Andreas C. Dracopoulos and Misty Copeland to be Honored at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 2026 Summer Gala
Andreas C. Dracopoulos and Misty Copeland to be Honored at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 2026 Summer Gala
Monday, June 1 at David Geffen Hall
New York, NY (April 23, 2026) - Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) announced today that Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Co-President Andreas C. Dracopoulos and groundbreaking dancer, author, and advocate Misty Copeland will be honored at their 2026 Summer Gala.
The event will take place Monday, June 1 at David Geffen Hall, helping kick off the beloved Summer for the City festival, which opens across the Lincoln Center campus on June 10.
Copeland will receive the inaugural Lincoln Center Luminary Award, established to recognize leading artists who have demonstrated both extraordinary talent on stage, and civic vision: artists who create, convene, and care for communities. The award will be presented with remarks from Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem.
Copeland’s exceptional career and leadership both on and off stage is unparalleled. She is one of the world’s most celebrated dancers and the first Black woman promoted to Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), a New York Times best-selling author, and a steadfast advocate for access within the arts through her work with the Misty Copeland Foundation, as well as a Board member of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and dedicated supporter of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Lincoln Center West Initiative since its inception.
Across New York and the globe, Dracopoulos’ leadership resonates through innovative and impactful support of major institutions in the arts, education, healthcare, and social welfare. As Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), he has been a leading proponent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ initiatives to invite more New Yorkers into the power of the arts through artistic and community-focused activations of outdoor spaces. He was a driving force behind Restart Stages, an outdoor performing arts center created on campus in 2021 to provide safe spaces for New Yorkers to gather and help kickstart the performing arts sector coming out of the pandemic, and Summer for the City, as the lead supporter of the festival’s free programming since its launch in 2022.
SNF’s visionary support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Lincoln Center West Initiative—as the Founding Partner of this groundbreaking process with an initial catalytic grant when the project began—builds upon their support of free programming and the ongoing Legacies of San Juan Hill initiative, upon the collaboration SNF and Lincoln Center have shared since 2009, and upon the support SNF’s founder offered for Lincoln Center’s early offerings as far back as the 1960s.
“The arts are a powerful force for inspiration and connection, fundamental to who we are as a city and to how we come together in community,” said Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “We are grateful and honored to celebrate the extraordinary talent, vision, and civic leadership of Misty Copeland and the remarkable leadership of Andreas C. Dracopoulos—whose enduring commitment has helped advance our mission of ensuring people in New York and around the world feel a sense of belonging and see themselves reflected in the future we are building together.”
Tickets for the performance portion of the Summer Gala evening go on sale to Lincoln Center members on Wednesday, May 13 at 12pm and to the general public on Wednesday, May 20 at 12pm through LCPA’s groundbreaking Choose-What-You-Pay model. Performers and participants will be announced in the coming weeks. Check for updates at LincolnCenter.org.
As the event ushers in the summer season, it also provides critical support for Summer for the City—Lincoln Center’s premiere free arts festival, attended by more than 1.6 million visitors since its launch in 2022. The Gala will also shine a light on the SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative, a project launched in 2023 to open up the Amsterdam Avenue side of Lincoln Center’s campus. With welcoming entrances, public community gardens, and a world-class amphitheater, this Initiative reinforces Lincoln Center’s mission to make the arts accessible to all, expanding our collective imagination and creating connections and dialogue.
Imagery may be accessed here.
About Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland is a trailblazing dancer, author, and advocate, becoming the first Black woman promoted to Principal Dancer of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in 2015. She is the author of Ballerina Body, The Wind at My Back, and the bestselling Life in Motion as well as the children’s books Firebird Waltz, Bunheads and its sequel, Black Ballerinas, and Letters to Misty. Misty is the recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts and an inductee into the Boys and Girls Club Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2015, she was named to Time magazine’s 100 list and was one of Glamour magazine’s “Women of the Year.” Throughout her career, Misty has always been passionate about giving back, and she launched the Misty Copeland Foundation in 2022. Its signature program, BE BOLD, works to expand access, diversity, and inclusion in dance, especially ballet.
About Andreas C. Dracopoulos
Andreas C. Dracopoulos is Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), an international philanthropic organization that has supported more than 3,100 grantee-partners around the world aiming to achieve broad, lasting, and positive impact for society.
Andreas is a trustee of The Rockefeller University, NewYork-Presbyterian, and The Paley Center for Media in New York, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. He is also a Board of Advisors Trustee at the New York Public Library. At Johns Hopkins University, where he was a trustee from 2012 to 2024 and continues as Trustee Emeritus, Andreas is currently serving as Co-Chair of the SNF Agora Institute’s Board of Overseers and on the Berman Institute of Bioethics Advisory Board. He received Greece’s Grand Cross of the Order of Honor in 2018 and France’s rank of the Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2016.
About Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center is a premier performing arts center and iconic civic cultural campus. A beacon for the arts in New York City and around the world, Lincoln Center believes the arts are fundamental to our humanity and should be accessible to all – connecting us to one another, expanding our individual and collective imaginations, and elevating our spirit. Opened in 1962, the 16-acre campus is home to eleven resident arts organizations dedicated to uplifting the role of art and artists in our society, providing a destination for global artistic voices, training the next generation of great artists, and creating unforgettable experiences for all New Yorkers: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and School of American Ballet. Lincoln Center welcomes millions of people for thousands of performances each year, anchoring New York City’s legendary creative life and greatly impacting its civic and economic wellbeing.
About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the Lincoln Center campus is a destination that welcomes all—where every visitor, whether a native New Yorker or New Yorker for a day, can find inspiration, artistic innovation, and community in the creative achievements realized on campus. Year-round, we offer robust seasons of programming, representing a broad spectrum of performing arts disciplines and complementing the artistic and educational activities of the 10 fellow resident arts organizations with whom we share a home. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, offered primarily for free and Choose-What-You-Pay, helping ensure that the arts are at the center of civic life for all.
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We are grateful to our Board of Directors for their leadership and generous support in making our work possible
Operation of Lincoln Center’s public plazas is supported in part with public funds provided by the City of New York
Programs are made possible, in part, with public funds provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor, Mayor of the City of New York, the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council
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