TALK TO US: Contact Amanda Beglin at (785) 864-4810 or contact kansan.com
HILLTOPICS
7A
WWW.KANSAN.COM/FEATURES
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 8,2001
Giant Steps Part2: Momentum builds in KU's department of music and dance. By John S. Albin
New leaders of the University of Kansas department of music and dance, such as chairman Larry Mallett, want to make the department one of the finest programs in the country.
Such aspirations have emerged amid abundant changes in the department during the past few years, including acquiring private funding for new pianos in student practice rooms.
This, the second and final installment of a feature on the department of music and dance, focuses on some of the recent improvements to the department and possibilities for the future.
Seven Steps to Heaven
In spite of its lingering problems such as inadequate funding for touring, the department of music and dance has improved its facilities.
improved to Murphy Hall was expanded and renovated last school year. The $10.3 million project, funded by the Kansas Legislature and the University, added 52,000 square feet to the 44-year-old building.
The money allotted for Murphy Hall
Highlights include the Thomas Gorton Music & Dance Library, the Computer Technology Center, three rehearsal halls and numerous faculty offices.
also allowed for the renovation of old space into offices for music education and music therapy faculty, thus uniting all of the music programs under one roof for the first time since the 1950s, according to the department's Web site.
Still, there are further plans for improvement.
Toni-Marie Montgomery, dean of fine arts, said facilities for the visual and performing arts would be getting another boost from the Kansas University Endowment Association's capital campaign, which has budgeted $20 million for additional facilities.
Montgomery said the money was earmarked for expansion of the Lied Center.
The dean declined to specify any further details of the proposal, citing the early stages of negotiations.
Fund-raising has become a central theme for Montgomery.
Maintaining traditions has been one way the department thrives.
"A lot of the prestige, obviously, is history and tradition, but also finances, because you're able, obviously, to do a lot more if you have money," she said.
"We used to have a program called 'Fac'
ulty Follies,' and we charged $1 or $2 to get in, and all that money went into music scholarships," said Mark Holmberg, professor of music theory and composition. "We faculty members would wear bathrobes and slippers and do all kinds of crazy things. We'd stage a choir rehearsal where we all sang wrong notes and just sounded awful, to show that we too could sing wrong notes, not just our students."
LE WILSON/KANSAN
Students use the latest technology to compose music, choreograph dance and marching band movements,and create and edit movies at Murphy Hall.
Now, Montgomery's administration is seeking donors to buy the naming rights to the School of Fine Arts ($20 million) and the Murphy Hall addition ($5 million) as well as numerous smaller spaces within Murphy Hall.
Kids play on a fountain outside Murphy Hall during KU Open House on Saturday.
Montgomery said any money from naming rights would be placed in an endowment. She said the interest made off the money would be used for student scholarships, faculty development and to buy equipment for the school.
J. E. WILSON/KANSAN
"We currently at KU have no school that was named that had money associated with it," she said. "It is something that is regular because in higher education we're more dependent on private giving."
She has sought to improve the quality of the information distributed by the School of Fine Arts, such as the new semi-annual newsletter, Collage, which is sent to alumni and accredited organizations. Sim-
Larry Mallett, chairman of the department of music and dance, said that money derived from selling naming rights within the department would be used to bolster the department's discretionary funds and touring budget, thus providing an opportunity for more regional and national recognition.
Another one of Montgomery's major goals is exposure and outreach through events such as the Collage Concert, Oct. 10, and the Brown Bag Classics series, a student and faculty recital series in the Kansas Union that began Sept. 5. Montgomery said she hoped to expand Brown Bag to the University of Kansas Medical Center.
iarly, the School of Fine Arts' Web site is also undergoing a major overhaul, adding more information and better graphics.
Several units within the department are making strides, such as the division of dance. A Bachelor of Fine Arts program in dance was added last year to the Bachelor of Arts option.
"The dean and the provost really came through over the past year and made it happen," Mallett said. "We've had some problems with the dance floors, and they are being replaced almost as we speak. I also think there's the option within the next couple of years that we could be expanding our studio space. We're in real good shape. We'll be seeing much more out of the dance program."
Another recent addition to the department is Clarence Henry, an ethnomusicologist — a person who studies music outside the European art tradition.
Henry joined the faculty this school year and is expected to bring more diversity to the curriculum, which has been fairly entrenched in the Western, classical tradition.
"We need to reflect America and the world," Montgomery said, "and in teaching the same Western influence all the time, we're not preparing ourselves or our students for the real world."
And while the department of music and dance in not without its weaknesses or problems, Dan Gailey director of jazz studies, remains optimistic.
"I'm personally more excited about the direction of this department with the new dean and the new chairman than I have been since I first got the job," he said.