want to talk to people about something progressive in terms of building arts and culture here, I have never once had the door shut.”

We expect that Culture Pass will lead to many open doors.