Picture this: walls decorated with paintings, racks lined with bracelets and leather purses and jackets, dresses of all colors, hats, embroidered with designs created by the members of the community.
WeCreation Center in South Dallas is a space where people of all ages and all walks of life can enter with an idea and leave with a step closer to realizing their dream.
It offers workshops, afterschool programs and consulting opportunities for creative and economic growth of the community members — whether it is a senior citizen or a kindergartener or a seventh-grader. The center provides materials and as well as instructions for how to create a product and how to build a business out of it.
“This is rare. This is unusual,” said Arthur Porter, co-founder of Dallas Designing Dreams. “The most exciting thing to me is when someone walks in the door and they go — wow.”
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Arthur Porter, Dallas Designing Dreams co-founder, poses for a photo Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Dallas. Dallas Designing Dreams offers classes and certifications in leatherwork, sewing, drone piloting, video editing, embroidery digitizing, sublimation printing and graphic design at the WeCreation Center.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
This innovation center was born out of a collaboration in late 2023 between St. Philip’s School and Community Center and Dallas Designing Dreams, according to the school’s website.
In May, Dallas Designing Dreams moved into the space and started transforming it into a hub that provides hands-on skill development opportunities to youth, Porter said. From candle making to stitching to embroidery and even producing material using a 3D printer — people learn to build all sorts of things from scratch at the center.
The center also provides a platform for local entrepreneurs and small business owners to showcase their creative projects and learn how to turn them into successful business ventures.
Terry Flowers, headmaster of St. Philip’s School, said WeCreation Center provides people an opportunity to envision a product or envision a way to solve a problem and then access the resources necessary to tackle that problem or create that product.
“You don’t necessarily have to be a master craftsman,” Flowers said. “You just have to have an interest and a desire to accomplish something.”
3D-printed chess pieces sit at the WeCreation Center on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Dallas. Students are able to design and print their own 3D models.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
Chaps made by Arthur Porter, Dallas Designing Dreams co-founder, hang on display at WeCreation Center on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Dallas. Porter teaches others how to sew and create with leather.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
Entrepreneurship and small businesses saw a booming growth after following the global pandemic. In 2023, a record 5.5 million new business applications were filed, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Texas ranked 14 among the states with a whopping 501,398 new business applications in 2023.
In 2024, the U.S. was averaging 430,000 new business applications a month, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Since 2019, small businesses have created 70% of the net new jobs in the market.
A growing number of the entrepreneurs are from diverse backgrounds with about 43% of self-employed Americans being female, according to the Treasury Department. Entrepreneurs from Black, Asian and Hispanic communities also rose exponentially.
The WeCreation Center is acting as a catalyst for building emerging entrepreneurs — this includes students who take entrepreneurship classes there.
Dametria Brown of Dallas said she has been coming to the center since summer to learn embroidery as she plans start her own embroidered hat brand.
Brown wore a cream-colored trucker hat with the initials “GU” embroidered on it in red which, she said, stands for “Genuinely Unique.” She did not make that one, but said that was the type of hats she aspires to create and sell.
“I like wearing hats and back home, my nickname, they call me GU,” she said. “So I was like, OK, I’m gonna turn this into a brand because of my style and the way I dress and my personality.”
Brown, who is originally from Little Rock, said she had never seen a space like this before where people can come and create things.
“Anything you could put your mind to, you can create here,” she said.
St. Philip’s School and Community Center merch sits on a table at the WeCreation Center on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Dallas. The partnership provides the school with all of their merch.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
She said this was a two-year project for her. She has learned how to make the embroidered hats and now her goal is to start selling the hats by the end of this year.
Like Brown, many others have found their passion for creativity and entrepreneurship at WeCreation Center.
About 18 students at St. Philip’s School attend their seventh-grade entrepreneurship classes at the center almost every other Wednesday, Porter said. In the class, each student has their own business that they are developing — the list includes garden flags, jewelry, dog treats and a whole range of ideas.
“Our emphasis is on helping kids to not necessarily focus on being employed, but to become employers,” Flowers said.
The center helps them build the products and teaches the students how to sell them.
“We want to show them different ways that they can monetize on their businesses,” Porter said.
Flowers said that the school’s teaching philosophy revolves around incorporating hands-on training into the academic curriculum, which is what ignited the idea of building the innovation hub.
“We’re always focused on not just what happens on campus, but also what the community needs,” he said.
Back in the day, the school used to send students to different places in the community to learn by experience, and Dallas Designing Dreams was one of those places, Flowers said. Now, the collaboration has made it possible for the students to get hands-on training on campus.
Jacqueline Bowman, a retired nurse who works at the center to help people build things, said they do not typically publicize the center. People are drawn to it more through word of mouth.
“Somebody came and got whatever they got, and then they tell somebody, and tell somebody, that’s how this business is run,” she said.
Jacqueline Bowman poses for a photo at the WeCreation Center on Oct. 15, 2025, in Dallas. Bowman helps students learn entrepreneurship skills through candle and room spray making classes.
Christine Vo / Staff Photographer
Bowman got involved with the center because she said she loves serving the community — in whatever way she can. She moved here from South Carolina, where she served as a nurse.
“I don’t know how not to serve, and I’m not happy when I’m not serving,” she said.
Carla Robertson of Dallas has been working with Dallas Designing Dreams for almost two decades and is now one of the instructors who help people create designs at the center.
“I love teaching,” she said. “I just love seeing people’s dreams come to life.”
Robertson said seeing children realize for the first time that they can create things with their own hands by sewing is one of the best parts of teaching at the center.
Porter said the next step is to work with the school to create a merchandise center or a retail store to showcase the products being made at the center. He said he hopes that one day the center will grow into a destination for people around the world to come and see how people work together.
“I see a village — a village of entrepreneurs and crafters and people working together,” Porter said.