Caroline Rose Hunt, Frank Risch. Photo: Daniel Driensky

Every year, TACA raises money to distribute grants to local performing arts groups. (Last year, $1 million was divvied up between 37 organizations.)  And every year since 1976, TACA also honors one man and one woman with the Silver Cup Award for their philanthropic contributions to and leadership of the arts in Dallas.

This year’s honorees, announced last night, are Caroline Rose Hunt and Frank Risch. They’ll be feted at TACA’s annual luncheon on Feb. 24.  The list of organizations these two have supported is dizzyingly long.   Hunt has touched “virtually every arts organization in Dallas,” said Kern Wildenthal in a statement released by TACA.  Risch has been a key leader at the Dallas Theater Center and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, among other groups.

For more on both, jump for the release from TACA:

TACA Announces Caroline Rose Hunt and Frank Risch as the 2012 Silver Cup Award Recipients

34th Annual Luncheon to Honor These Outstanding Volunteers

DALLAS, Texas – October 6, 2011 – On October 5, TACA Board of Governors, TACA Corporate Council, friends and guests gathered to celebrate the announcement of Caroline Rose Hunt and Frank Risch as the 2012 Silver Cup Award honorees. The announcement was made at the home of Jennifer and John Eagle.

Founded in 1976 by civic leader, arts advocate and former mayor Annette Strauss, the TACA Silver Cup is awarded each year to recognize one man and one woman for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Dallas. Mrs. Hunt and Mr. Risch will receive their Silver Cups on February 24, 2012, at the TACA Silver Cup Award Luncheon, to be held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel.

Andy Teller, Chairman of TACA’s Board of Directors, said, “Caroline and Frank lead by example in their giving of themselves and their resources to the Dallas arts community. It is our privilege to honor these esteemed volunteers by awarding them the TACA Silver Cup.”

Caroline Rose Hunt

Dr. Kern Wildenthal, 2004 Silver Cup Award recipient, said, “Caroline has for decades been a quiet but extraordinarily faithful supporter of virtually every arts organization in Dallas, both in terms of her personal and foundation donations and in terms of her company’s generous sponsorship, hosting and underwriting. Innumerable arts organizations have been able to perform at a higher level because of her reliable annual support.”

Caroline Rose Hunt has supported Dallas with her energy and her philanthropy. Through her business interests—as former honorary chairman of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts—and her personal life, she has been a model of the giving citizen. Her philanthropic interests have ranged from social services and health to the fine arts, from children’s interests to those of the elderly. In Washington, D.C. she served for a decade as a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has been an active participant in the boards of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, both at the national and state level since its inception, and was the recipient of their Arts Patronage Award in 2003. She has personally provided funding for the capital campaigns of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Dallas Children’s Theater (DCT), Parkland Hospital and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

Because of Mrs. Hunt’s longtime direct support of Dallas Children’s Theater that bears her company name Rosewood, the Center serves more than 100,000 Dallas children each year through arts education. For her sustained backing, the DCT has also named its annual award the Rosewood Award. In addition, she is a longtime supporter of the Dallas Opera and the Dallas Symphony.

She has received numerous honors and awards. In 2006, The University of Texas at Austin named her a Distinguished Alumni, as did Mary Baldwin College in 2009 and The Hockaday School in 2003. In 1999, she was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. Her support for Dallas ranges from KERA and the Retina Foundation of the Southwest to the Texas Ballet Theater and The Hockaday School. With the passage of time, she has supported a variety of organizations by lending her name to committees and serving as honorary chair of many events. First woman deacon of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, she has five children, 19 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Hunt said, “The arts do so much to enrich our city, so I have always believed it is my duty to help support them in any way I can. The TACA Silver Cup Award is a tremendous honor and is really a testament to the many outstanding organizations and individuals I have been privileged to work with over the years.”

Frank Risch

Linda Pitts Custard, 2000 Silver Cup recipient, said, “Frank is a dynamic community leader who has invested his remarkable talents in elevating the quality of the arts in our Dallas community. His leadership has been highly praised in the transition of the Dallas Theater Center’s move into the Wyly Theatre in the Dallas Arts District. His involvement in the AT&T Performing Arts Center has also been critical to the creation and ongoing development of that institution.”

For Frank Risch, the arts are essential to building a great city, and he and his wife, Helen, have helped make many new and exciting changes possible in the Dallas area through their volunteer service and philanthropy—in the arts and the wider community.

As Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Theater Center for the past three years, Mr. Risch has helped oversee an exciting transition that included the 50th anniversary season of the Dallas Theater Center, its last in the Kalita Humphreys Theater, and the completion of two great seasons in the new Dee and Charles Wyly Theater at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. A Member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, Mr. Risch also serves as Vice Chair of the Board Nominating and Governance Committee and Member of the Finance Committee.

His volunteer service also includes leadership roles as Vice Chair of Communities Foundation of Texas. For many years, Mr. Risch has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, which will award him the Museum’s 2011 Hope for Humanity Award this October. In 2003, he received the Henry Cohn Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League of North Texas, and he currently serves on the organization’s board. He is also a board member of Dallas CASA and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, and serves on the Business Board of Advisors of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a past President of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas.

The son of Herbert and Irma Risch, who fled Nazi Germany in 1937 to escape the Holocaust, Mr. Risch received his undergraduate degree from Penn State, and his master’s degree in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon. Upon receiving his master’s degree, he joined Standard Oil Company of New Jersey—now Exxon Mobil Corporation—and retired in 2004 as Vice President, Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer.

The Rischs are the proud parents of two children, Jonathan and Jolene, and they have six grandchildren.

“You don’t have to be an actor, a director, a painter or a musician to be able to participate in the arts, which are so vital to enriching the fabric of our city,” Mr. Risch said. “But I feel, and I know others feel, an obligation to nurture, grow and celebrate the arts, not only for this generation, but for generations to come. To receive the TACA Silver Cup Award in recognition for what Helen and I have been so passionate about for all of our lives is deeply humbling, and we celebrate this recognition with all who love the arts and who seek to make Dallas an even greater city.”

ABOUT TACA:

Founded in 1966, TACA’s (The Arts Community Alliance) mission is to provide financial support and services and to increase public awareness and participation in the performing arts, which improve the quality of life for North Texas citizens of all economic, social and ethnic backgrounds. Since its inception, TACA has distributed more than $19.3 million to emerging and established performing arts organizations with budgets as small as $44,000 to as large as $30 million. Funds are raised through three signature events: the TACA Silver Cup Award Luncheon, which honors one man and woman each year for outstanding volunteer support of the arts, TACA Party on the Green and the TACA Custom Auction Gala. In addition, TACA receives strong support from its Board of Governors, Founders Circle and Corporate Council. More information can be found at www.taca-arts.org or by calling 214.520.3930.

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