GROUNDBREAKING FOR UH’S MITCHELL
CENTER FOR THE ARTS SET FOR NOV. 9
Noted Artists Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen Announced as First Featured
Collaborators
HOUSTON, Oct. 28, 2004 – The world of cultural education
will take a major step forward with groundbreaking for the new Cynthia
Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston.
The center will host world-class artists, writers, performers and
scholars to teach and inspire the next generation of creative visionaries
through collaborative academic courses along with innovative public
performances, exhibitions and informative lectures. Funded by a
$20 million grant from George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell, the center
is an alliance among the five arts units within UH’s College
of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences – the School of Art; the
Creative Writing Program; the Moores School of Music; the School
of Theatre; and Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University
of Houston.
An official groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.,
Tuesday, Nov. 9.
“The center will provide new and exciting opportunities for
collaboration in the arts at UH in much the same spirit that collaboration
has played an important role in my own business ventures,”
said George Mitchell, former chairman and chief executive officer
of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. and founder of The Woodlands.
“The grant is intended as a tribute to Cynthia’s love
of the visual and performing arts and her ties to the university
where she studied art and psychology,” Mitchell added.
Beginning in the spring semester of 2005, the center will offer
its first academic course, “Collaboration Among the Arts,”
which will be taught by four UH faculty members – one each
from the School of Art, the Moores School of Music, the School of
Theatre and Creative Writing. The 20-student class will focus on
the process and practice of artistic collaboration. Students will
undertake small group collaborative projects with their teachers.
Midway through the semester, musician/artist Terry Allen and his
wife, playwright/performer Jo Harvey Allen, two prominent national
artists with extensive experience in collaborative endeavors, will
join the course to provide guidance and creative oversight.
Additionally, Blaffer Gallery will present selected works from
Terry Allen’s “Dugout Series.”
“Dugout I” (2001), a series of drawings and staged mixed
media installations and “Dugout II: HOLD ON to the house”
(2004), monumentally scaled multimedia interior tableaux, will be
on display from April 16 through June 12, 2005. Finally, “Dugout
III: Warboy (and the backboard blues),” a multi-media presentation
by Terry Allen, will premiere at UH’s Wortham Theatre on April
29.
Along with classes, exhibitions and public performances, the Mitchell
Center for the Arts will offer residencies to emerging artists,
writers and curators to expand their work through post-graduate
studies in the arts. It will also establish a variety of educational
outreach programs.
“This center will not only have a profound impact on the
local arts community,” said Sidney Berger, Director of the
School of Theatre and the first Executive Director of the Mitchell
Center for the Arts, “it will also establish both UH and the
City of Houston as even greater contributors to the nation’s
cultural life.”
The groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 9 will be held in the Fine Arts
Quadrangle at Entrance 16 off Cullen Blvd. Brief performances from
the School of Theatre, the Division of Dance, the Creative Writing
Program, and the Moores School of Music will alternate with remarks
from UH System Chancellor and UH President Jay Gogue; John Antel,
dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences; Sidney
Berger; and benefactor George Mitchell.
There will also be a site-specific installation of new artwork created
by faculty and students from the UH School of Art in the Fine Arts
Courtyard as part of the festivities. A reception also is scheduled
from 3 to 4 p.m. in the courtyard and tours of the current Blaffer
Gallery exhibition will be available.
The center will be housed in the School of Theatre, which is currently
undergoing a $4.5 million expansion and renovation. The construction
project – funded primarily by the gift from George and Cynthia
Mitchell, along with a grant from The Wortham Foundation and Allen
Becker – will enhance the lobby space of the existing School
of Theatre, provide an office suite for the Mitchell Center, and
add two critically needed new rehearsal spaces. While the theater
itself will retain the name Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre, the
building as a whole will be renamed the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center
for the Arts. Visually, the expansion will integrate the School
of Theatre into the UH Fine Arts Quadrangle.
For more information about the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for
the Arts at the University of Houston, visit www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom/centerforarts/.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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