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Robert H. Dedman family makes $1 million gift to Dallas Center for the Performing Arts DALLAS (August 24, 2006)-- The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation has received a $1 million Cornerstone gift from the Robert H. Dedman family for the campaign to build the Center, Foundation officials announced today. The gift was made in honor of the extraordinary leadership of Caren Prothro, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Foundation’s Development Committee, Sarah Perot, Board of Directors member and Chair of the Cornerstone Program and Linda Custard, Board of Directors member and Chair of the President’s Advisory Council, for their roles in the most successful fundraising campaign of its kind in the history of Dallas’ cultural arts. The Dedman family has long been active in philanthropy and civic affairs. “Dallas is a better place in which to live and learn, benefit from medical research and enjoy culture because of the generosity of the Robert H. Dedman family,” Sarah Perot said. “Nancy, along with family members Patricia, Bob and Rachael, understand how institutions such as the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts impact the lives of families for generations to come. That’s the reason why their support is so meaningful.” He said the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is the most ambitious and important project he has observed in his many travels as the Chairman of the Board of ClubCorp. “I know what outstanding arts facilities can mean to the growth of a city,” he said. “But I have never seen a city make as dramatic a transformation as we are seeing in the Dallas Arts District.” He predicted that the new cultural arts facilities will redefine the city. “Dallas has always been about making a living,” Dedman said. “The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is about making a life.” Rachael Dedman has been actively involved in the Crystal Charity Ball and serves on the boards of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, Meadows School of the Arts at SMU and the Sweetheart Ball. Robert Dedman Jr.’s mother, Nancy Dedman, remains active as well, serving on the boards of St. Paul and Zale Lipshy Hospitals, the Salvation Army and Shelter Ministries. She also is a supporter of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Texas Ballet Theater. She was honored with the Annette Strauss Humanitarian Award in 2004. Patricia Dedman Dietz, daughter of Nancy Dedman and the late Mr. Dedman, is a member of the Board of Directors of ClubCorp. She spent 15 years in private practice as a psychotherapist and has taught at Southern Methodist University. She has been actively involved in Cattle Baron’s Ball, The Family Place and Pi Beta Phi. “In the years that I have been involved at SMU, I was keenly aware of the extraordinary generosity of the Robert H. Dedman family, whose gifts to the university were transformative,” said Linda Custard, who serves on SMU’s Board of Trustees. “But I have known the family for 50 years and their generosity throughout the community is equally impressive. The Dedman family’s $1 million gift to help construct the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will also be transformative in that it was committed at the very beginning of the Center’s construction.” The Center’s construction is well underway with excavation for the 600-space subsurface parking structure that will serve visitors. Work is scheduled to begin on the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in early fall with completion of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in 2009. 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: |
