Andreas C. Dracopoulos And Misty Copeland To Be Honored At Lincoln Center's 2026 Summer Gala

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has revealed 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.

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.