In what became a tussle of Texas pride, Dallas duked it out with Houston – and won – landing the internationally renowned King Tut exhibition, which officials announced Monday will arrive at the Dallas Museum of Art for a seven-month stay beginning next October.
"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which pulled in nearly 4 million visitors during a tour of four U.S. cities that ended in Philadelphia late last month, is expected to draw 1 million visitors.
But Mayor Tom Leppert said Monday he hoped the city could double that number. "This is an important day," he said. "It puts Dallas in an important light. It puts us on an international stage."
The mayor said he anticipates no city money being involved for an exhibition that, in the past, has courted controversy because of what critics call its expensive price tag – both for the city hosting the event and those who choose to attend.
He noted, however, that the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau will contribute $2 million toward marketing and promotion, key factors in luring even 1 million visitors through the turnstiles.
Neither Mr. Leppert nor the DMA's outgoing director, John R. Lane, would discuss how much it costs to present the exhibition.
"Ramses the Great," a similar exhibition staged at Fair Park in the late 1980s, drew 1.2 million visitors, "so my hope is that the Tut exhibit will draw close to 2 million," Mr. Leppert said. The Tut show will remain in Dallas from Oct. 3, 2008, to May 17, 2009.
This is the first time in a generation that the Tut exhibition of ancient Egyptian treasures has come to America, having toured in the U.S. from 1976 to 1979. This time around, the show promises to be even bigger, since only a few of its 130 artifacts were even seen in its previous incarnation, and many, organizers say, have never before left Egypt. The most recent version is also flaunting Super-Bowl-like numbers in terms of what it can bring the host city. Organizers estimate its economic impact as being $168 million in Los Angeles and $150 million in Florida.
All of that helped fuel the collective optimism on Monday, when Mr. Leppert and outgoing DMA director John R. Lane shared the limelight at a morning news conference, along with Tut's corporate sponsors, Northern Trust and American Airlines.
Flanking the various dignitaries were actors from Eclipse Entertainment dressed as Egyptian "royal guards," who struggled to hold up a large banner heralding the event. Schoolchildren wearing black and gold Pharaoh-like caps formed a parade that had to be moved indoors because of Monday's downpour.
But Dr. Lane said nothing could dampen the city's enthusiasm about landing what he called the "landmark" exhibition that commemorates Egypt's mysterious boy king, whose uncovered tomb contributed most of the artifacts being shown.
The DMA director was among those who got to see the Tut show during its previous go-round.
It was, he said, "the most breathtaking exhibit I've seen as a young museum person. And now, as a senior museum person, I relish the opportunity of presenting this treasure trove again to the American people. I'm especially excited that it's happening in North Texas."
Dallas apparently got the nod as the first "encore" city to host the event on the heels of Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chicago and Philadelphia because organizers were swayed by the city's ambitious growth in the Arts District and by its logistical prowess, in being a transportation hub because of Dallas/Fort Worth Internatational Airport, according to Dr. Lane.
"A lot of American cities wanted to have this," he said. "We made a case that Dallas was the most well-placed city in the heartland of America to present this exhibit," which he said the city began wooing two years ago, with negotiations escalating during the past 15 months.
Michael Ainsworth / DMN
Abiel Gonzaga holds up a large scroll poster as a backdrop as Dallas Museum of Art's Eugene McDermott director John R. Lane walks by after the press conference Monday.
The most pivotal meeting apparently came in Chicago on May 22.
There, in a boardroom within the Metropolitan Club on the Sears Tower's 66th floor, a delegation of Dallasites, including then-Mayor Laura Miller, City Council member Angela Hunt, Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau President Philip Jones and Dallas Museum of Art Board of Trustees President Walter Elcock, among others, presented Dallas' case to members of Arts and Exhibitions International. That Ohio-based organization is helping coordinate the event with the Egyptian government. Proceeds from the tour will go toward preserving Egypt's treasures and the building of a new Grand Museum in Cairo.
As Ms. Hunt recalls the Chicago meeting, the delegation explained that Dallas' geographic location, booming Arts District and reservoir of public and private support made the city a better fit for the exhibit than Houston, which was also pressing for it.
"We wanted them to know that we would really let out the stops," said Ms. Hunt. "We wanted to showcase that there was a broad contingent in Dallas that wanted to partner with them."
Later that day, many of the same people joined each other for dinner, which Ms. Hunt described as crucial in convincing the Arts and Exhibitions International leaders that the nod should go to Dallas.
"They were critical to securing this," Ms. Hunt said of the two meetings.
As for reaction from Houston, those in the Bayou City could not have been better sports, offering a thumb's up to Dallas' big catch.
"We are very proud of the fact that Dallas has been awarded the opportunity to host the King Tut exhibit," said Patrick Trahan, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White. "It provides a great opportunity for people young and old across this state to visit the exhibit and learn about this important piece of human history, and enjoy the growing museum district in Dallas and all it has to offer."
But Mr. Trahan said he wanted Dallasites to know that Houston currently has a prized exhibition of its own – "Lucy's Legacy, the Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia," at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
What: "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,"
When: Oct. 3, 2008, through May 17, 2009
Where: Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood at Ross
Tickets: Individual tickets go on sale to DMA members in April 2008, to the public in July 2008. Prices to be determined. Tickets for groups of 10 or more are now on sale through the DMA. Group sales prices for adults are $24.50 per person, except Saturdays and Sundays, $32.50 per person; for students and youth (18 and younger) $15. Call the museum's group sales manager at 214-922-1222 or e-mail groupsales@DallasMuseumofArt.org.
Information: 1-866-524-7687. www.KingTut.org or www.DallasMuseumofArt.org.
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