I’m grateful for all the people who came before me that believed in the necessity of art and worked to realize it in a grand way. I think of the organizers all those decades ago who had the vision of building a center for all the arts, of the people who recognized the value of the project and put up the money, the architects who dared to think outside the box, the politicians who negotiated their way to the votes, the laborers who drove the nails one by one and the artists, technicians and organizers who work night after night come to bring life to the art and the magic. Not to be forgotten: the people who come. Thank you!