In 1986, the program Video As A Creative Medium was presented at the Dallas Museum of Art. That weekend of screenings quickly grew into what has become the Dallas VideoFest, now in its 27th year, and the Video Association of Dallas, an organization committed to the exhibition of independent, alternative, and non-commercial media. Since those early years, the association has worked hard to make a place for the hard to define field(s) of media art that go by many inadequate names: “video art”, “experimental film and video”, or “new media”. In January of 2015, the VAD will work with the McKinney Avenue Contemporary to present The Dallas Medianale, a group of exhibitions focused on presenting the various forms of moving image practice in a more ideal environment than the traditional “film festival” model can provide.