Already the largest urban arts complex in the U.S., the 68-acre Dallas Arts District has now joined the global elite with the October 2009 debut of the highly anticipated AT&T Performing Arts Center. Celebrated as the largest arts opening since New York’s Lincoln Center and fulfilling a 30-year vision, the multi-venue center, woven together by a 10-acre urban park, includes instant architectural icons such as the red-ringed Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.
What does this mean for Dallas? Veletta Forsythe Lill, executive director of the Dallas Arts District, says the center emphatically broadens and diversifies Dallas’s identity.
"The city has been changing over the last decade," says Lill, a former Dallas city councilmember and long a powerful advocate for the city’s cultural life. "Now, though, the world is truly taking notice."
The district’s world-class reputation was already cemented by famed institutions such as the Dallas Museum of Art and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, and jewel-box museums such as the Nasher Sculpture Center and The Crow Collection of Asian Art. With the center, the district has now evolved to offer the widest possible diversity of cultural choices and interactions.
"For planners, we now offer the complete experience," Lill says, describing a "day-night" nexus where groups can combine daytime museum visits with nights at the opera or other performances. "In one recent week, we toured Russian diplomats, French journalists and a local garden club," Lill says. "On the district’s large palette, there is something for everyone."
The center is among the most technologically advanced performing arts venues in the country, equipped with AT&T Wi-Fi service and complimentary Internet access for patrons.
"As the final piece of the Dallas Arts District, the AT&T Performing Arts Center elevates the performing arts experience to a whole new level," says Mark Nerenhausen, president and CEO of the center. "Not only will the performances draw out-of-town groups, but we also have 13 new spectacular interior spaces that are sure to meet the needs of meeting planners from around the globe. We invite you to plan events that fully utilize our new spaces."
Lill says the old saying that biggest is best in Texas definitely rings true in the case of the center.
"We have solid ground for a swell of pride," Lill says. "This is a time of dramatic urban renewal in Dallas, and expect to see more evolution yet as the economy continues to repair."
