.jpg)
Houston – The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts swung the doors wide open for artists and arts organizations across Houston to apply for participation in the Houston is Inspired initiative. Applications for the 2025-2026 season took place this summer with The Ensemble Theatre, [Jk] Creativ, and Silambam Houston chosen as the season recipients.
Launched in 2023-2024, Houston is Inspired is a signature Hobby Center program that celebrates and amplifies the work of local artists and organizations through week-long residencies, offering access to the Hobby Center’s premier spaces, professional production support, and marketing resources.
The first two seasons featured curated partnerships, but with the introduction of an open application process, the Hobby Center took another meaningful step toward creating equitable access to Hobby Center partnerships and representing the full scope of Houston’s arts community.
“We were honored to receive 52 applications from across the Greater Houston area, reflecting a powerful range of artistic voices, creative visions, and community-centered ideas,” said Deborah Lugo, Vice President of Programming and Education at the Hobby Center. “Each application was reviewed by a panel of local arts leaders and the Hobby Center team and thoughtfully considered based on artistic excellence, community connection, readiness, and how the residency will further their creative work. The high quality of the submissions in this inaugural cycle made the selection process both inspiring and challenging, as we carefully weighed many compelling and worthy projects.”
The initiative is designed to spotlight Houston’s vibrant creative landscape, supporting authentic work that reflects the city’s rich cultural diversity. Selected artists and organizations for the 2025-26 Season will receive comprehensive production, administrative and promotional support including a $20,000 stipend to help fund the creation and development of their performance. They will receive five days of full access to Zilkha Hall comprised of the stage, dressing rooms, technical equipment, and production staff for rehearsals, tech and final performance. Additionally, a marketing investment from the Hobby Center alongside a project- specific promotional plan will be created and executed in partnership with the artist/organization.
On this season’s recipients Lugo said, “These selected artists and organizations beautifully embody the guiding principles of the Houston Is Inspired series: community, celebration, and Houston. We’re proud to honor milestones like the Ensemble Theatre’s 50th anniversary and Silambam’s 25th—two institutions that have become cultural cornerstones in our city. This series also showcases artists nurtured in Houston who are shaping the arts on a national scale, while amplifying the rich diversity of cultures and histories that define our community. Though each production is distinct, together the series weaves a powerful narrative of Houston’s innovative spirit and creative essence.”
Each week-long residency is valued at over $60,000 in support of the project.
Participating artists from this past season have praised the program’s impact.
“From leadership to crew, every person involved during our recent inclusion in the Houston is Inspired initiative was consistently supportive, efficient, and kind in carrying out their responsibilities,” said Dr. Jason Oby, Artistic Director of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild. “The Hobby Center’s professionalism and care made the entire residency a smooth and stressfree experience.”
Applicants must be a Houston- based performing artist or organization and demonstrate readiness to present a 90–120-minute performance in Zilkha Hall. To learn more about program eligibility and the application process, visit TheHobbyCenter. org.
The Hobby Center Presents
Houston Is Inspired 2025-2026 Season Public Performances:
Dec. 12, 2025 | The Ensemble
Theatre | C.J. Emmons - I’m Freaking Talented
Jan. 30, 2026 | [Jk] Creativ |
Our Road Home
May 1, 2026 | Silambam Houston | Kavya: Poetry in Motion Tickets on sale information to be released at a later date.
Patrons can become a “Hobby Center Insider” by signing up at thehobbycenter.org/news/ stay-connected where they receive perks such as access to purchase tickets before the public on sale.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS: The Ensemble Theatre was founded in 1976 by the late George Hawkins. Influenced by the Black Theatre Movement of the 1960s and 70s and frustrated by the lack of roles for African Americans in Houston theater productions, Hawkins decided to start his own company, originally called the Black Ensemble Theatre. At first a touring company—a loose term to describe how Hawkins would pack his Cadillac with props and costumes and drive around the city performing in borrowed and appropriated spaces—Hawkins’ company found a permanent home on Tuam Street in 1976 and began mounting full productions. The company, which would eventually shorten its name to The Ensemble Theatre, moved to its current permanent 30,000 square foot home on Main Street in 1985, where it has grown exponentially.
