Over the last year, I’ve been working with HDFS Faculty Dr. Jackson in collaboration with The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) to strengthen Lubbock’s First Friday Art Trail. This project started during my time in the provost’s office working on outreach and engagement, with my primary role being to generate societal impact survey data. Over the past year we’ve been piloting a variety of questions and building relationships around the community (TTU and otherwise). This fall marks the first (soft launch) data collection for the 2025-2026 year. The survey’s data is being analyzed to generate tourism data used to justify city funding (e.g., where people are visiting from, where they stay while visiting via hotel tax) and generate community-driven directions for growth. One area that I’m excited to begin working on this fall is the creation of an App for the FFAT so that visitors (new and repeat alike) have an guide at their finger tips, with searchable vendors, event timelines, and more. The team (which includes vendors) is so excited.
Dr. Paul Ingram, Ph.D 