To honor the pioneering and visionary men and women shaping culture and quality of life in Cowtown, PaperCity Fort Worth launched a monthly series called “Fort Worth’s Finest.”

In May, we sat down with Anette Soto Landeros, Chief Strategy Officer at Trinity Metro, to discuss the future of transit in our city.

Now, we turn our attention to Wesley Gentle, whose leadership and advocacy for the arts, as the executive director and president of Arts Fort Worth, have helped the nonprofit weather challenging periods and emerge more resilient than ever.

Life was filled with homespun music long before he became one of Fort Worth’s leading cultural advocates. His childhood home in Central Florida nurtured generations of musicians, from his grandmother, who played the organ at church, to relatives who sang or played instruments.

“I had a family that knew how to share culture through music and other forms of art,” Gentle tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “I eventually attended TCU as a vocal performance major. After performing in the 2015 Fort Worth Opera festival, I realized my gifts could be better used supporting the arts community as an arts administrator.”

Today, he leads Arts Fort Worth during one of the most transformative periods in the organization’s history. Since becoming executive director in 2022, he has guided the nonprofit through the loss of the Community Arts Center, championed new initiatives like the annual Arts Summit, and worked to expand opportunities for artists — all while remaining focused on building a stronger arts ecosystem for Fort Worth.

Leading Arts Fort Worth Through Major Changes

Addressing a crowd at the annual Heart of Gold Awards or meeting with elected officials comes naturally to Gentle, who is a gifted public speaker, something he partly credits to growing up watching his father’s ministry.

Leading an arts organization is not unlike serving as a pastor, Gentle says, noting that both roles require a willingness to tell “uncomfortable truths,” whether about keeping the faith or making the case for greater investment in the arts. As the leader of an organization that has championed Fort Worth’s arts community for more than 60 years, he regularly advocates for artists while helping city leaders understand the vital role the arts play in the city’s economy, culture, and quality of life.

After joining the Arts Council of Fort Worth, which later rebranded to “Arts Fort Worth,” as advancement manager in 2018, Gentle was selected by the organization’s board to serve as executive director in 2022, stepping into the role during one of the most consequential periods in the nonprofit’s history. As an independent nonprofit supported in part by city funding, Arts Fort Worth served as the longtime manager of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, the historic city-owned building that had fallen into serious disrepair.

The 2024 decision to hand management of the Community Arts Center at 1300 Gendy Street back to the City of Fort Worth, Gentle says, was “extremely hard.”

“The Community Arts Center had been the long-time home for our organization and for so many organizations,” he says. “In the years leading up to that decision, the Arts Center had deepened its commitment to emerging artists in ways that I was proud of. Ultimately, the decision was a financial one.”

Gentle and his team also rebranded the nonprofit from the Arts Council of Fort Worth to Arts Fort Worth to better communicate its role as an independent nonprofit that supports artists and arts organizations across Fort Worth, rather than a city department.

“The organization had been around since the 1960s, but there was still confusion with the previous title. Fort Worth does not have a department of arts and culture, and they had outsourced many of those responsibilities to the Arts Council. That confusion made it hard to raise money, so we removed those barriers.”

Freed from the financial demands of maintaining a historic building, Arts Fort Worth has doubled down on its core mission — distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants each year while launching initiatives like ARTSforward and reimagining the Heart of Gold Awards.

Building the Next Chapter for Fort Worth’s Arts Community

Last year, Arts Fort Worth launched ARTSforward, an annual summit that brings together artists, creatives, educators, policymakers, and community leaders for a day of learning and connection. February’s event featured keynote presentations by Randy Cohen, vice president of research at Americans for the Arts, and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, among other speakers and panelists.

The Heart of Gold Award continues to highlight leaders and supporters of the arts, but Gentle saw a need to shift how the event is funded to make it more accessible to the general public.

“We opened up the nomination process to the general public,” he says. “The awards have evolved to a community-led celebration of artists and arts leaders. In the past, we relied on ticket sales to fundraise for Arts Fort Worth. Now we rely on underwriters so we can keep the ticket prices affordable.”

The organization has also embraced new technology through Culturalyst, a digital platform that connects artists, arts organizations, funders, and the public while making Fort Worth’s creative community more discoverable. As events like the Heart of Gold Award place Gentle in the public eye, much of his day-to-day work revolves around his work with Arts Fort Worth’s board, tracking arts-related data, and maintaining connections with government officials.

“The more we work with business owners, civic leaders, and neighborhood organizers, the more I see a mindset change happening in Fort Worth,” he says. “More people see how essential the arts are to us as individuals and as a community. More people are beginning to understand the systems that will make it possible for Fort Worth to thrive through the arts. Our team has worked through, frankly, some of the toughest years this organization has been through.”

What do you see as your greatest achievement in your current leadership role?

“My greatest achievement with Arts Fort Worth has been helping others first discover and then proudly own their role in this local arts ecosystem.”