Look to Michigan: Campaign Priorities
We have built an extraordinary community in which students thrive with the support of our faculty, staff, alumni, and donors. We have achieved so much, and now is the time to anticipate what’s next. Our vision for the future requires us to continually evolve, to expand and enhance our physical space, to imbue students with skills and sensibilities that allow them to develop art forms in ways we have yet to imagine.
First, last, and always, we must elevate our scholarship support in order to allow the most talented and dedicated students to say “yes” to Michigan. The financial need of SMTD students is great and will only increase. We need to invest in our ability to mount the productions that are so essential to students’ training. We must make improvements to existing facilities and create new spaces. We need to fortify our ability to help students build a toolkit they will rely on for their whole lives by investing in the EXCEL Lab and other programs that help students launch sustainable, fulfilling careers. We are on a mission to achieve so much more, and we invite you to join us in the Look to Michigan campaign to make our vision a reality.
Learn more about each of our campaign priorities below, or read our Look to Michigan Campaign overview.
Student Support:
Empowering an Extraordinary Education
For many gifted students who dream of a Michigan education, the choice comes down to financial considerations, and it is only through scholarship support that they can realize their dreams. Scholarships open doors for the next generation of performers, creators, entrepreneurs, and educators, making it possible for them to share their talents with the world, revitalizing and reinventing the performing arts. Scholarship support enables students to focus on their studies and their craft instead of worrying about making ends meet, secure in the knowledge that someone believes in them. It minimizes students’ debt burden, giving them the precious gift of time – time to establish themselves after graduation, to let their careers take root and flourish.
Tuition support also makes it possible for SMTD to attract diversely talented students from all over the world, gifted artists who are sought by multiple performing arts schools. Similar to athletic recruitment, SMTD seeks musicians who will meet a specific need in an ensemble, vocalists who will perform certain types of operatic roles, actors and dancers who will bring a particular set of skills to their cohort. Robust scholarship packages allow for a dynamic, multifaceted community, paving the way for students to engage in the educational and co-curricular opportunities that are at the heart of their SMTD experience.
Where You Can Make an Impact
Endowed Scholarships
By creating an endowment, you are funding a scholarship in perpetuity. The university will never spend the capital you donate; it will only invest it and then award a portion of the earnings to students each year.
Expendable Scholarships
By creating an expendable scholarship, you are providing support to students immediately. As soon as you make an expendable gift to the university, we are able to make awards according to your preferences and as long as dollars remain in the fund.
Stipends for Graduate Student Instructors
Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) provide vital support at SMTD, teaching and mentoring undergraduates while at the same time gaining valuable classroom experience for their own careers. Your gifts to support GSI stipends help sustain an important facet of the SMTD instructional model.
Staged Productions:
Advancing the Performing Arts
Our staged productions are an essential part of what makes SMTD extraordinary. For every production – dance performances, musicals, operas, and plays – hundreds of students, faculty, and staff come together to bring artistic visions to life onstage. Students gain invaluable hands-on experience, honing their craft as performers, designers, and creators, and graduating well-prepared to step into their professional lives. Gifts that support SMTD productions provide an immeasurable impact on students. Because of the outward-facing nature of their work, that impact is exponentially multiplied, enriching the cultural landscape of the entire community. Together, we can support students in their quest to become the next generation of performing arts leaders who create exhilarating productions for audiences all over the world.
Where You Can Make an Impact
The First Endowment for University Productions
As the producing arm of SMTD, University Productions creates nine ticketed shows each academic year for the Departments of Dance, Musical Theatre, Theatre & Drama, and Voice & Opera, including scenery, props, costumes, lighting, sound, and video. Establishing a first-of-its-kind endowment to support University Productions’ evolving needs will enable us to maintain our excellence while investing in the future.
Technology
While SMTD continually invests in upgraded technology to support productions, the rapid pace of technological advancement makes it extremely challenging to keep up with developments in the field. We must increase our investment in backstage and onstage technology – from projections to sound to lighting – so students can gain needed experience and drive the creative conversation in their post-college careers.
