Editor’s Note: This year’s Linz Award, one of Dallas’ oldest civic honors, went to Linda Custard and Bess Enloe for their many years of devotion to championing the arts. Dallas Theater Center executive director Kevin Moriarty’s speech during the presentation in October stirred many who attended. The following op-ed is adapted from that speech.
In the ancient city of Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the Greeks placed theater at the center of civic life. They believed that drama trained citizens to think deeply, argue honestly, and hold competing truths in tension. Theater was not entertainment at the edges of society; it was rehearsal for the hard work of living together.
Centuries later, at the birth of another great democracy, George Washington wrote, “The Arts and Sciences, essential to the prosperity of the State and to the ornament of human life, have a primary claim to the encouragement of every lover of his country and mankind.” From the beginning, our founders understood that the arts cultivate empathy — that rare civic habit that allows us to relate to and understand each other, even if we disagree. In polarized times, that isn’t optional. It’s essential.
In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare offered a warning to any society that forgets this:
Opinion
“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils…Let no such man be trusted.”
For centuries, the greatest thinkers have reminded us that the arts are not a luxury for good times. They are ballast. They keep us from tipping into darkness when the winds rise.
Here in Dallas, two remarkable women — Linda Custard and Bess Enloe — have spent their lives embodying that truth. They were recently awarded the prestigious Linz Award by The Dallas Morning News for their many contributions to the civic life of Dallas, especially through their tireless support of the arts. Through their vision, leadership, and generosity, Linda and Bess have made Dallas not only a city of business, but a city of imagination.
Bess Enloe and Linda P. Custard, recipients of the 89th Annual Linz Award given by The Dallas Morning News.
Courtesy Bess Enloe and Linda P.
It’s tempting, when celebrating leaders like Linda and Bess, to focus on the visible legacy of their work: the buildings that grace our skyline, the endowments that sustain our institutions, the galas and ribbon cuttings. All of those matter deeply. But the deeper work of the arts is even more important: to reveal who we are, to soothe our passions and stir our consciences, to help us imagine who we might yet become.
We live in a time when that work is more urgently needed than ever. Across our nation, loneliness and isolation have become public health crises. Divisions of class, race and ideology have hardened into walls. Yet when people share stories across lines that divide us, understanding grows. When people create and experience art together, healing begins.
This is why Massachusetts recently became the first state in the nation to launch a social prescribing initiative — allowing medical doctors to prescribe arts participation to combat loneliness, improve mental health, and support wellness. The initiative is funded by health insurance providers and healthcare systems that cover the costs of the prescriptions, which grant access to arts and culture opportunities.
The results are extraordinary: 56% of patients who received a prescription demonstrated a decrease in anxiety and depression after participating in the arts. 74% demonstrated a decrease in loneliness. An estimated savings of nearly $300 million has come from reduced hospital admissions and emergency visits, and there have been an estimated 2,000 fewer avoidable deaths.
Our healthcare systems are discovering what Bess and Linda have known all along: that art is not an ornament to life. It is essential to life. And if art is essential to health, belonging, and a sustainable democracy, then supporting it is not charity – it’s civic responsibility.
Therefore, the greatest tribute we can offer Linda and Bess is not our gratitude, but our action.
First, by sustaining the institutions they have strengthened. That means funding not only the bright, visible moments, but also the invisible infrastructure that makes excellence reliable: artists compensated fairly; students welcomed generously; stages and classrooms maintained with care; leadership empowered to plan not just for a season but for a generation.
Second, by taking up the work they began. Use art to heal, connect, and transform our city. Invite the next generation into the circle of responsibility. Commission the story that feels dangerous and necessary. Put artists at the table when we discuss health, education, and economic development. And ask, every time you enter a theater: “Who is not yet in the room, and how will we make room for them?” — to ensure that the arts are the birthright of every citizen in our democracy.
So let’s thank Linda and Bess for insisting not only that Dallas can be great, but that it can be good — and that the one without the other will never be enough.
And let us continue the long, patient, stubborn work of culture — the work that turns neighbors into citizens and audiences into communities.
Kevin Moriarty is executive director of Dallas Theater Center.
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