Desiree Foley

@desireefoley

Hi! I am a wife, mom, and performing artist with a deep love for musical theatre. A singer-dancer by training, I find great joy in bringing stories to life onstage while balancing my family and community.

Urban Expressions

@UrbanExpressions

Urban Expressions is Mission Waco’s visual arts program. Urban Expressions provides art experiences for children and youth, our Manna House participants, and the broader Waco community. We seek to foster a community of creativity and instill people with the confidence to express their story through the arts!

As part of Mission Waco’s Creative Arts programming, Urban Expressions seeks to provide visual arts experiences for program participants and the broader Waco community. Each semester we provide art classes for our children and youth afterschool programs that focus on a wide array of artistic mediums. These range from spray paint, to sculpting, to edible pancake art, and beyond! We also seek to have our students engage with the visual arts through various out of the classroom experiences like field trips, community events, and even empowering them to participate as vendors in Urban Expressions very own Artisan Market. Ultimately, we strive to provide our students with the space to foster their creativity and instill within them a confidence to express their story. Similarly, Urban Expressions provides art lessons for our various Manna House participants at Mission Waco. We focus on art exercises that cultivate mindfulness and encourage imagination. Finally, Urban Expressions seeks to engage with the broader Waco community by participating in local markets and hosting various workshops and events at our studio. We offer summer camp classes for kids in the local community, spray paint and crafting workshops, and we have also hosted our own Artisan Market in the North Waco community. Each of these facets of our program are all focused on the same goal: providing participants with an environment that promotes creativity, enriches the imagination, and builds people’s confidence in their ability to express themselves.

Dave

@OldGuyRaconteur

I retired in 2012 after a 40+ year career in the collision repair business. During that time, I was a body technician, a painter, and a shop owner. I also wrote a novel and had a couple of regular columns in our local newspaper, the Round Rock Leader. I have been described, kindly, as being different. Part of the reason for this comes from my childhood. I was born in and spent a number of the years of my childhood in Germany. My mother was German, a war bride, and my father was American, a soldier. In 1966 my father retired from the military and we settled in Austin, Texas, a town where many locals struggle to keep things "weird". I graduated from High School in 1971 at the age of seventeen and immediately began my career in the body shop business. I finished school on a Thursday, and the next Monday, I was pushing a broom at Universal Body Shop in downtown Austin. I am married to the most amazing woman, Teri, and I have three wonderful, beautiful, accomplished, intelligent daughters. Additionally, I have five grandchildren who I think are among the most marvelous people in the world. Sooooo??? What makes me qualified to be an author? Well, I've traveled... A lot. Teri and I have been to all of the 50 United States of America, eight Canadian Provinces and Territories, 41 different countries in 5 different continents, as well as actually being one of the very few who have actually been to Chatterbox Montana. In 1999, I sold the body shop I was a half-owner of, Teri took a leave of absence from her work, we checked the kids out of school, bought a HUGE motorhome, and spent 15 months traveling across the United States, Canada, and Mexico (as well as taking a side trip to Europe) That is when I began writing my first novel. Other qualifications include a number of night school classes, not all technical, and a copy editor and managing editor at the Leader who were (are) brilliant, helpful and inspiring. In 1996, I got a Teacher's Certificate and taught a vocational class for the Round Rock Independent School District for three years. For my efforts, I was awarded the Partners In Education Partner of the Year Award in 1998. I was also involved in other civic causes, including being the first president of the Greater Williamson County United Way, being a two-time president of my Rotary Club, and serving on the Christie Center's BOD for 17 years. Other than that, I'm really not qualified.

Waco Symphony

@WacoSymphony

The Waco Symphony brings live classical music to our community, enriching lives through beauty, inspiration, and connection. Committed to transcending boundaries and celebrating the power of music, the Symphony offers performances that link the past, uplift the present, and inspire the future.

