Donation to help fund concert hall
By Jenessa Kildall, senior writer
Posted on August 28, 2006

A $1 million donation has been given to JMU to be put toward the main concert hall in the planned JMU Performing Arts Complex scheduled to open in 2009.

During the Class of 1956 reunion held in April, Richard D. Roberts enjoyed a concert he saw with his wife, Shirley, a JMU alumna. Upon hearing praise from students about JMU during his visit, Roberts decided to give a donation of $1 million in honor of their upcoming anniversary.

The gift will largely be used to fund the complex’s concert hall, which will be named the Shirley Hanson Roberts Concert Hall.

The new center, which has not yet been named, will be used for performances and some classes for the music, theatre and dance programs and will be located directly across the Quad on South Main Street.

Construction for the performing arts complex will begin in 2007, but the project planning began in 2002.

Virginia voters voted yes to a bond referendum in that included seed money to get the project started, said Andy Perrine, university spokesperson and associate vice president of communication and marketing.

A large part of the project is being financed with this money, which the university uses and then pays back over time. The remainder of the funds is coming from private sources.

The Madison Century campaign, a comprehensive fund-raising effort for many aspects of JMU, has raised about $4.5 million for the complex so far, with the overall goal being $10 million from this private funding, Perrine said.

Parts of the performing arts complex are named according to different donation increments.

There have been gifts to name practice rooms, but there are proposals out for other rooms in the complex, said Tassie Pippert, director of development for college and university programs. “We’re just at that stage right now.”

Naming opportunities have been reserved for other rooms, including a choral balcony, concert piano, theatre lobby, dance performance studio theater and a dance program suite, although not all donors have released their names.

The complex will provide performance, rehearsal and production space for JMU’s School of Music and School of Theatre and Dance.

The building will house several dance studios, lots of practice rooms, acting studios and several faculty offices, Pippert said.

Perrine said students must be exposed to current equipment in order to be successful.

“What JMU did in the eighties for business and in the nineties for technology, we need to do now for the arts,” he said. “JMU is committed to remaining a liberal arts institution, and the center will have a huge impact on campus in a very positive way.