Frisco residents banded together in a unique way to celebrate national Arts Advocacy Day. Arts Advocacy Day, March 23–24, brings together cultural and civic organizations to recognize the importance of developing grassroots arts advocates, developing public policies and securing increased public funding for the arts. An idea by local arts advocate Tammy Meinershagen, supported by several more residents with participation from more 15 local nonprofit organizations led to a video with the message of "We are arts in Frisco and there is no place we'd rather be." The three minute video was posted on YouTube early morning on March 23 and organizers said they have managed to keep it a surprise to most people in Frisco. See the YouTube video here. "I wanted this video to simply be a breath of fresh air for the arts in Frisco, a way to celebrate the thriving and growing arts community here. Arts and culture are the signature elements of any community, and what better way to advocate for the arts than to showcase all the diversity, all the hard work, and all the fun," Meinershagen said. The video features clips from local arts organizations practices and performances as well as a flash mob with more than 80 participants. Meinershagen recruited videographer Brad Sharp to do filming and editing and Heritage High School theater director Brian Grunkowski to choreograph the flash mob. Chris Berthelot used a drone to film the flash mob. They spent three weeks putting the video together. The group coordinated the video participants by phone and word of mouth, rather than social media to keep the surprise. "We included people from all over Frisco, mostly nonprofits, different types of organizations in order to show the diversity of Frisco arts," Sharp said. The song chosen for the flash mob, "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit, has the words "There's no place I'd rather be" in the chorus, representing the message Meinershagen said she wanted the video to present. "The arts brings so much joy to me and to others; I hope this video captures that joy and spreads it like wildfire," Meinershagen said. "The arts conversation has had a complicated and rocky past specifically in Frisco, but it's time to turn that around and go in a new, positive direction. I'm excited to see what's to come and hope to be a small part of that change." Organizations involved in the video include: Collin County Children's Chorus, Astraios, Chamberlain Performing Arts, Odysseus Chamber Orchestra, Open Classical DFW, Frisco Improv Players, Frisco Community Band, Frisco Youth Theater, Institute of Global Music and Arts, Frisco Community Theatre, Frisco Chorale, Frisco Lakes Veterans Group, Visual Arts Guild of Frisco and Frisco Association for the Arts.