NAC Founding

CC Conn has been giving back to the community almost as long as she has been here (since 2005). Her first actions were to begin having vacation bible schools for the Unity Church which cultivated creativity with children. The vacation bible schools cultivated the idea of bringing theatre to the community. As the then advisor for the school of theatre teaching certification students, she worked with SFA School of Theatre to create independent study opportunities for student teachers to direct children in the community and that camp was called Junior Jacks. Junior Jacks started in 2009.

Another community action that CC, with many supportive community friends, made happen was the Lavender Prom which began in 2017 as a reaction to county school not allowing same sex couples to attend their prom. The Lavender Prom is an inclusive prom for all supporting the LGBTQ community and all other disenfranchised youth.

When Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative was founded in 2019, these past projects were taken under the umbrella of the non-profit and a new mission was created. Our purpose is two-fold: 1) to offer creative opportunities for the community in art, music, theatre, dance and creative writing and 2) to pay artists for their participation and work in our programs.

We are extremely excited to move forward with our mission and make Nacogdoches an artistic hub of East Texas.