MBU to upgrade auditorium, music and film equipment with $150,000 grant

Thanks to an unexpected phone call in 2016, Mary Baldwin University’s main public events forum, James D. Francis Auditorium, is getting an upgrade.

A trust executor “called out-of-the-blue saying they had some extra funds to disperse and encouraged us to apply [for a grant],” MBU’s Music Department Chair and Professor Lise Keiter said of the Rea Trust.

Music and film programs will receive upgrades with the $150,000 gift, including state-of-the-art stage lighting, live-streaming equipment and studio recording system. This will be the seventh grant from the Texas-based trust awarded to support MBU arts since 2017, with a total of $1 million in donations.

“This latest grant continues the generous legacy of Isabel McClintic Rea, a music major who graduated from Mary Baldwin in 1939,” MBU President Pamela R. Fox said. “These gifts have funded critical projects and dramatically improved learning experiences for our music and performing arts majors. We are enormously grateful for this funding, as the arts have been central to our institution since its founding.”

The Trust was established in 2009.

“Students working in theatre, art, music and dance have profoundly profited from transformations the trust’s generosity have made possible,” Gold College of Arts and Sciences Dean and Vice President Paul Menzer wrote in his and Keiter’s latest grant proposal to Rea Trust.

Previous donations upgraded heating and cooling systems at MBU, renovated classrooms, art studios, lobbies and the theatre of Bertie Murphy Deming Fine Arts Center. Donations also purchased new Steinway pianos and repaired existing pianos in the music department.

Menzer says the latest round of funding will primarily focus on improvements for Francis Auditorium such as state-of-the-art LED stage lighting system with modern, user-friendly controls, augmented by professional quality audio and video equipment — including a 4k projector, speakers, cameras and microphones. The auditorium will become equipped with top-of-line live streaming capabilities.

Remaining grant money will purchase new electronic keyboards and studio-grade recording equipment for the music lab, and new cameras, lights, microphones, post-production computers and monitors for the film lab.

“Our focus here turns to students exploring creative expression in new media,” wrote Menzer in the proposal. MBU wants to open new doors of possibility for “young pioneers in both digital and traditional filmmaking, as well as sound and recording expression.”

Installation of the new equipment is expected to be completed by December 2023.

“The arts have long held a place of prominence at Mary Baldwin,” Menzer said. “And we aim to continue to offer arts programs of superior quality by keeping our facilities and equipment up-to-date, by expanding the range of creative expression available to students, and enhancing access to events offerings through enhanced in-person experiences and high-quality online streaming.”