Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has announced the honorees for its 2026 Summer Gala, and the choices reflect two distinct but complementary legacies of civic commitment to the arts. Groundbreaking dancer, author, and advocate Misty Copeland and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Co-President Andreas C. Dracopoulos will both be recognized at the event on Monday, June 1 at David Geffen Hall. The evening opens the door to Lincoln Center’s beloved Summer for the City festival, which launches across the full campus on June 10.
Copeland receives the inaugural Lincoln Center Luminary Award, a newly established honor created to recognize artists who demonstrate both extraordinary talent on stage and a genuine civic vision, artists who create, convene, and actively 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 record speaks for itself. In 2015 she became the first Black woman promoted to Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre, a milestone that resonated well beyond the dance world. She’s a New York Times bestselling author, a Lincoln Center board member, and the founder of the Misty Copeland Foundation, whose flagship BE BOLD program works to expand access, diversity, and inclusion in dance, with a particular focus on ballet. Few artists have matched her ability to command a stage and simultaneously reshape the institutions around her.
Dracopoulos has been a foundational force behind Lincoln Center’s most ambitious public-facing initiatives over the past decade and a half. As Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, he was a driving force behind Restart Stages, the outdoor performing arts center created on campus in 2021 to help New Yorkers safely gather and help the performing arts sector find its footing again after the pandemic. He’s also been the lead supporter of Summer for the City’s free programming since the festival launched in 2022, a festival that has now welcomed more than 1.6 million visitors. SNF’s support of the ongoing SNF Lincoln Center West Initiative, a project launched in 2023 to open up the Amsterdam Avenue side of campus with public gardens, welcoming entrances, and a world-class amphitheater, adds another chapter to a relationship between the foundation and Lincoln Center that stretches back to 2009, and in fact to the 1960s through SNF’s founder.
“The arts are a powerful force for inspiration and connection, fundamental to who we are as a city,” said Lincoln Center President and CEO Mariko Silver. “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.”
Tickets for the performance portion of the Summer Gala go on sale to Lincoln Center members on May 13 at 12pm and to the general public on May 20 at 12pm through Lincoln Center’s Choose-What-You-Pay model. Performers and participants will be announced in the coming weeks. Full details at LincolnCenter.org.