DALLAS (October 19, 2009) – The AT&T Performing Arts Center’s week-long Grand Opening celebration in Dallas culminated with an estimated 45,000 people participating in Spotlight Sunday, a community open house with events throughout the Dallas Arts District. Visitors arrived from across Texas for free performances, concerts, tours, fireworks and other family activities organized by the AT&T Performing Arts Center and other Dallas Arts District institutions.

Grand Opening Week and Spotlight Sunday marked the inauguration of the Center and the opening of its Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, and Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park. The week-long celebration included a civic dedication, gala performances featuring stars of theatre, Broadway, opera, dance and film, architecture forums, outdoor concerts and more.

The new buildings, designed by Foster + Partners and REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Rem Koolhaas, have been lauded by architecture and performing arts critics as “stunning addition[s]…to the cultural landscape,” (Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek) whose “strong, serious forms… give Dallas the cultural presence that it has never had,” (Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times) and bestow “a truly worthy home to Dallas’ artistic assets” (Vanity Fair). Sammons Park, which connects the venues with other Dallas Arts District institutions and surrounding urban neighborhoods, “could become the city’s liveliest civic space,” (James S. Russell, Bloomberg News). The people of Dallas and North Texas already think so; more than 25,000 followed Town & Country’s encouragement to “come and applaud the determination of Dallas, where architectural innovation has two new homes.”

“This was a day that Dallas will always remember,” said Mark Nerenhausen, President/CEO of the AT&T PAC. “The community has truly embraced our new Center, as evidenced by the tremendous crowds we saw during Spotlight Sunday who came to explore the Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theatre, watch a variety of performing arts performances, and picnic in Sammons Park. The Center really is a gift to the city of Dallas and we look forward to welcoming many more families from across the region in the coming weeks as our resident companies premiere their first performances in their new homes.”

Grand Opening Week and Spotlight Sunday launched the AT&T PAC’s inaugural season, which will include more than 500 different productions of theatre, opera, contemporary dance, ballet, music and other events. The $354-million AT&T PAC provides new state-of-the art homes for The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater, Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and other Dallas-area performing arts organizations. The AT&T PAC also produces original programming and presents performances by a diverse range of cultural organizations from around the world, including its Lexus Broadway Series, Brinker International Forum and TITAS.

Early reviews of performances at the AT&T PAC praised the venues for creating dynamic audience experiences. “Acoustically, the 2,200-seat auditorium [of the Winspear Opera] passed its first tests with top grades,” (Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News), and the Wyly Theatre’s performance hall has been dubbed “yoga-flexible” for how easily it can be reconfigured for nearly any type of performance (Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times). “If used well, [the Wyly] should allow for continual reinvention of the theatergoing experience” (Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times).

More than 1200 families, individuals, corporations and foundations have also expressed their support for the AT&T Performing Arts Center through contributions to the capital campaign with gifts ranging from $1 to $42 million. To date, the campaign has raised more than $337 million, including 133 gifts of $1 million and above. For many donors, their gifts to the Center were their first to the arts. This resounding support has completed the 30-year vision for the Dallas Arts District, and drawn national and international attention for the cultural strengths of North Texas.

The entire Dallas Arts District created a variety of free programs to celebrate the opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center for Spotlight Sunday. Thousands visited the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center and Crow Collection of Asian Art. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for a full house at the Meyerson Symphony Center, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts hosted capacity crowds for student performances, among many other Arts District events throughout the day.

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