2025 TACA Silver Cup Award Luncheon
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
12:00 p.m.
Omni Dallas Hotel
Celebrated annually, the TACA Silver Cup Award recognizes two individuals for their outstanding volunteer leadership and contributions to the arts in North Texas. The TACA Silver Cup Award Luncheon serves as a unique opportunity to honor these individuals and gather the region’s civic and cultural leaders, patrons, and volunteers in support of distinguished leadership and volunteerism in the arts.
2025 TACA Silver Cup Award Luncheon
Honoring Gayle Halperin and Jim Nugent
Phil Clemmons, John Dayton, Tara Lewis, and Donna Wilhelm, Co-Chairs
Gayle Halperin
Gayle Halperin is the executive director of Bruce Wood Dance Dallas. Gayle has had an extensive career in dance as a performer, educator, advocate, and philanthropist. Halperin and Bruce Wood were business partners and launched Bruce Wood Dance Project in 2010 with a group of investors in Dallas.
Gayle was born and raised in West Haven, Connecticut. She received her BA in Dance from Connecticut College. From 1976 to 1984, she performed professionally with the Mel Wong Dance Company in New York and taught dance at Yale University and Southern Connecticut State University.
Gayle and her husband Jim met in 1982. They married in 1984 and Gayle relocated to Dallas that year. She received an MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography at Texas Woman’s University in 1987 and was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Texas Woman’s University from 1988 to 1995.
Gayle has been active in the nonprofit arts community over the past 25 years in various capacities. She is currently on the Dallas Area Cultural Advocacy Coalition Steering Committee, emeritus board of directors of the Sammons Center for the Arts and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND, and a member of The Charter 100 of Dallas. She was a board member of the Dance Council of North Texas from 1996-2017, during which she and her colleague Linda James spearheaded the free, annual, multicultural Dance Planet Festival from 1997 to 2017. In 2001 Gayle co-chaired the search committee for a new Executive Director of TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND and served on its board from 1999-2021.
Gayle received the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas Woman’s University; 2021 Arts Leadership Award from Dallas Historical Society Award; 2023 Women Who STEAM Award in the arts from The Dallas (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; 2023 Obelisk Award for Visionary Nonprofit Arts Leadership from the Business Council for the Arts; and, a 2024 Distinguished Woman for the “In Her Shoes” by the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.
In 2011, Gayle and James Halperin received the Tom Adams Award of Appreciation for Dedication to TITAS.
Gayle & James are the proud parents of David and Michael (deceased). The Halperin Foundation supports health and wellness, and arts and culture. The Halperin Foundation received the 2014 Sammons Center for the Arts Benefactor of the Year Award and the 2021 AIDS Interfaith Network Crystal Hope Award.
Jim Nugent
Jim Nugent, a highly respected figure in the Dallas arts and nonprofit communities, brings decades of financial expertise and leadership to the various organizations he serves. He is currently the Treasurer for Pegasus Media Project, the Video Festival of Dallas, For Oak Cliff, and Schreiber Expanded Neighborhood Patrol. Jim’s long-standing service extends to his former role as Treasurer of TACA (The Arts Community Alliance), an organization he continues to support as a member of the Board of Directors.
In addition to his role at TACA, Jim remains an active board member of Second Thought Theatre, a theater company in Dallas. Over the years, Jim has also served on the boards of the Dallas Film Society, Undermain Theatre, and the USA Film Festival, where he held the prestigious position of Chairperson. His deep commitment to supporting the arts has not gone unnoticed, as he was appointed by Dallas City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis to the Dallas Office of Arts and Culture Commission.
Jim is a retired CPA, having spent the majority of his career at Thompson Coe. His expertise in financial management extends to pro bono work, as he continues to provide bookkeeping services for Pegasus Media Project, the Video Festival of Dallas, Dallas Film Society, Schreiber Expanded Neighborhood Patrol, and others.
Jim has been married to Deborah Nugent, the CFO of Best Associates and Treasurer of Undermain Theatre, for 42 years. Together, they share a deep commitment to the arts and community engagement.
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