SMTD’s priorities in the Look to Michigan fundraising campaign, launched in October, are singularly focused on the future, specifically in terms of preparing students for success at every step along their journey. The primary goal of our campaign is to bolster scholarship support, enabling talented students to choose SMTD – regardless of financial need. This campaign also focuses on our staged productions, which provide vital hands-on experience, and on a renewal of our creative spaces, both in terms of renovations and our ambitious goal to construct a new building on North Campus. And finally, through this campaign, we aim to take our already exceptional entrepreneurial and career services, offered through the EXCEL Lab and other programming, to new heights.

Our goal, and our obligation, is to provide an environment that enables students to explore expansively while they’re here, obtaining rigorous training while also pursuing creative projects, collaborations, and research – the types of endeavors that can only happen at a school like Michigan. It’s imperative that we offer a strong wellness program that takes a holistic approach to well-being, giving students tools they will carry throughout their lives. It’s essential that we provide the structure and mentorship, through our Engagement & Outreach program, for students to explore ways of using their art to get involved with and impact their local communities and the wider world. We owe it to students to help them prepare for the uncertainty they are sure to face in a rapidly changing world by becoming more resilient and adaptable, ready for professions that already exist and those we have yet to imagine.

The Look to Michigan campaign comes at a particularly opportune time, when SMTD is in the midst of a transformational period. Over the past few years, dozens of new faculty members have joined our ranks, with more to come in the next few years. Our new faculty bring with them a reverence for our deep disciplinary training and the traditions that we uphold, and they also bring ideas and perspectives derived from their experience in various performing arts professions. The blending of new members with our distinguished SMTD faculty presents thrilling opportunities. The evolving nature of instruction at SMTD is sparking exciting change that will affect every aspect of our students’ training – the repertoire selected, the productions that are mounted, the technology employed, the types of guest artists brought into our midst. The Look to Michigan campaign will enable us to capitalize on this new energy emanating from every department at SMTD.

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, big-tent community of performers, scholars, educators, and makers. The extraordinary vibrance of SMTD derives from its multifaceted, collaborative nature. We all benefit from every member of the faculty bringing their own specific training, interests, and backgrounds to this one extraordinary institution, where we are wholly dedicated to helping students reach their full potential and supporting them as they make brave choices.

Be well, and Forever Go Blue,

Dave Gier, Dean
Paul Boylan Collegiate Professor of Music
School of Music, Theatre & Dance