Lifestyles
Texas Instruments Foundation Challenge Grant raises $16 million to honor Margaret McDermott
By media release
Oct 26, 2005
DALLAS – (October 25, 2005) The Performance Hall in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House has been named for Dallas visionary leader and celebrated philanthropist, Margaret McDermott, thanks to an historic challenge grant awarded by the Texas Instruments (TI) Foundation to which 31 families and organizations generously responded. Margaret McDermott is the widow of Eugene McDermott, one of the founders of Texas Instruments Incorporated.
At a private dinner held Monday evening, October 24, at the Nasher Sculpture Center, The Texas Instruments Foundation and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation jointly announced $11 million in gifts and grants in response to the $5 million challenge TI Foundation grant. The gifts have resulted in more than $16 million of funding to help construct the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and name in perpetuity, the Margaret McDermott Performance Hall in the Center’s Winspear Opera House.
Among the gifts committed by friends of Margaret McDermott were seven $1 million Cornerstone commitments made by Jan and Fred Hegi, Amy and Peter Hegi, and Libby and Brian Hegi; The Jerry R. Junkins Family Foundation; Boone Pickens; Caren Prothro; Cindy and Howard Rachofsky; Sue Gill Rose; and an anonymous donor.
Other generous friends responding to the challenge grant include Tory and Dick Agnich, Marilyn and Jim Augur, Dr. Joanne H. Stroud, Ginger and Jack Blanton, Elizabeth and Duncan Boeckman, Laura and Dan Boeckman, Carol and Bruce Calder, Ana and Don Carty, Arlene and John Dayton, Wendy and Tom Engibous, Bess and Ted Enloe, Nita and John Ford, Sheila and Jody Grant, John P. Harbin, Jan and Frederick Mayer, Raymond D. Nasher, Alice and Erle Nye, Patricia M. Patterson, Peggy and Leonard Riggs, Carl J. and Lois B. Thomsen, Pat and Pat Weber, Thompson & Knight Foundation, and two anonymous donors.
“TI is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. To commemorate this historic occasion, the TI Foundation decided to honor Margaret McDermott and her lifetime of generosity and civic involvement,” said Tom Engibous, Chairman of Texas Instruments Incorporated. “The symmetry of the Margaret McDermott Performance Hall in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts’ Winspear Opera House, adjacent to the Eugene McDermott Performance Hall in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, is remarkable and a tribute to the legacy of the McDermott family,” Mr. Engibous said.
“Construction of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will complete the dream of the Dallas Arts District, a dream that Margaret McDermott has nurtured for more than a quarter century and which she has helped make possible through her gifts supporting the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and launching the campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. For these reasons, it is especially gratifying to participate in the process that will help construct the Center and honor Margaret McDermott in such a special and lasting way,” said Howard Hallam, Chairman of the Board of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation.
Margaret McDermott and the Eugene McDermott Foundation made a $3 million leadership gift to launch the campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and subsequent gifts and grants totaling $7 million to help construct the Center.
“Margaret McDermott and the Eugene McDermott Foundation have been incredibly generous to Dallas, especially to Dallas’ cultural organizations,” said Caren Prothro, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. “I am thrilled that because of the creativity and generosity of the Texas Instruments Foundation and the support of many others, we have found an appropriate way to honor Margaret by naming the performance hall of the Winspear Opera House in her honor.”
For more than a half century, Margaret McDermott’s philanthropic spirit has resulted in grants supporting cultural, educational, medical research and humanitarian institutions and projects in and beyond Dallas. Mrs. McDermott’s gift to the campaign to build the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center resulted in the naming of the venue’s performance hall in honor of her late husband, Eugene.
“In the Fall of 2009 when the venues comprising the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts are open and the campaign to build the Center is over, many remarkable acts of generosity that helped make the campaign successful will have occurred and will be remembered. However, the $5 million challenge grant awarded by the Texas Instruments Foundation which generated $11 million of additional gifts from friends of Margaret McDermott will forever be remembered as the most celebrated milestone in the campaign’s entire operation,” said Bill Lively, President and CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation.
Total funding for the campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has reached more than $193 million.
The Margaret McDermott Performance Hall in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts’ Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House will seat 2,200 in an acoustical setting designed to address the performance requirements of opera. The venue will be used more than 325 days each year hosting productions, performances, conferences and meetings, including more than 170 performances by The Dallas Opera, Texas Ballet Theater, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, TITAS, and other Dallas organizations and by the most distinguished performing artists in the world who will be attracted the McDermott Performance Hall in the Winspear Opera House because of its artistic merit.
Groundbreaking Ceremonies for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, sponsored by Alon USA are set for 10:30 a.m., Thursday November 10, at the Center’s future site on Flora Street in the Dallas Arts District. The ceremony will feature special messages delivered by David Wiessman, President and CEO of Alon Israel, parent company of Alon USA; guest celebrity Tommy Lee Jones whose appearance is underwritten by Diane and Hal Brierley; Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison; Mayor Laura Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Donald Hill; Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Elba Garcia; and Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation leadership including Howard Hallam, Chairman of the Board of Directors; Caren Prothro, Vice-chair; and Bill Lively, President and CEO. Concluding the ceremony will be the ringing of the newly installed bells at the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe for approximately 10 minutes.
About the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation
Organized in September 2000, the Foundation’s mission is to complete planning and raise funds to design and construct the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. When completed in 2009, the Center will represent the highest quality in design, acoustics, technical and creative support and audience amenities.
Venues comprising the Center:
- Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed in a modern horseshoe configuration that will seat 2,200.
- Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, serving as a gateway to the Dallas Arts District from the downtown business center, will seat 600.
- Redesigned Annette Strauss Artist Square will serve as the Center’s primary venue for outdoor events and performances.
- Grand Plaza will be larger in size than London’s Trafalgar Square and will connect the venues through an outdoor environment.
- Underground parking structure accommodating more than 600 vehicles.
- City Performance Hall, funded by the City of Dallas, will provide main stage production space for many of the city’s smaller performing arts organizations.
The Center will become the location for main stage productions of The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater, Anita M. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and many other performing arts organizations. For more information, visit http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/.