Matthew McConaughey and More True Texas Superstars to Receive Medals in Austin

It’s going to be one remarkable night in Austin on February 27 when Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey and Grammy Award winners Boz Scaggs, Jennifer Holliday, and Austin’s chorale ensemble Conspirare take the spotlight at the Texas Medal of Arts Awards gala. The Texas Cultural Trust announced the full lineup of honorees, with Lynn Wyatt and Lauren Anderson doing the honors, in ceremonies Thursday at Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance.

Wyatt and Anderson are past recipients of the awards that are presented biennially during the awards show and gala held at the Long Center for Performing Arts. Texas Cultural Trust executive director Heidi Marquez Smith joined in the program as did Houston Ballet managing director Jim Nelson.

The two-day event, including a cocktail reception at the Blanton Museum of Art on February 26 and the governor’s presentation of the medals during a brunch at the governor’s mansion, is chaired by Houstonian Leslie Blanton and Leslie Ward of Austin. Much of the excitement surrounding the awards is the entertainment that will be provided by the stellar award recipients during the gala.

Honorees include popular fashion designer Brandon Maxwell, the Longview native now based in New York; best-selling author Stephen Harrigan of Austin; architects Elaine Molinar of El Paso and Craig Dykers of San Antonio; the Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications & Fine Arts in Laredo; famed photographer Mark Seliger, an Amarillo native and High School for the Performing and Visual Arts grad, now based in New York; and artist Trenton Dolyle Hancock, who calls Houston home.

Since its inception in 2001, the Texas Medal of the Arts has honored 108 stars that either call Texas home or are Texas natives making their mark in parts beyond.

“We are proud to present the Texas Medal of Arts Award to these incredibly talented and esteemed honorees, ” Texas Cultural Trust executive director Marquez Smith said in a statement. “Each of these artists have inspired and captivated their communities, our state, and beyond — contributing to the cultural fabric of our world.”

As the state’s leading voice for the arts in education, advocacy and economic impact in Texas, trust programs include Texas Women for the Arts, the Texas Young Masters, Arts & Digital Literacy and Art Can

Information on the 10th biennial presentation can be found here.