UH Newsroom - $20 Million Gift from Mitchells to Create Center for the Arts at UH

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Breaking News July 7, 2003
$20 Million Gift from Mitchells to Create Center for the Arts at UH A $20 million gift from George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell to the University of Houston will fund the creation of a program that will attract elite artists and scholars to UH and establish the university as an international force for education in the arts. Pending approval by the UH System Board of Regents in August, the program will be named the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston. Cynthia Woods Mitchell attended UH in the 1940s. The center will create a collaborative alliance of five of UH’s premier academic and arts units within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) – the Department of Art; Blaffer Gallery: the Art Museum of the University of Houston; the Creative Writing Program; the Moores School of Music; and the School of Theatre. Full Story
About the Mitchells
*George P. Mitchell* George P. Mitchell is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., a Fortune 500 Company, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, prior to its merger in January 2002 with Devon Energy Corporation. A native of Galveston, Texas, Mr. Mitchell graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in petroleum engineering, with additional emphasis in geology. Complete Bio Cynthia Woods Mitchell With her characteristic gracious reserve, Cynthia Woods Mitchell seems an unlikely champion of artistic and humanitarian causes, yet she has achieved a remarkable record of personal and charitable accomplishments. As the wife of businessman and philanthropist George Mitchell, as the mother of ten children, and grandmother of 20, Mrs. Mitchell has devoted herself to her family. Complete Bio

Photo of Children's Theatre Festival production Pinocchio

Video interview: Sidney Berger, Founding Executive Director of the Center for the Arts at UH, discusses new program. Seen above, UH Children's Theatre Festival production of "Pinocchio".

Center for the Arts
Executive Committee

John Antel

Dean, CLASS

Sidney Berger

Founding Executive Director, Center for the Arts

Director, School of Theatre

Gael Stack

Chair, Art Department

Terrie Sultan

Director, Blaffer Gallery

J. Kastely

Director, Creative Writing Program