UWyo Magazine Supporting Artistic Excellence

September 2015 | Vol. 17, No. 1

Supporting Artistic Excellence

The Excellence in Higher Education Endowment brings world-renowned talent to UW.

By Doug Hecox

Since 2008, Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Grammy award-winning artists sing, dance and act their way to Laramie thanks to the Excellence in Higher Education Endowment funded by the Wyoming Legislature, which provides $150,000 annually for an endowed professorship, rotating each year among the departments of Theatre and Dance, Art and Music. In the off-years, it provides the other departments about $25,000 a year to bring in visiting world-class artists.

In 2010–11, UW’s Department of Music hosted Eminent Artist-In-Residence Jennifer Higdon, a major figure in contemporary classical music who won the Pulitzer Prize in music only a few months earlier. Last year, Gerard Schwarz—the Rebecca and Jack Benaroya Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and the music director of the All-Star Orchestra—visited UW for two weeks to work with Collegiate Chorale, the Symphony Orchestra and the Wind Symphony. Students agreed being coached by one of the world’s premiere conductors was a one-of-a-kind experience.

In 2012 for the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Excellence in Higher Education Endowment brought Tony-award winning choreographer Bill T. Jones from Broadway to Laramie. Among other things, he led a weeklong series of training sessions for dance students.

Thomas Richmond, who earned his B.F.A. in dance performance in 2014, is now dancing professionally for Nevada Ballet Theatre at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Richmond says he originally attended UW to pursue music. Studying with Jones not only led to a different major but a completely unexpected career.

“I was profoundly affected by the study of movement Jones made possible—particularly ballet and modern dance,” he says. “I didn’t know how important of a figure he was in modern dance—it blew me away.

“It says a lot about the university,” Richmond continues. “The training is worldclass. In 2009, I started dancing and now, six years later, I’m dancing professionally with one of the most exciting troupes in the nation.”

Last year, the Excellence in Higher Education Endowment made possible a weeklong residency with the Actors From The London Stage—a group of pre-eminent Shakespearean actors from London, who served as Eminent Artists-In-Residence and directed The Shakespeare Project, which featured three Shakespearean plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice. Each used minimal props and only five actors who played the dozens of roles neededfor each story. The visiting actors also taught an Acting Shakespeare course.

“It was a really great experience for our students, well-received by audiences, and as I write, the student casts and the professional company are touring the state showing four different plays for free,” says Fine Arts Coordinator Katherine Kirkaldie.

“The use of these funds is an honor that comes around only once every three years, so we have to spend a lot of time finding eminent artists worthy of it,” says Department of Art Associate Professor Margaret Haydon. “These are the biggest names in the arts world, but we’re also looking for people who can give students a big picture, people who can communicate with students and motivate them.”

Three years ago, the department landed award-winning Judy Pfaff, a contemporary artist known widely for her mammoth installation pieces.

This fall, the Excellence in Higher Education Endowment will help finance an eight-week seminar from September through mid-November on “Art and Land Use in the American West” taught by Lucy Lippard, an internationally known writer, art critic and historian.

“Lippard’s background is so diverse, she can create a learning opportunity for students across the entire campus, regardless of their majors,” Haydon says. “Anyone interested in energy, the environment, species, art making … all have links to her presence at UW.”

“The West invites creativity,” she continues. “It’s a place of imagination. These funds help us bring the outside world in and expand the creative specialties available to students. It helps them rub shoulders with people who are the best in the world—people who they might not otherwise get to meet.”

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