Dallas Center for the Performing Arts
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The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is a new multi-venue center in the Dallas Arts District for performances of opera, musical theater, classic and experimental theater, ballet and other forms of dance. A Groundbreaking ceremony was held in November 2005 with a scheduled opening of October 12, 2009.
Two major architectural firms Foster and Partners (based in London) and Office for Metropolitan Architecture (based in Rotterdam and New York are joining forces in the planning of different parts of the Center.
The Center is currently under construction in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas and is located adjacent to the existing Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, the home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
In July 2009 the Center announced a facility dedication on October 12, 2009 followed by a weeklong celebration. From October 12-18 art performances, architecture lectures and concerts will fill the Arts District.
[edit] Fundraising Campaign
The initial campaign began in 2000 with a goal of raising $275 million total including 40 $1 million gifts. Only $18 million of the total budget for the project was publicly funded (more than 93% of funding coming from private sources).
In 2002 funding surpassed $100 million. By groundbreaking in 2005 campaign totals exceeded $200 million, including 80 gifts of $1 million or more. In August 2007 The Center raised its 100th gift of $1 million or more, the first campaign for cultural facilities in the history of the United States to do so.
In January 2008, total campaign funding passed the $275 million goal, and the Board of Directors voted to increase the goal to $338 million, adding a second parking garage and other improvements to the Center’s venues.
By August 2008 campaign funding surpassed $326 million—the largest capital campaign for cultural facilities in the history of Dallas and the most successful project of its kind in American history. The board increased the goal to $354 million, and as of May 2009 had raised $335 million.
The two largest gifts came earlier in the campaign: $42 million from Margot and Bill Winspear in 2002 and $20 million from Dee and Charles Wyly and Cheryl and Sam Wyly in 2004. The third largest gift was given in September 2008: a $15 million gift from Sammons Enterprises, Inc. in honor of Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammon.
[edit] Performance Venues
The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts includes four venues and an urban park:
- Winspear Opera House, named for Margot and Bill Winspear, who donated $42 million to the Center, will be a 2,300 seat opera house and the future home of the Dallas Opera.
- Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, named Dee and Charles Wyly, who donated $20 million to the Center, will be located in a 74,915-square-foot (6,959.8 m2) building of eleven stories. The theatre will hold about 600 people, depending upon the stage configuration.
- City Performance Hall will provide performance spaces for many smaller performing arts organizations, and it will include a "black box" theater and a chamber music hall designed with flexible seating of about 750, plus another two, 200 seat theatres. The City of Dallas selected Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP as architects, with Corgan as architect of record. The final concept for the building is still underway based on an assessment of the needs of Dallas' arts organizations.
- The completely redesigned Annette Strauss Artist Square will be an outdoor performance space with lawn seating for 5,000.
- The Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park, named for Sammons Enterprises, Inc., who donated $15 million to the Center, will be a 10-acre urban park unifying the venues. Designed by Michel Desvign of Paris with JJR, Sammons Park will be the most significant public park in downtown Dallas upon opening in October 2009.
[edit] External links
