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The Meadows Foundation gives $1 million to Dallas Center for the Performing Arts DALLAS (August 4, 2006) - The Meadows Foundation has made a $1 million grant to establish a permanent endowment for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. It is the first million dollar gift to the Center’s endowment campaign. The Meadows Foundation’s Board of Directors gave the strategic grant to help ensure adequate funds will be available to maintain the multi-venue Center when it opens in 2009. The gift is the first specifically committed to maintenance of the Center and will serve as a vital supplement to funding committed by the City of Dallas to sustain the operations of the new buildings. The added revenues will help ensure the highest level of facilities support for the world-class venues that will comprise the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. Annual revenues generated by the $1 million gift will go into the endowment. The contribution from The Meadows Foundation affirms that the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is moving ahead into its next phase of its business planning. “We felt we could play an important role for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts by providing this endowment,” said Linda Evans, President and CEO of The Meadows Foundation. “Every great city needs great arts and cultural facilities that can bring people together. This Center is going to accomplish that with theaters that are so adaptable and a Grand Plaza that will be so inviting.” “The Meadows Foundation is known for its visionary analysis of the needs of organizations and for making strategic grants that serve the long-term interests of worthy projects,” said Bill Lively, President and CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. “I believe it was in this context that The Meadows Foundation made a very generous grant that will help provide needed funds to maintain the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts venues at the highest quality level.” The Meadows Foundation is among the largest in Texas and enjoys a history of support for cultural, social and educational programs that significantly improve the quality of life in communities. The Foundation has been at the forefront of support for the arts. But grants from The Meadows Foundation also have played an important role in improving public education in Texas and addressing tough social issues such as better treatment of mental health patients. “The Meadows Foundation’s decision to invest in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is an encouraging endorsement of the Center’s business plan,” said Howard Hallam, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. “For more than three years, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation has been developing a dynamic business plan to help ensure financial stability from the time of the Center’s opening in the fall of 2009,” Hallam said. “The extraordinary grant made by The Meadows Foundation will contribute significantly to our efforts to provide a reliable annual income for maintaining the Center’s venues.” Caren Prothro, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation Board and Chair of the Foundation’s Development Committee said a grant from the Meadows Foundation adds to the credibility of the campaign because of The Foundation’s outstanding reputation. “I am keenly aware of the thoughtful process by which The Meadows Foundation determines recipients of its grants,” Ms. Prothro said. “So I am very appreciative of this historic grant that will help the Center maintain its world-class venues.” The campaign to raise $275 million for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is on schedule and work is well underway at the Center site in the Dallas Arts District. Contributions to the campaign already exceed $203 million and construction crews currently are excavating for a 600-vehicle subsurface parking facility that will serve the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. Work on the new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will begin in early fall. The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, a new multi-venue Center for music, opera, theater and dance will open in 2009, completing the 25-year dream of the Dallas Arts District. The most significant performing arts complex to be built since Lincoln Center in New York, 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 is unparalleled in the world. The Center will feature the following: |
