Dallas, TX

For the sake of Dallas’ soul, we need this institute

Published

1 year ago

December 13, 2024

For the sake of Dallas’ soul, we need this institute

After 45 years in Uptown Dallas, the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture has announced its move to Southern Methodist University. This news may surprise those who frequented the historic houses on Routh Street but is understandable when confronted with the increasing expense of maintaining such treasured structures with limited nonprofit resources.

Why are we moving?

Cost is one reason. But another is more compelling. I believe that the moment for enlightened civic leadership in the city is now — more so than any other moment since the Kennedy assassination. SMU educates so many of our city’s prominent leaders in business, in law, in politics and other fields. With a natural partner for our longstanding mission, we can now confront our city’s future without distraction.

Dallas and its surrounding cities are poised to become one of the largest and most prosperous regions in the world. Can we also be one of the greatest?

When I helped found the Dallas Institute in 1980 with Louise and Donald Cowan, James Hillman, Robert Sardello and Joanne Stroud, we took “the city” as the guiding metaphor in our attempt to explore soul and spirit in our culture. We were and are still today suffering from a malaise that is difficult to name. One attempt is to call it a spiritual aridity — a loss of a sense of the sacred in our everyday lives when everything is judged by its economic value rather than its meaning to our inner spirit.

If our focus is the city, it seems imperative that we speak from the heart about what gives a city its vital elan. We must study great literature and archetypal psychology, contemplate suffering, and imagine the recovery of the soul of the world. We need to lament “anorexic” buildings, monotonous chain stores, fast food, one-way streets and more.

For all these reasons, I initiated and ran the “What Makes a City?” series at Dallas City Hall. With civic leaders, artists, poets, businesspersons, architects, educators and city planners, we asked the city itself to speak about its needs and desires. These conferences yielded results we proudly acknowledge today: Pegasus Plaza, amenable sidewalk dining experiences, pocket parks, venues for artists, places for children to play and multiple housing opportunities.

We addressed the need to honor our Trinity River as our source and to provide ways to enjoy and increase its beauty. The Trinity Trust, now known as the Trinity River Conservancy, is a direct result of these civic conversations. Citywide support and acclaim for Dallas’ iconic Calatrava bridges can be traced to our sustained conversations about the city and its form.

Louise Cowan designed what is now known as the institute’s Sue Rose Summer Institute for Teachers. For her work with our city’s teachers, Cowan received the nation’s highest honor for scholars in the humanities, the Charles Frankel Prize, awarded at the White House. This program, now led by Michael McShane, continues to thrive.

Joanne Stroud supported and ran the publishing arm of the institute, publishing more than 58 volumes that remain in demand throughout the world. She sponsored an annual Hillman Conference that attracted international scholars in literature and archetypal psychology to Dallas.

Numerous civic leaders have supported the institute’s work, and they have cared deeply for its singularity and mission — our devoted and generous directors Henry Beck, Betty Regard, Nancy Cain Robertson, Deedie Rose. After my tenure, Larry Allums, in partnership with Kim Hiett Jordan, Russell Bellamy and David Griffin, initiated signature events like the Festival of Ideas, the Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities. More recently, Don Glendenning guided the inspired partnership with SMU.

The institute is now in capable hands with Seemee Ali, who has served as president these past four years, heroically leading through the formidable years following COVID-19.

Change is good, and this is an important move. Dallas needs the humanities; our culture needs attention.

Gail Thomas is a co-founder of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture and a founder and former CEO of the Trinity Trust Foundation.

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Dallas, TX

Suspect dead after officer involved shooting in Mesquite

Published

2 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Suspect dead after officer involved shooting in Mesquite

A woman and the person suspected of killing her are dead after an incident led to an officer-involved shooting near Town East Mall in Mesquite on Saturday.

The Dallas Police Department (DPD) responded to a shooting call in the 9000 block of Markville Drive at about 10:15 a.m. A woman was found shot and taken to a local hospital where she died from her injuries.

DPD determined that the suspect fled the scene.

Around 11:45 a.m., Dallas Police said Northeast Division officers were conducting surveillance and located the suspect in a vehicle near the 18500 block of LBJ Freeway in Mesquite, which is right outside Town East Mall.

Police said when they attempted a traffic stop, the suspect got out of the car armed and shots were fired.

They said no officers were hurt, and the suspect died on scene.

The shooting gave many busy mall shoppers some pause.

“I was just afraid about everybody else here, you know, like, there’s a whole bunch of families out here Christmas shopping, something else could have happened, you know,” said Alexander Evans.

