Residents at a Fort Worth community conversation heard plans for a future arts center and were invited to help shape how it will tell the region’s history. On Oct. 24, Transform 1012 brought its latest design presentation to Artes de la Rosa Cultural Center for the Arts, pairing the update with a performance and a call for stories that could inform future exhibits and programs.
The meeting was the third and final in-person session in the nonprofit coalition’s 2026 community-conversation series, according to the Fort Worth Report. It was one step in a longer process: organizers plan to keep collecting input as the project moves toward construction. Transform 1012 says the 2026 conversations build on discussions held in 2024. The Fort Worth Report describes the nonprofit as a coalition established by eight local entities. The date and venue were confirmed by the organizer’s event page and by the Fort Worth Report’s account of what took place. The organizer advertised free admission, youth activities and Spanish and ASL interpretation.
Sol Ballet Folklorico performed before the design team showed building and landscape concepts. The exhibit project, North Texas Histories / Historias de North Texas, also gathered memories about the site and asked what visitors should understand when the center opens. The questions included what people remember about the building, what they think is misunderstood about that period, and what they hope visitors will feel or learn.
That invitation reaches beyond architecture. Transform 1012 says its community-informed design process is meant to bring lived experiences and local perspectives into decisions about the project. The histories team plans to combine the session’s oral histories with surveys, panel discussions, more listening sessions, story circles and individual interviews. The team plans to prepare a report identifying recurring themes, what participants are asking for and what is missing from the proposed center.
Lance Wheeler, the gathering’s facilitator and exhibit lead, told the Fort Worth Report that cultural institutions can build first and turn to communities afterward. He said the listening sessions were meant to give residents a real role in decisions about the building and collect input that can help the center earn long-term support. The report and later survey, panel and oral-history work will add to the material gathered at this session.
The future center is planned for 1012 North Main Street, in a building that served as a Ku Klux Klan auditorium. The Fort Worth Report dates the building to 1924. Transform 1012 describes the site’s history as one that requires careful stewardship: future programming should tell accurate, respectful stories and return agency to communities harmed by white supremacy. Transform 1012 says its programming will include multiple stories about the building and inter- and intra-group relations in the region.
The project’s scope is substantial, but its features remain plans. The proposed 35,000-square-foot center would retain the building’s frame while adding a new interior across three levels. Current designs include a 250-seat theater, dance-rehearsal rooms, classrooms, galleries, outdoor reflection space and educational programming about North Texas history and race relations.
The Fort Worth Report said preconstruction began in August, with construction planned for early 2028 and an opening projected for 2029. Those dates are estimates, and the center is not yet open. The October gathering gave people a chance to respond to the plans while there is still time for community stories to inform what the site becomes.
For Román Ramírez, who grew up in the Northside neighborhood and co-chairs Transform 1012, learning the building’s history changed how he saw it. He told the Fort Worth Report that a place he once considered forgotten could become “a place for creativity, belonging, opportunity and healing.”
The listening series may be over, but the group says the feedback work continues. Its survey and additional oral-history efforts are meant to keep the process open as plans develop. Transform 1012 says the continued surveys and oral histories will inform future exhibits and programming.
The Fort Worth Report disclosed that its director of membership is a Transform 1012 co-founder and board chair. The newsroom said its reporting decisions are made independently of board members and financial supporters.
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