Groups react to Lewis donation

Within hours of the announcement of a $101 million donation to enhance the University's creative and performing arts programs, students, faculty members and administrators began considering the implications of the gift — the largest in the University's history.

"It's a fantastic thing," Council of the Humanities chair Anthony Grafton said of the donation by auto-insurance magnate Peter Lewis '55. It will only augment an arts program that is "already amazing, given its small scale."

He and other faculty members said the University as a whole will see a benefit.

To create world-class programs, "you really need a lot more of a critical mass of faculty and courses," director of the Program in Theater and Dance Michael Cadden said.

Cadden intends to use the new funds to add faculty positions and pay for support staff and visiting teachers and groups, in addition to physically expanding dance and theater studios.

"We currently have one dance studio and a single classroom suitable for teaching of acting or directing," Cadden said, which means that the program can only accommodate a limited number of students.

The Program in Theater and Dance has the largest space needs of any University department, Cadden said. "I look forward to the day we can book two classes at the same time in spaces suitable for both."

Extracurricular arts groups will also benefit from the contribution, as a fund will be established to provide funding to the various student groups that are not officially affiliated with the University.

"I think this is a really great opportunity [to create] more rehearsal and performing spaces for arts groups, which can be incredibly hard to come by," Triangle Club president Angela Ricci '07 said.

Other student performing arts leaders, however, were more cautious about the contribution, citing concerns that the money might not be equally distributed between student groups and University departments.

If 185 Nassau receives all the money, it can "push [the other groups] out," said a performing group director, who was granted anonymity because of concerns that any comments could be used against the group.

The student added that such an arrangement would destroy or alter the current "free market" system for division of resources among non-University affiliated arts groups, and increase competition among them.

But the students' concerns are unwarranted, Cadden said.

"Isn't that a false dichotomy?" he said, explaining that all Program in Theater and Dance productions are directed, designed and performed by undergraduates. "Aren't we a student group?"

Nevertheless, said Triangle president Ricci, "I hope that this donation doesn't make people think the [University] programs are the only way." She added, though, that extracurricular performing arts groups would likely continue to thrive because "all of them have such fantastic products. I would just hope that the attitude [toward them] remains the same."

Lewis' donation will also help the University Art Museum expand its facilities and increase its collections, according to the University press release.

"We're delighted that Peter Lewis has expressed his support," museum director Susan Taylor said. "The Art Museum now has the opportunity to increase its profile both onand off-campus."

The museum plans to use its yet undetermined portion of the donation to expand its collections of modern and contemporary art, as well as to increase its attention to the fields of architecture and design, Taylor said.