“My friend and her kids are supposed to be meeting me here, so I kind of told her, I was like, ‘It might be best if you don’t.’ Just to be safe,” said Abby Rather.

Mesquite Police are now investigating the officer-involved shooting, since it happened within their city.

Dallas Police said they are still investigating the homicide case.

They also said the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office responded to the OIS scene and will conduct their own investigation.

Dallas Police said The Office of Community Police Oversight also responded.

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

Published

14 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 8-3 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Bäck, Sam Steel, Ilya Lybushkin and Adam Erne also scored for the Stars. who are an NHL-best 13-2-4 on the road. Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists, and Casey DeSmith had 23 saves.

Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks, who have lost four of five. Lukas Dostal gave up four goals on seven shots before he was pulled with 5:41 left in the first period. Petr Mrazek came on and stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced the rest of the way.

The Stars’ eight-goal output tied a season high, matching their 8-3 win at Edmonton on Nov. 25, and was the most the Ducks have given up.

Bäck gave the Stars a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal 2:37 into the game after the Ducks turned the puck over behind their net.

Poehling tied it 55 seconds later, scoring in close on the rebound of a point shot by Radko Gudas.

Hintz put Dallas back ahead at 4:42, getting a pass from Robertson in the slot, sliding backwards and firing a shot past Dostal for his 11th.

Steel pushed the Stars’ lead to 3-1 with 7:19 left in the first, scoring past Dostal while crashing into the net and dislodging it. The goal was confirmed after a review.

Harley made it a three-goal lead 1:38 later as he got a pass from Rantanen and scored from the right circle.

Robertson scored in front on a power play with 8:50 remaining in the second, and then put a backhander past Mrazek from the right circle 4 minutes later to make it 6-1. It gave Robertson a team-leading 22 goals.

Erne made it a six-goal lead with 1:30 left in the middle period.

After Sennecke pulled the Ducks back within five 1:01 into the third, Lybushkin got his first of the season 41 seconds later to extend the Stars’ lead to 8-2. Granlund capped the scoring with 5:38 remaining.

Up next

Stars: Host Toronto on Sunday.

Ducks: Host Columbus on Saturday.

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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Dallas, TX

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Don Stone, a Dallas civic leader and strong supporter of the arts, died on Sunday. He was 96.

Angela Stone, Don’s youngest child, said her father was one of a kind, a rare mix of sweet and tough.

“He was just the most wonderful man I ever knew, just generous to a fault, smart, charming. He influenced so many people,” she said.

Stone gave widely across North Texas, including $500,000 to endow college scholarships for musically gifted Dallas ISD students. Stone also held leadership positions at several North Texas arts organizations, including the Dallas Public Library, Voices of Change, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Orchestra of New Spain, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, Shakespeare Dallas and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

“He just believed that all of our lives would be so much poorer without music, art and theater. He said in our country we have the freedom to support whatever we want and that we needed to support the arts so that they would continue to exist,” Stone said.

Stone, a businessman who lived in Turtle Creek, worked for Sanger Harris, which later became Macy’s. He was a 2018 TACA Silver Cup Award honoree for his arts and culture advocacy in North Texas.

Maura Sheffler, president and executive director of The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), said in a statement that Stone’s legacy will continue to inspire the local arts community.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Don Stone, a devoted champion of the arts whose leadership and generosity,” she wrote.

Stone’s wife of over 72 years, Norma, died in June. She was the one who first got her husband involved in the arts, according to their daughter Angela.

Michelle Miller Burns, the DSO’s president and CEO, said the Stones had a profound impact on the DSO.

“It is with such a heavy heart that I received news of Don Stone’s passing earlier this week. Don was a devoted patron, a donor and a board member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and his leadership and generosity really have helped shape the Dallas symphony across five decades,” she said.

In 1980, Stone served as DSO’s chairman of the Board of Governors and helped launch efforts to raise $80 million for Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and secure architect I.M. Pei.

In 1997, the Stones launched the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund and committed $1 million to continuously support new works. Some of the works supported through the fund include this year’s world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s requiem For Everything You Keep Losing. The fund also supported a Grammy award-winning violin concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis co-commissioned with the Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.

“I think it is rare for a couple who so firmly believes in the future of classical music and creating opportunities for new musical voices to be heard to really put support behind that in a meaningful way to fuel that process, to ensure that it can come to fruition,” Burns said.

She said the DSO will continue the Stones’ legacy by commissioning new works through the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund.

Stone is survived by his children Michael, Lisa and Angela, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family will have a private funeral.

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

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