DALLAS (May 18, 2009) – The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts announced today that Jennifer and Doug Houser have contributed a total of $1 million to the campaign to build the Center. With $335 million raised to date, the Center is one step closer to its capital campaign goal of $354 million. The Center, opening in October 2009, will include multiple facilities to accommodate all of the performing arts.
“Thanks to generous supporters like Jennifer and Doug Houser, the campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has experienced unprecedented success,” said Mark Nerenhausen, president/CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. “To receive gifts of this size this late in the campaign is extraordinary. We need the support of many other families, like Mr. and Mrs. Houser, with gifts at all levels, to help us cross the finish line.”
Mr. Houser joined the Board of Directors of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in 2000 as a founding Board member. He has also served on the Finance and Investment Management Committee and currently serves on the Communications Committee. Mr. and Mrs. Houser supported the campaign in 2004 with a gift of $500,000 and recently increased the gift to $1 million.
“We have a responsibility to give back to the community we live in—the community that has provided us with so many opportunities to succeed—and we chose to give back through supporting the arts,” said Mr. Houser. “The arts are unique in that they can excite the flames of possibility within each of us, to be inspired, to think about something in new ways and to share a dialogue about these ideas and experiences.”
A resident of Dallas since 1988, Mr. Houser has had a lifelong interest in finance and the futures market, beginning when his father, a stock and commodity investor, taught him the basics of investing. In 1997, he founded his own firm, Mega Capital LLC, which now has a client base throughout the United States and reaches as far as Australia. Frequent business trips have given Mr. and Mrs. Houser the opportunity to visit some of the greatest performing arts centers around the world. These travels led to their involvement in the planning for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts from its earliest days.
In addition to serving on the Board of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Houser is also a member of the of the Board of Directors of The Dallas Zoo and previously served on the Board of Directors for the New Conservatory of Dallas.
A native of Washington, DC, Jennifer Houser developed a passion for the arts at a young age. She began performing at the age of seven in community theatre and spent her summers at the Maryland School for the Performing Arts. A dedicated community volunteer, Mrs. Houser serves on the Boards of Directors of TACA, the Dallas Theater Center and Heroes for Children. Mr. and Mrs. Houser served as honorary chair for the 2008 Heroes and Handbag fundraiser, benefitting Heroes for Children, and Mrs. Houser was featured speaker, sharing the story of her son Ryan’s battle with leukemia.
“My parents seized every opportunity to expose me to the wealth of arts available in the Washington, DC area. When I moved to Dallas thirteen years ago, it became apparent to me that a city as vibrant and forward-thinking as Dallas was in need of a grand space to showcase all of the performing arts,” said Mrs. Houser. “Doug and I are so grateful to be a part of what will be a magnificent center for the performing arts.”
Mrs. Houser has passed her passion for the arts on to her two sons, Tyler and Ryan, who attended summer acting programs at the Dallas Theater Center. Ryan is currently pursuing his Masters Degree in Theater Design at California State Fullerton, and Tyler is currently majoring in Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, following five years in the Marines.
The campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts began in 2000. To date, 130 gifts of $1 million or more have been committed to the campaign—an unprecedented number of gifts at that size for a capital campaign for cultural facilities. When the Center opens in October 2009, it will complete the decades-long dream of the Dallas Arts District, creating a vital neighborhood in the heart of downtown Dallas for the performing and visual arts.
About the AT&T Performing Arts Center:
The AT&T Performing Arts Center, a new multi-venue Center for music, opera, theatre and dance will open in October 2009, completing the 25-year vision of the Dallas Arts District. The Center will provide multi-state-of-the-art facilities woven together by an urban park covering more than ten acres to create a dynamic cultural destination that will be unparalleled in the world. The Center will feature the following:
- The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed in a modern horseshoe configuration, will seat 2,200 (with capacity up to 2,300), designed by Foster + Partners.
- The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will serve as a gateway to the Dallas Arts District from the downtown Dallas business center and will seat 600, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Rem Koolhaas.
- The completely new Annette Strauss Artist Square will be the Center’s outdoor entertainment venue, designed by Foster + Partners.
- The City Performance Hall will provide main stage production space for many of Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
- The Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park will unify the venues within a lush urban oasis and will create a dynamic cultural destination in downtown Dallas, designed by Michel Desvigne.
- Two underground parking areas that will accommodate more than 850 vehicles.
The Dallas Fort Worth Lexus Dealer Association is the title sponsor of the Center’s Lexus Broadway Series, the official vehicle of the Center and its resident companies, the official valet sponsor and the naming rights holder for the Center’s two underground parking areas. More information on the AT&T Performing Arts Center is available at www.attpac.org.
Contact:
Maria May
AT&T Performing Arts Center
214.978.2834
maria.may@attpac.org