Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2004

Contact: Eric Gerber
713.743.8189 (office)
713.617.7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

HOUSTON, Oct. 28, 2004 – The world of cultural education will take a major step forward with groundbreaking for the new Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston.

The center will host world-class artists, writers, performers and scholars to teach and inspire the next generation of creative visionaries through collaborative academic courses along with innovative public performances, exhibitions and informative lectures. Funded by a $20 million grant from George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell, the center is an alliance among the five arts units within UH’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences – the School of Art; the Creative Writing Program; the Moores School of Music; the School of Theatre; and Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston.

An official groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 9.

“The center will provide new and exciting opportunities for collaboration in the arts at UH in much the same spirit that collaboration has played an important role in my own business ventures,” said George Mitchell, former chairman and chief executive officer of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. and founder of The Woodlands. “The grant is intended as a tribute to Cynthia’s love of the visual and performing arts and her ties to the university where she studied art and psychology,” Mitchell added.

Beginning in the spring semester of 2005, the center will offer its first academic course, “Collaboration Among the Arts,” which will be taught by four UH faculty members – one each from the School of Art, the Moores School of Music, the School of Theatre and Creative Writing. The 20-student class will focus on the process and practice of artistic collaboration. Students will undertake small group collaborative projects with their teachers. Midway through the semester, musician/artist Terry Allen and his wife, playwright/performer Jo Harvey Allen, two prominent national artists with extensive experience in collaborative endeavors, will join the course to provide guidance and creative oversight.

Additionally, Blaffer Gallery will present selected works from Terry Allen’s “Dugout Series.”

“Dugout I” (2001), a series of drawings and staged mixed media installations and “Dugout II: HOLD ON to the house” (2004), monumentally scaled multimedia interior tableaux, will be on display from April 16 through June 12, 2005. Finally, “Dugout III: Warboy (and the backboard blues),” a multi-media presentation by Terry Allen, will premiere at UH’s Wortham Theatre on April 29.

Along with classes, exhibitions and public performances, the Mitchell Center for the Arts will offer residencies to emerging artists, writers and curators to expand their work through post-graduate studies in the arts. It will also establish a variety of educational outreach programs.

“This center will not only have a profound impact on the local arts community,” said Sidney Berger, Director of the School of Theatre and the first Executive Director of the Mitchell Center for the Arts, “it will also establish both UH and the City of Houston as even greater contributors to the nation’s cultural life.”

The groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 9 will be held in the Fine Arts Quadrangle at Entrance 16 off Cullen Blvd. Brief performances from the School of Theatre, the Division of Dance, the Creative Writing Program, and the Moores School of Music will alternate with remarks from UH System Chancellor and UH President Jay Gogue; John Antel, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences; Sidney Berger; and benefactor George Mitchell.

There will also be a site-specific installation of new artwork created by faculty and students from the UH School of Art in the Fine Arts Courtyard as part of the festivities. A reception also is scheduled from 3 to 4 p.m. in the courtyard and tours of the current Blaffer Gallery exhibition will be available.

The center will be housed in the School of Theatre, which is currently undergoing a $4.5 million expansion and renovation. The construction project – funded primarily by the gift from George and Cynthia Mitchell, along with a grant from The Wortham Foundation and Allen Becker – will enhance the lobby space of the existing School of Theatre, provide an office suite for the Mitchell Center, and add two critically needed new rehearsal spaces. While the theater itself will retain the name Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre, the building as a whole will be renamed the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Visually, the expansion will integrate the School of Theatre into the UH Fine Arts Quadrangle.

For more information about the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, visit www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom/centerforarts/.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.