Today, The Ensemble Theatre is the oldest and largest professional African American theatre in the Southwest and one of only eight African American theatres worldwide that operates its own facility and produces in-house.
Each year, The Ensemble’s six main stage productions attract more than 35,000 audience members, the majority of whom (80%) are African American. The Ensemble Theatre reaches another 30,000 individuals annually through its educationally themed performances for schools, churches, and a variety of community organizations. The Ensemble relies upon the expertise of approximately 175 contract employees annually, thereby significantly contributing to the economic stability of Houston’s creative sector.
[Jk] Creativ After a decade of thematically wandering the darknesses of American history, Creative Director Jakari Sherman felt the toll it takes. Grounded in that past, Jakari uses history to spark imagination— to create nodes of healing that reunite people and places with what was lost.
A director, performer, and ethnochoreologist redefining the possibilities of percussive dance, Jakari has, for two decades, pioneered the integration of traditional and contemporary stepping into full-length concert works, challenging conventions through storytelling, technology, and cross-disciplinary innovation. He’s gone from fighting for legitimacy to being recognized as the world’s first modern stepping choreographer.
His practice draws on research refined through M.A. studies in Ethnochoreology—a blend of scholarship, movement, and memory. Today, each new work is a history course, often infusing stepping with contemporary dance, Southern African forms, and other traditions that emerge in co-creation and inquiry around his cultural roots. Through movement, text, and rhythm, he engages audiences in shared acts of remembering, reclaiming, and reimagining.
An unconventional path into the arts through competitive stepping and youth coaching launched his professional career with the Houston Rockets as Founding Director of the NBA’s first step ensemble. Jakari later founded Ordered Steps, a youth-centered initiative born at the University of Houston. From 2007–2014, he served as Artistic Director of Step Afrika! and continues to develop major works for the company, including The Migration and Drumfolk, which had its Houston premiere in 2023.
Jakari’s return to Houston was fortified as a 2022 Dance Source Houston Artist-in-Residence and furthered by a 2025 MacDowell Fellowship and a Houston Arts Alliance City’s Initiative Award.
Silambam Houston, founded in 2002, is Houston’s premiere Indian classical arts organization, seeking to increase the appreciation and understanding of Indian artistic traditions across cultural boundaries. Providing a unique blend of arts education programs, strong and diverse outreach efforts, hosted performances by local and visiting artists, and an active professional performing Company, all harnessing the versatility and adaptability of the timeless artistic traditions of India to reach diverse, and ever-expanding communities.
Si lambam’s per forming and teaching artists represent world-class excellence in a spectrum of Indian classical art forms - Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak, Odissi, Mohiniattam, Carnatic vocal and violin, Hindustani vocal, tabla, mridangam, and yoga. A recipient of National Endowment for the Arts funding, Silambam has been recognized as one of ‘Houston’s Cultural Treasures’, through a national initiative backed by the Ford Foundation and Houston Endowment.
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts serves as a connector, convenor and incubator for all Houston audiences, artmakers and arts organizations. Opened in 2002, the campus houses two theaters including the 2,650-seat Sarofim Hall and the 500-seat Zilkha Hall. Delivering a best-in-class patron experience, the Hobby Center welcomes over 500,000 audience members annually to engage with high-quality arts programming including the Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center series. The Hobby Center is also home to a full season of musical theatre produced by Principal Resident Company Theatre Under the Stars, as well as a variety of diverse performances from both Houston-based and touring artists and companies. Education and accessibility initiatives are central to the Hobby Center’s impact in Houston through programs like the ExxonMobil Discovery Series that welcomes thousands of students to free performances every season. Please visit TheHobbyCenter. org. Follow the Hobby Center on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
