When the advocacy group Texans For the Arts converges in Austin later this week for its biennial Arts Advocacy Day, few artists will be among the organization’s certified advocates making visits to Texas legislators.

“Working artists aren’t always great at speaking up for themselves,” says Michael Burke, TFA’s executive director. That’s why the non-profit TFA, which is under the national organization Americans for the Arts, formed in 1995. “The arts had no voice at the legislative level,” says Burke.

On Thursday, TFA members — largely arts organization professionals and their board members as well as a smattering of individual arts supporters — will arm themselves with talking points and descend on the State Capitol.

Among the facts and figures that the advocates will wield?

Recent studies have found that in the Lone Star State the arts and cultural industries account for more than $4 billion in taxable sales every year. In addition, the arts contributed $150 million to state and local tax authorities — equal to the revenue generated by all University of Texas sports combined.

Arts Advocacy Day is just one of several efforts cultural supporters will employ this legislative session.

By far the glossiest is the Texas Medal of the Arts Awards on March 4 and 5. The buzz-making biennial hosted by the Texas Cultural Trust spotlights the lifetime achievement of creative talents. Years past have included such Texans as Willie Nelson, Robert Rauschenberg, Tommy Lee Jones and Sandra Cisneros.

This year’s recipients — celebrated at multiple events over two days — include sculptor James Surls, rocker Steve Miller, “Desperate Housewives” star Ricardo Chavira and “Greater Tuna” co-creators and stars Jaston Williams and Joe Sears.

Tickets to the gala dinner, awards ceremony and after-party at the Long Center for the Performing Arts are selling briskly.

Amy Barbee, executive director of the trust, a nonprofit that raises money for the Texas Commission on the Arts, says the awards event has become one of the most looked-for on the calendar of Legislature-oriented special events.

“About 40 percent of the legislators come to one of the (Texas Medal of the Arts) events we have,” she says.

Arts advocates have work to do this legislative session.

During the last session, Texas lawmakers slashed the arts commission’s budget by 56 percent. The TCA reduced its staff from 17 to 12 and for the 2012 fiscal year had a budget $3.7 million, one of the smallest per capita arts spending ratios in the nation.

Also, the TCA is under review by the Sunset Advisory Committee, the agency charged with evaluating the efficacy of state agencies.

That Sunset Committee’s recent report found the TCA an “efficiently run agency, but one stretched very thin” and concluded that the economic and social benefits of the arts “represent a good investment, and make continuing the agency to administer funding for the arts worthwhile.”

Certainly that’s the message TFA will carry to the Legislature. And Texas Cultural Trust — which is not a lobbying group — will continue to highlight the arts and culture by compiling data and with various programs.

During this year’s South by Southwest Interactive conference, for example, the trust is hosting two panels: “Gutenberg Revisited: How Art Teaches the Next Form of Literacy” and “Games Are Art.”

“The arts can be a catalyst for so many things,” says Barbee.