[ May 22, 2010; 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. ] The new downtown park, Main Street Garden, will play host to a new community festival this month. The first annual Homegrown Music and Arts Festival has lined up some of the best of North Texas music and arts and is expected to bring in over 1500 attendees to the urban park. The event will feature 15 bands on two stages, including This Will Destroy You, The O's, and RTB2, and 20 booths for local artists and businesses.

[ May 13, 2010; 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. ] You're destined to be inspired by attending this month's Spark Club event at the Sons of Hermann Hall. The group of social entrepreneurs will collaborate with PechaKucha Night. PechaKucha (pronounced pe-chak-cha, meaning "chit chat" in Japenese) is an international event "for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public."

[ May 1, 2010; 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. ] This Saturday is the 2nd Annual Etsy Dallas Spring Bash at the South Side on Lamar. 50 hand-picked artists will be laying out their best goods - offering unique and handmade art, jewelry, apparel, bath and body products and more. Shop for items that no one else will have and have fun doing it.

The Ross Akard Gallery in the Dallas Arts District will host the opening show for Zach Saucedo's newest collection. The 15-piece collection, Revolutionary But Gangster, is the first solo show for the gallery and it has a twist. Everything in the collection costs $777. This holy number represents the revolution of giving away art to the masses.

[ April 12, 2010; 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm. April 22, 2010; 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm. May 1, 2010; June 7, 2010; 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. July 3, 2010; 11:00 am to 10:00 pm. ] After the 2010 SXSW Music Festival, Next Big Sound, a tracking tool for monitoring fan interaction with music groups, released data on their website that was music to my ears. Personally, I can't resist hearing new music that might potentially takeover my iTunes playlist for the next few months. Last week I sampled all the artists on the list, bought a few albums, and then dug in a little deeper to check if any of them were coming to town. As of this posting, 6 bands have announced dates in Dallas. Check them out here.

[ April 10, 2010; 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm. April 11, 2010; 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] The Second Annual Oak Cliff Art Crawl presented by Go Oak Cliff will be a great event for families and locals interested in the Dallas arts scene. The event goes above and beyond to create a fun and friendly environment while offering a unique look into the Oak Cliff we all have yet to discover.

[ March 9, 2010; 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. ] After a couple months of prep and planning, Team CJ has pulled together our wits and resources and we're ready to rock our upcoming Core Conversation at SXSW Interactive.

But before we get all serious and pack it in for SouthBy, we are throwing a sendoff party for our friends and fans!

Come by CoHabitat for the Official Unofficial SXSWi Sendoff Pre-party on Tuesday, March 9th between 7 and 10pm. Meet local techies, bloggers, artists, foodies, fellow SXSW attendees, and free stuff enthusiasts for the only pre- SXSWi party in Dallas!

[ February 28, 2010; 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. ] GuerillaArts, the nonprofit space committed to increasing art awareness and support in Dallas, will be giving tours of their 5,000 sqft building this Sunday - even the upstairs artist studio space, which has been closed off at past events.

Stop by between 2 and 4pm - meet and mingle with the people behind GuerillaArts and your local artist community. They will be talking about the great things GuerillaArts will be launching this spring, including the artist in residency program, spring classes and their summer institute for high school aged artists.

[ February 6, 2010; 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. February 7, 2010; 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. ] The controversy that has accompanied the publication of the Noyola collection of Frida Kahlo material has raised numerous questions. This panel will bring together the owners of the Noyola material, experts who have examined the objects, the publisher of the related book (Finding Frida Kahlo), as well as scholars, dealers, and journalists who are familiar with the artist’s oeuvre. The discussion will range from the specific — a description of the Noyola archive — to more general questions about how newly discovered artworks are received and evaluated by the scholarly community and the market.

[ February 5, 2010; 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm. February 6, 2010; 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. February 7, 2010; 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. ] The 1st Annual Dallas Art In The District Art Fair features an array of contemporary emerging art galleries and artists. Art In The District provides participating galleries with a platform to present new works to a strong and growing audience. Art In The District is for everyone from the first-time buyer to the art savvy collector.