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Express News
3-F
Saturday, November 22, 1986
[[image]]photograph of 3 women, holding a book, as described in caption[[/image]]
[[caption]]Photo by JOE BARRERA JR.
FROM LEFT, ANNETTE STRAUSS, CAROLINE SCHOELLKOPF... and Libba Barnes create Kennedy Center Friends
Kennedy Center looks for friends in Texas
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The Friends of Kennedy Center, now 30,000 members strong and in its 20th year, is now concentrating its efforts to increase its Texas base through chapters throughout the state.
The first official friends' chapter is in Dallas, formed with an initial 250 members.
Heading the expansion drive are two Dallas women, Annette G. Strauss, national chairman of the organization and a member of the Kennedy Center board, and Caroline Hunt Schoelkopf, also on the board and a member of the Friends national council.
Both women were in San Antonio, along with Dallas chapter president Linda McElroy, for a luncheon at the Argyle Club to stimulate interest and awareness in the San Antonio chapter.
Charged with gathering the mighty forces at the luncheon was Libba Barnes, who served as a co-hostess with Wandita Turner, Ginger Martin, and Suzanne Fischer. A table of brave males came at the request of host A.R. Perez.
The group of more than 50 didn't get much of a pitch.
Au contraire, the Friends executive director, Thomas J. Mader urged the group to "keep your money in San Antonio and support those arts organizations you have in the past."
Only $25
For as little as $25, Mader added, members of the Friends can learn what is happening at the Kennedy Center, which "belongs to all of the people in the nation."
Strauss, who became the Friends' national chairman two years ago, indicated her goal then was to start chapters "to take Kennedy Center to the people, to inform the country of our national cultural center."
She envisions a total Texas membership of 1,000 which, with the Dallas chapter already formed, San Antonio in the making and initial efforts underway in El Paso, Austin, Fort Worth, and Midland, is a realistic goal, she says.
The concept isn't "overly formalized," but Strauss hopes to create two just-for-Texas-Friends events a year. One would be a Kennedy Center-sponsored performance in Texas, and the other would be an event at the center in Washington, D.C.
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Blair Corning
[[image]] photograph of writer[[/image]]
Shoellkopf has created corporate support to Kennedy Center through the Rosewood Hotel/Crescent Endowment Fund of $550,000 to bring Texas performing artists to the Kennedy Center.
The first production underwritten by Shoellkopf was a performance last spring of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the center.
"Kennedy Center has both artistic and investment control," said Schoelkopff of the new endowment.
"We will probably be sending letters out to all performing arts groups throughout the country regarding Kennedy Center performance possibilities.
"But the Texas chapters will probably have the opportunity to submit groups from their cities, from theatrical to individuals, who could perform in one of the seven halls at Kennedy Center," she said.
Schoellkopf added that "when a local group receives recognition and the chance to perform before a national audience, it creates prestige and more awareness for that group on the local level."
Very Special Arts
Also mentioned were Kennedy Center programs, such as the Very Special Arts, a national program geared to recognize the importance of all art disciplines for handicapped people.
Very Special Arts/San Antonio, headed by Mel Casas, will hold its first annual Very Special Arts Festival in March, with Jean Kennedy Smith, founder of the program and sister of the late president, expected to attend. Mayor Henry G. Cisneros is a member of the national VSA board.