The Waco Symphony is dedicated to presenting live classical music that enriches the cultural life of our community. Through each performance, the Symphony offers more than music—it provides a source of beauty, reflection, and inspiration that nurtures the human spirit. Committed to breaking down national, racial, social, and economic barriers, the Waco Symphony connects audiences across generations and backgrounds, serving as both a link to our past and a bridge to our future. By bringing world-class music to Waco, the Symphony celebrates the transformative power of music to educate, inspire, and unite.

Sarah Pick

@ArtBySNPick

Sarah Pick worked for a large manufacturing company for 17 years in an operations and logistics engineering role. As part of a dual career household, Sarah elected to stay home and raise her two children when schedules made a dual career household difficult. When she moved to Waco, TX in 2013, Sarah began painting watercolors and a whole new passion was discovered. She firmly believes that both sides of the brain engage when you create art; from the planning and organizing stage, to the free expression and creative quiet moments of painting, the artist uses every aspect of the brain to create art. Sarah appreciates the variety that the watercolor medium affords -- from soft velvety muted colors and hard bold lines. She particularly loves reflective light and shadows and how they shape objects in her paintings and brings their depth to life. She is interested in testing all sorts of styles, ranging from realistic botanicals and reflective glass to whimsical impressionism and the blooms of watercolor. Whether it is splatter or specifics, she loves to see values create an interest in the beholder.

Real Theatre Company Waco

@RealTheatreCompanyWaco

Our team is complete with professional directors, actors, dancers, singers, educators, artistic directors and production specialists. The RTC team not only has the educational background in theatre, music and dance but over 80 combined years of experience in professional theatre, national tours, opera, dance, music concerts and more.

RTC gives a voice to the voiceless and for the invisible, a place to be seen. Real Theatre Company exists to enrich our community by providing a safe environment where kids and adults can cultivate their love for performing through education, rehearsal and performance. Our team does this through our three core tenants: 1. Equip RTC equips our students with the right tools, training and time to effectively meet the current and future goals both on and off the stage. 2. Enable The RTC team members are Success Enablers. We remove obstacles, encourage positive behaviors and demonstrate this through mentors, teachers and professional role models. 3. Empower We provide opportunities where students can use their talents to entertain the community and enrich their love for performing arts through showcases, camps, lessons, performances and more.

James Ehlers

@jehlers928

James Ehlers was born and raised in Lake Charles, LA. He earned his MFA from the University of Florida and is a certified FEGA (Firearms Engravers Guild of America) Master Engraver. He joined Baylor University in the summer of 2024 to teach Two-Dimensional Design and Drawing. He previously worked at Emporia State University for 16 years where he served as Professor of Engraving Arts, Art Department Chair and Interim Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts. Since 2007, he has given numerous engraving workshops at various events including the Frogman’s Printmaking Workshop, IMPACT Printmaking Conferences (Dundee, Scotland and Bristol, England), MAPC (Minnesota), SGCI (Las Vegas) and universities around the country. He has participated in group exhibitions in Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Norway, Romania, The Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, and across the United States. MFA, University of Florida MA, Bradley University BA, McNeese State University

Waco Civic Theatre

@wacocivictheatre

We are providing the Heart of Texas community with quality live theatre, to create an outlet for community education and entertainment.

The Mission of the Waco Civic Theatre, a non-profit organization, is to provide the Heart of Texas community with quality live theatre, to create an outlet for community education and participation in all aspects of productions, and to instill in the community a sense of pride and ownership in the theatre.

Michelangelo

@REZ

When I was eleven years old, my father told me to never touch his Nikon or his Betamax. Naturally, I became interested in photography and the moving image, along with audio recording. Before long, I was working at a radio station and a darkroom.

Youth Chorus of Central Texas

@YCCT

YCCT is an auditioned community chorus of singers grades 3-12 from numerous schools and coops in the greater Waco area. YCCT promotes music literacy and excellence in vocal artistry through the preparation and performance of choral singing under the direction of professional staff.