COLUMN: Celebrate the arts at USU
I invite each of you to join us in a Celebration of the Arts at Utah State University, sponsored by the Caine College of the Arts. This will inaugurate a new tradition at USU as the Caine College of the Arts celebrates the triumphs, joys and challenges of the human spirit through the arts. Each day, activities have been scheduled to include plays, exhibitions, concerts, ice sculpture, mentor dinners with alumni and emeriti faculty, all culminating in a grand gala concert in the Kent Concert Hall on Friday at 7:30 p.m. This concert will feature members of the college from the departments of art, music, interior design and theatre. As an added surprise, we have just confirmed that four-time Emmy award winning singer and actress Audra McDonald will be joining us.
Earning an unprecedented three Tony Awards before the age of 30 (Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime) and a fourth in 2004 (“A Raisin in the Sun”), McDonald is frequently compared to legendary performers such as Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. But like all great artists, she is a unique force, blending a luscious, classically-trained soprano with an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling. In addition to her theatrical work she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist appearing regularly on many of the great stages of the world.
Along with her live performances, McDonald maintains a thriving television career, earning an Emmy nomination for her role in the made-for-television movie version of “A Raisin in the Sun” on ABC, alongside hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, her co-star from the 2004 Broadway revival. Returning to ABC in the fall of 2010, McDonald can be seen as Dr. Naomi Bennett in the fourth season of the hit television series “Private Practice.” Her most recent recordings are Kurt Weill’s “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” – winner of two 2009 Grammy Awards – and a new studio recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Allegro, released on the Sony MasterWorks Broadway label.
The grand gala Friday evening will culminate in a special tribute to three of the most significant founders of the College – Marie Eccles Caine, Kathryn Caine Wanlass and Manon Caine Russell. With the creation of the Caine College of the Arts, we have realized a dream that President Stan Albrecht put into motion during his tenure as dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The Caine School of the Arts was established as a collaborative community, representing the collective strengths and voices of the arts. President Albrecht’s vision was to make the arts more visible, more innovative, and more fully integrated into the intellectual life of Utah State University and the communities it serves. With the creation and naming of this new and important “CAINE” College of the Arts, we honor not only that vision, but the individuals, Marie Eccles Caine, Kathryn Caine Wanlass, and Manon Caine Russell, who were instrumental in making the arts at Utah State into what they are today. President Albrecht said:
“It is impossible to understate the impact the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation has made on each of our lives over the course of many long years of charitable giving, both as a foundation and as individual trustees of the foundation. Their list of charitable gifts to Cache Valley and northern Utah is an almost unending list of what’s what in the arts community. But their impact certainly does not stop at arts-related programs or issues. Thousands of USU students have been touched by dozens and dozens of visiting artists sponsored by the Foundation, and thousands more have cultivated their artistic talents at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, the Caine Lyric Theatre, or through the many cultural programs funded by the Foundation in interior design, landscape architecture, music, creative writing, art, theatre, our libraries and many more. It would be difficult to find someone in Cache Valley whose life has not been touched – in fact, significantly enhanced – in some way by the generous gifts of the foundation or its trustees. All of our lives are richer because of them.”
Come and Celebrate the Arts at Utah State University with us! Tickets are available for all events. Tickets for Friday night’s Gala concert with Audra McDonald are free for USU students with activity cards but won’t last long! Join us in beginning a new tradition of celebrating the human spirit through the Arts at USU!
Craig Jessop is the dean of the Caine School of the Arts.