Good news on the building front! At the Board of Architectural Review Hearing on October 8, we were given Preliminary Design Approval to go forward with the Simons Center expansion and renovation project. We are working with the architects to finalize our plans for the interiors and should be announcing a groundbreaking date very soon (hopefully still within our “groundbreaking year!”). Many thanks to the members of the neighborhood associations, our School of the Arts Council and Friends group, faculty, staff and students who supported us at the BAR Hearing, especially to those who were courageous enough to get up and speak!

Several events will surround the festive groundbreaking activities in the spring. Some are still in the planning stages, but a couple are ready to be announced! On January 31, in the glamorously historic Randolph Hall, Robert Ivey and Deanna McBroom will combine to produce a cabaret review entitled NOEL, COLE AND WE, featuring the songs of Noel Coward and Cole Porter, and starring Mr. Ivey and Evan Parry of the Theatre Department, plus a bevy of our most talented music theatre students. Cost to attend will be $100 per person, and the evening will also feature an elaborate dinner and reception.

On March 31, a select group of people will be able to view the final dress rehearsal of OKLAHOMA!, featuring music and theatre students of the School of the Arts in a special preview performance, complete with champagne reception and desserts at a cost of only $45 per person. Proceeds from both of these events will go into our rapidly growing building fund. (Note that many naming opportunities are still available in the new building. It is not too late to emblazon your name for posterity on the entrance to your favorite classroom, performance space, or studio. For a slightly higher fee, you can name the whole building!)

All of us in the School of the Arts are tremendously proud of recent graduate countertenor Jose Lemos, who has just won the First Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2003 Chimay International Baroque Singing Competition in Belgium. We are told that this is the major competition in the world for Baroque singers! Last spring, after graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music with his master’s degree, Jose, much to our great joy, decided to make Charleston his permanent home. We can continue to hear him as a member of Steve Rosenberg’s newest Baroque Ensemble, the Quartetto Brio (their next Charleston performance is scheduled for April 5). His national performances will include an appearance next month at the brand new Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, in Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar.

Another source of great pride is our Concert Choir which has been selected to perform at the Southern Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in February. We are also proud of Laura Turner, Brent Laing and the cast and crew of the Revolutionary War Musical, The Redcoats, who showcased their production at the Southeastern Theatre Conference at Lander University November 14, 15 and 16.

Finally, special kudos to composer Dave Maves of the Music Department and playwright Franklin Ashley of the Theatre Department. Dave won a 2003 ASCAP Award, presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, while Franklin was honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the Playwrights Program of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).

Continue to watch for our “Groundbreaking” announcements. We’re looking forward to a very eventful spring!

Marian recently published an article “The Radical Body of Vlasta Delimar,” on contemporary Croatian performance artist Vlasta Delimar in the journal n.paradoxa, July 2003.

Marian gave a gallery talk in conjunction with the exhibition “The Human Comedy: Portraits by Red Grooms” at the Gibbes Museum of Art on October 3.

The Arts Management Program hosted three arts leaders from Mongolia during September. Scott Shanklin-Peterson went to Mongolia in October of 2001 at the invitation of the U.S. State Department to assist arts, government and business leaders in developing an arts council for that country. This year, the Arts Council of Mongolia supported a study tour for three arts leaders to the United States. The delegation included: Ariunaa Tserenpil, Executive Director of the Arts Council of Mongolia; Badamkhorol Samdandamba (pictured above), Head of the New Music Association of Mongolia and Director of the International Actual Music Festival, “Roaring Hooves;” and Tuyatsetseg Rentsendorj, Director of the “Arabesque” Modern Dance Center.

The delegation came to the United States to meet with leaders of arts, cultural, and education organizations in New York; Washington, D.C.; and South Carolina. While in Charleston, the group met with students from arts management and other classes at the College to share their experiences and culture. The delegation worked with the City of Charleston’s Department of Cultural Affairs to learn how they plan and coordinate the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, “interned” with the MOJA Festival, and visited a variety of Charleston’s other arts organizations and arts leaders.

The trio also visited the South Carolina Arts Commission in Columbia to learn more about how arts councils function in the United States. In addition, they attended the Southern Arts Federation’s Performing Arts Exchange in Charlotte, N.C., to participate in workshop sessions that focused on how to present the performing arts in rural areas.