-- Arts & Letters Live 2017 Season Welcomes More Than 30 Authors and Performers Including Sandra Cisneros, George Saunders, and Stephen Tobolowsky --
-- Zadie Smith Makes Her Dallas Debut --
DALLAS, TX – December 7, 2016 – Today the Dallas Museum of Art announced the 26th anniversary season of Arts & Letters Live, the Museum’s literary and performing arts series. From January to July 2017, DMA Arts & Letters Live will feature more than 30 scheduled events with award-winning and bestselling authors, actors, and musicians. Widely acknowledged as a major contribution to Dallas’s cultural life, DMA Arts & Letters Live has featured more than 1,400 authors, actors, and performing artists at many sold-out events since its inception in 1992. This season features the series’ popular Texas Bound program (Texas actors reading short fiction by Texas writers), BooksmART programs for children and young adults, and events with special guests including Zadie Smith, Emma Donoghue, Luke Wilson, MacArthur Fellowship recipient George Saunders, Adam Haslett, David Sedaris, and Stephen Tobolowsky.
“We are thrilled to announce Arts & Letters Live’s 26th season. With the star-studded lineup of authors this year, we have a particularly strong slate of fiction and nonfiction that runs the gamut from historical topics to contemporary issues,” said Carolyn Bess, Director of Arts & Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art. “We’re also delighted to feature comedian-writer Jessi Klein (Inside Amy Schumer, Transparent, Saturday Night Live) and acclaimed and award-winning actors Luke Wilson, Anika Noni Rose, Harriet Harris, and Joshua Malina to bring stories to life on stage.”
Season highlights include appearances by New York Times bestselling authors, Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, National Book Award winners and finalists, Story Prize winners, a Caldecott Medal winner, and Tony Award winners:
- Zadie Smith
- Luke Wilson
- David Sedaris
- Emma Donoghue
- Chris Cleave
- Sandra Cisneros
- Simon Tolkien
- George Saunders
- Adam Haslett
- Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
- Chuck Klosterman
- Mohsin Hamid
- Terry Tempest Williams
- Stephen Tobolowsky
- Michael Urie
- Kwame Alexander
- Jonathan Safran Foer
- Joshua Malina
- Jessi Klein
- Katie Kitamura
- Adam Gidwitz
- Paul Watson
- Margo Jefferson
- G. W. Bailey
- Tom Vanderbilt
- Scott Westerfeld
For additional information, and the full season schedule, visit DMA.org/ALL.
The 26th DMA Arts & Letters Live season kicks off on January 14 at 7:30 p.m. with Zadie Smith’s first-ever event in Dallas. Smith will discuss her new novel Swing Time with KERA’s THINK host Krys Boyd. Connections to the DMA’s collection and special exhibitions are weaved throughout the season and include Geoff Dyer musing on travel and pilgrimage, and on the DMA’s new acquisition of Walter De Maria’s Large Rod Series: Circle/Rectangle, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 with a percussion performance of the artist’s work on January 18; a musical performance and an evening of readings inspired by the DMA’s exhibition Shaken, Stirred, Styled: The Art of the Cocktail on January 28; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and photojournalist Paul Watson, who will shed light on a story intricately linked with the broken mast in one of the Museum’s masterpieces, The Icebergs by Frederic Edwin Church, on March 21.
The 26th anniversary season features discounted ticket packages grouping three similarly themed events for a special price of $110 per grouping. These gift packages, offered only through December 31, include “History Buffs,” composed of the Simon Tolkien & Amor Towles, Chris Cleave & Jennifer Ryan, and Holger Hoock & Nathaniel Philbrick events; “Wanderlust,” featuring the evenings with Geoff Dyer, Levison Wood, and Terry Tempest Williams; “Starstruck,” with the Texas Bound I, Jessi Klein, and Stephen Tobolowsky programs; “Bibliophiles,” which includes the Emma Donoghue, Adam Haslett, and Jonathan Safran Foer events; and “Creative Thinkers,” featuring the events with Dave Evans, Tom Vanderbilt, and Chuck Klosterman.
Tickets are on sale now. Order online at DMA.org/tickets or call 214-922-1818 during normal business hours. This season, selected events include an option for a ticket and book combo price.
Tickets for BooksmART events are $20; regular events begin at $40. Selected events include an option for a ticket and book combo price with priority seating. Tickets for George Saunders on March 8 are $65 and include a book; tickets for David Sedaris on April 28, marking his eighth consecutive year reading with the DMA Arts & Letters Live series, are $35–$75. Discounts are available for DMA Members and students. For details, visit DMA.org/ALL. Booksignings follow each of the author events unless otherwise noted; books are sold by the DMA Store, which stocks titles by each author featured in the series.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses more than 23,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum welcomes over 650,000 visitors annually and acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. Since the Museum’s return to free general admission in 2013, the DMA has welcomed more than two and a half million visitors. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.