Performing Arts Are Combining to Create School of Music, Theatre & Dance

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Posted 1-21-09

GREENSBORO, NC — UNCG has announced plans to combine its Departments of Theatre and Dance with the School of Music to create a unit that will enhance and bring more visibility to the institution’s performing arts programs.

Chancellor Linda P. Brady and Provost David H. Perrin notified faculty and staff of the new initiative on Dec. 17. The new organization will create a “vibrant and thriving” performing arts unit at UNCG with School of Music, Theatre, and Dance as its working title.

An open meeting for faculty and staff of the School of Music and Departments of Theatre and Dance to discuss the new initiative will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, in the Weatherspoon Art Museum auditorium.

Dr. John Deal, who is UNCG’s music dean, will remain dean of the reconfigured school. Oversight for Aycock Auditorium and the University Concert & Lecture Series will be transferred to the new school from the Division of Student Affairs.

Chancellor Brady and Provost Perrin have appointed a committee to identify and address the organizational and administrative issues related to the transition. Members of the newly appointed transition committee are Alan Boyette (chair), Kelly Burke, Don Hodges, Jim Fisher, John Wolf, Jan Van Dyke, Jill Green, David Vaughan, Laura Pitts, Daniel Winkler and Bruce Michaels. The initiative will rename UNCG’s School of Music, which was founded in 1921. The effective date for implementing the change is July 1, 2010.

Based on fall 2008 figures, merging the three academic units will assemble a full-time faculty of 88, who will teach an enrollment of 1,042 — 800 undergraduates and 226 graduate students. The School of Music has 60 full-time faculty members, 411 undergraduates and 82 graduate students. The Department of Theatre has 16 full-time faculty, 267 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate students. The Department of Dance will add 12 full-time faculty, 22 graduate students and 122 undergraduate majors.

Reconfiguration of UNCG’s performing arts programs has been discussed for several years, most recently in 2007-08 by the Campus Arts Committee which brought in two consultants. The committee and the consultants proposed strategies to raise the visibility of the university’s arts programs.

Combining the performance resources of the School of Music and the Departments of Theatre and Dance will enhance the visibility of each. It will also encourage new and larger private gifts, essential for facility enhancements, the chancellor and provost said.

“A stronger case can be made, both to the General Assembly and donors, for capital improvements for a unit that houses all of the performing arts,” they said.