Guest Artists
While SMTD faculty possess deep and broad expertise, guest artists – from directors to choreographers to conductors to scenic and other designers – offer important support for SMTD productions, filling specific needs and providing new perspectives. The ability to incorporate guest artists means producing departments have even more options when putting together creative teams, and students are exposed to a greater variety of industry professionals. Guest artists offer important educational perspectives as well as helping to provide entry into the professional world after students graduate.
Creative Spaces:
Building an Environment for Growth and Innovation
From the construction of the Earl V. Moore Building in 1964, to the Walgreen Drama Center’s opening in 2007, to the recently completed Dance Building in 2021, SMTD’s buildings tell the story of the school’s history of expansion and innovation. SMTD has continually evolved its programming and curricula, preparing each class of students for an ever-changing professional landscape. SMTD is now at an exciting juncture, poised to grow in ways that better serve today’s students and support our vision for the future. To achieve that vision and to properly support programmatic needs, SMTD seeks to expand our physical footprint on North Campus with a brand-new, purpose-built facility. A new building would open up possibilities both for SMTD and for the entire arts community at U-M. The construction of a new building and critical upgrades to our existing facilities will provide a well-rounded complement of spaces that foster inclusive opportunities, inspire creativity, facilitate connections, and encourage dynamic collaborations. These spaces are more than bricks and mortar; they are incubators of imagination and innovation.
Where You Can Make an Impact
New Building
A newly constructed, state-of-the-art building would allow SMTD to accommodate the school’s evolving pedagogical needs and to support the extraordinary and diverse creative outpouring from students and faculty. During any given week, our buildings host dozens of recitals, special projects, collaborations, workshops, master classes – all contributing vitally to the student experience. Our spaces also provide extraordinary benefits to the community with extensive adult and youth programming.
The number of public events SMTD presents has nearly doubled in the last decade, and our existing spaces are insufficient to support this level of activity. A new building would enable SMTD to grow in exciting and important ways and would increase our ability to support students, serve the community, and expand course offerings to students across campus – an important strategic goal for SMTD.
Upgrades and Renovations to North Campus Buildings
Proposed renovations to SMTD buildings will result in spaces that are better suited for their intended activities, more energy efficient, and acoustically safer for students and faculty. Renovations include improvements to the acoustic performance of practice rooms, faculty studios, and classrooms. When paired with a new building, these renovations will enable us to reimagine the use of space across the entire school.
Career Impact:
Providing a Launchpad for Future Success
Within the context of training at SMTD, students learn more than the essential craft of their discipline – they develop the skills to build a sustainable, fulfilling professional life. Students receive vital mentorship from faculty, and SMTD amplifies that mentorship through a strong infrastructure of career support and personalized coaching. This infrastructure ranges from the array of services offered by the EXCEL Lab, to workshops and master classes presented by visiting artists, to the vital connections made through senior showcases. Taken together, the career-building resources offered to students add a critical component to their training, giving them the confidence, vision, and tools necessary to forge their own success. With robust donor support, these opportunities will expand significantly, resulting in substantial benefits for students.
Where You Can Make an Impact
Internships and Immersions
EXCEL partners with arts organizations locally and across the country to provide students with real-world context for what they’re learning on campus. EXCEL helps students attain relevant internships and provides funding support of approximately $1,000 to help offset costs associated with unfunded or underfunded internships, making those opportunities realistic regardless of a student’s personal financial means. EXCEL also takes students on journeys beyond campus for immersive experiences with leading performing arts organizations, enabling them to build their reputation within the organization and broaden their professional contacts. Immersions are heavily subsidized to minimize student costs.
Project Funding
Each year, EXCEL offers grants and prizes totaling more than $100,000 to support student projects and ventures. EXCEL project funding, which includes significant coaching and mentorship, can make the difference between a student venture stalling out or taking flight.
Visiting Artists
Through master classes, workshops, and artist residencies, SMTD students have numerous opportunities to learn directly from experts, expand their professional networks, and gain insight into how others have shaped their careers.
Senior Showcases
For students pursuing degrees in dance, theatre & drama, and musical theatre, senior showcases give them an opportunity to perform for agents, managers, producers, and other industry professionals, building a bridge from academic to professional life.