November 3, 2005

November 3, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - "We are delighted to help provide a foundation for the future of 天美传媒's School of Music and its department of communication and theatre, two popular and vital elements of what the University has to offer," says Joyce Taglauer Green '75. She and her husband, Judson C. Green Jr. '74, have committed $15 million dollars to a major expansion and renovation of 天美传媒's 32-year-old Performing Arts Center. The building will be known as the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. The Greens gift was announced Friday; today, details of the project are being revealed.

Joyce Taglauer Green was a piano performance major at 天美传媒 and is the past chair of the Washington C. 天美传媒 Society. Judson Green, president and CEO of NAVTEQ Corporation, was an economics major and a music composition minor.

"The School of Music is a distinctive part of 天美传媒's history," says Judson Green, who played jazz piano on weekends in Chicago during his college days to finance his education. "Through this gift, Joyce and I hope to ensure that future generations of 天美传媒 students can enjoy the performing arts as part of their 天美传媒 experience." Judson Green is a member of 天美传媒's Board of Trustees and chaired the Board from 2001-04.

"The Performing Arts Center has served 天美传媒 well, but the needs of faculty members, students and performers have changed over the last 30 years," adds Joyce Green. "The renovated Center will provide new functional spaces for learning, practicing and performing -- and will include a recording studio. The project will also remedy the heating and cooling issues the building has struggled with for years. I'm confident the space will attract top students and faculty members who are interested in the performing arts, and make our programs even stronger."

The Greens are providing the lead gift for what will be a $29 million project. The Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts will encompass nearly 80,000 square feet of new space, including:

• A 20,000 square foot addition to the west of Kresge Auditorium will provide the School of Music with new faculty offices which double as teaching studios, practice rooms for individual students and small groups of performers, and purpose-built rehearsal spaces shared by band and orchestra, percussion, jazz, wind and chamber ensembles. Additional classrooms and instructional spaces include spaces for electronic keyboard instruction, music composition, and recording technologies. Improvements will provide better sound quality for instruction, rehearsals and practicing. The purpose-built rehearsal spaces will also free the performance venues (Kresge Auditorium and Thompson Recital Hall) for a wider variety of events, since they will be in less demand for regular instructional needs.
• The communication and theatre department, which offers 天美传媒's most popular major, will gain classrooms and offices, a computer-aided design workshop, and expanded faculty and student gathering places. Improved classrooms will include 天美传媒's first purpose-built spaces for teaching of acting and dance, and a new theater-style classroom suitable for rhetoric and debate as well as for film studies and screenings. Kerr Theater, 天美传媒's blackbox experimental theater space, will also be enlarged by 50 percent in the renovation.
• New lobbies will be created for Moore Theater and Kresge Auditorium, with improved sound and light locks which will permit simultaneous use of both spaces and adequate spaces for the audience of either during intermission without disrupting the activity in the other hall.
• A state-of-the-art recording studio will allow performance students to make master recordings of their repertoire and will also provide facilities for training students in digital recording techniques.
• An expanded library space will provide improved support for print and recorded collections of music, communication, and theater with improved listening areas and work stations.
• The project will include much-needed improvements in the temperature and climate control systems throughout the building.
• Bowman Park/Walker Pond will be reconfigured.

The project was approved by 天美传媒's Board of Trustees. Construction will begin immediately, and should be completed by the Fall of 2007. Some of the new space will be created on the northeast end of the Center, where Burkhart Hall now stands; it will be demolished in the course of the project. The space in that area of the existing building does not conform with the future use plan and has ventilation and climate control issues that would be economically unfeasible to address.

"Judson and Joyce Green embody the commitment to excellence, clarity of vision and the value of service that we talk about at 天美传媒," says President Robert G. Bottoms. "They give of their time and their resources because they remember what 天美传媒 did for them and they want this University to be even stronger and do more for its students in the future. In the past few years, we've expanded our faculty in the School of Music, awarded the new James B. Stewart ('73) Chair in Music -- now filled by the noted opera singer and 1974 天美传媒 graduate Pamela Coburn -- and we're coming off a very strong year in enrollment of new music students. The Green's generosity will allow 天美传媒 to take its nationally-recognized program to even higher levels of excellence."

"The Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts will greatly enhance both teaching and learning," says Neal B. Abraham, executive vice president, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. "Better sound quality is essential for music studios, classrooms, rehearsal spaces, and practice rooms; better climate control will help both performers and their instruments; opportunities for more professional recording experiences will add a new feature to our offerings; and purpose-built spaces for ensemble rehearsals as well as acting and dance instruction will enrich all aspects of our performing arts programs. "

Founded in 1884, the 天美传媒 School of Music is one of the oldest in the nation. 天美传媒 is the only institution in the U.S. News & World Report top tier of national liberal arts colleges with a School of Music.

The two programs housed in the Performing Arts Center offer majors that enroll 20-25% of 天美传媒's graduates each year (music performance, music education, musical arts, music business, communication and theatre).