Nicholas Dragga is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and has served as Executive Director of Ballet Lubbock since 2011.
Nicholas Dragga has served as the Executive Director of Ballet Lubbock since 2011 where he focuses on program design, development, and the branding of the organization. Current efforts at Ballet Lubbock include implementing the organization’s five-year strategic plan that calls for expanding and enhancing Ballet Lubbock’s outreach programming and relocating the organization to the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Dragga holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Performance and Composition from Texas Tech University and a Master’s of Science Degree in Arts Administration from Drexel University. Mr. Dragga has served as a grant evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, The Houston Arts Alliance, and is a Texans for the Arts Certified State Arts Advocate.
My Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
We are most successful and our best selves when surrounded by diversity, when we champion the full spectrum of cultures, when we welcome all perspectives, and are excited by the challenge and enrichment of new and diverse thoughts and ideas. Diversity means we are better. Equality is not a zero-sum game but the core and catalyst for a life enhanced.
I recognize that I am a beneficiary of the existing socio-economic and political systems that platform white people. I experience the benefit of the doubt as a default, and it has been easy and comfortable to accept the world, as is, while passively promoting social justice.
In order to truly live in and promote a better world, full of richness, color, equality, and prosperity for all, I have a responsibility to use my position of power and privilege to actively dismantle inequality in all its manifestations. And that starts at home. I pledge to authentically do the hard work of self-reflection and self-learning with humility and determination knowing the work is a constant.
I will work within my organizations and social structures to examine our place and role in perpetuating unjust systems. We must actively build systems that promote, invite in with radical hospitality, and celebrate those who have been systematically marginalized. We must ensure that all people feel safe, able to thrive, and encouraged to use their voice knowing they will be heard. There is no place for lip service. We have to expand our networks for board recruitment, hiring, and partnerships. A wholesale change is not a threat but the most exciting promise of mission fulfilled.
The work is difficult. The work is necessary. The work is never-ending. The work will be the best thing we will ever do.