University News

Fine Arts and Communication 40th Anniversary Celebration Kickoff April 11

March 19, 2008

Share Printer friendly version

MACOMB, IL - - Western Illinois University's College of Fine Arts and Communication (COFAC) will kickoff its 40th anniversary yearlong celebration Friday, April 11 with an invitation-only dinner followed by a program. The celebration will include the announcement of the Forrest Suycott Scholarship.

The 7:30-9 p.m. program, open free to the public, will be held in the COFAC Recital Hall, located in Simpkins Hall. Donations to the Forrest Suycott Scholarship will be accepted at the event, which will include performances by the School of Music and the department of theatre and dance. The department of broadcasting will present a video history of broadcasting at Western.

Two inaugural awards also will be presented at the program. The College of Fine Arts and Communication Distinguished Friend Award will be given to John Gay (B.S., 1969) of Denver, CO, president of John Gay and Associates, who serves as chair of the COFAC Advisory Board. The Outstanding Alumni Award will be presented to Bill Paulding (B.A., 1993; MS-ED, 1995) of Naperville, IL, president and CEO of STAFFLOGIX.

College History: Dean Paul Kreider
The College of Fine Arts and Communication has made significant advancements under the guidance of Dean Paul Kreider since he came to Western Illinois in July 2004. By Nov. 25, 2004 Kreider's first "People In The Arts" 30-minute television program about fine arts events, programs and people on the Western Illinois University campus and in the Macomb area was broadcast on Cable Channel 3. The dean created the program and serves as host of the show.

As of Summer 2005, Western's music department was renamed the School of Music and Bart Shanklin was named the first director of the school; Western's highly regarded dance program, formerly part of the kinesiology department, joined with theatre to become the department of theatre and dance; and broadcasting, which had been a division within the department of communication, received departmental status within the college. University Television (UTV) moved to COFAC as of Jan. 1, 2006.

Today, COFAC includes the School of Music; the academic departments of art, broadcasting, communication, communication sciences and disorders and theatre and dance; and outreach divisions including the Bureau of Cultural Affairs; the Performing Arts Society, University Television and Tri States Public Radio. The dean's ongoing project is the continuing work with President Al Goldfarb and numerous other University, community and legislative allies in getting construction money released from the state to build the long-awaited Performing Arts Center on campus.

Kreider is an elected member of the Board of the Illinois Arts Alliance and also the Board of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans. He has been a member of the music panel for the Illinois Arts Council since 2005. In addition to singing at occasional University events, Kreider's many performing credits include numerous roles with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for six seasons and as principal baritone with the Landestheater Salzburg for three years. He has also appeared throughout the world with world-renowned singers, conductors and stage directors at the Vienna State Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Rome, Santa Fe, Atlanta Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, National Opera of Slovenia and Tokyo, Japan. Symphonic credits include the Great Woods Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Austria's Mozarteum Orchestra, Tucson Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphony in performances of Orff's "Carmina Burana," the Illinois Symphony in Brahms' "Requiem" and most recently with the Kentucky Symphony.

Dean Gene Kozlowski
Prior to Kreider, Gene Kozlowski, professor and chair of Western's theatre department was appointed COFAC dean from Jan. 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004 while a national search for a dean was conducted. Kozlowski's appointment followed the sudden Nov. 20, 2002 death of James M. Butterworth, who was in his 16th year as the college dean.

The College included the departments of art, communication, music and theatre.

An actor, director and playwright, Kozlowski joined Western's theatre faculty in 1973 and was named department chair in 1980. He directed, and acted in, more than 50 productions, two of which - - "Landscape of the Body" and "Agnes of God" - - were selected among only six productions produced at the regional American College Theatre Festival (ACTF), representing the finest in university and college theatre productions. Among his many roles was artistic director and managing director of Western's Regional Touring Theatre Company (RTTC), for which he won several national awards for his adaptations of traditional fairy tales and children's stories. In May 1999, the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education awarded the RTTC the annual recognition award for RTTC's outstanding contributions to the arts in Illinois. Kozlowski was awarded the John F. Kennedy Center's Gold Medallion for Excellence (1994) and the Illinois Theatre Association's Life Achievement Award (1999).

Kozlowski, who retired in December 2005, had also served as acting dean of Western's College of Fine Arts from Sept. 1, 1986, following the retirement of College Dean Forrest Suycott and until the Aug. 1, 1987 appointment of Butterworth as dean.

Dean James Butterworth
Butterworth began his Western Illinois career Aug. 1, 1987 as dean of Western Illinois' College of Fine Arts, which included the departments of art, music and theatre. In 1994 with a University administrative reorganization, the department of communication arts and sciences became part of the college, which was then renamed the College of Fine Arts and Communication.

A tireless promoter of the fine arts throughout the western Illinois region, Butterworth orchestrated numerous facility improvements; his final one being the College of Fine Arts and Communication Recital Hall, located in the northern wing of historic Simpkins Hall. The 500-seat recital facility opened in February 2002 and was dedicated Sept. 13, 2002.

In July 2003, the college installed two abstract paintings by Joel Smith, Western Illinois professor emeritus of art, in honor of Butterworth, an artist himself, who had chosen the works for the Recital Hall lobby. Plaques honoring the late dean were also installed.

Dean Forrest D. Suycott Jr.
A talented trumpeter, Forrest Suycott Jr. was hired as the music department's band director during the Beu Administration in 1955. He was a major planner of the School of Fine Arts during 1966-1968, and he was appointed acting dean in July 1968. In 1969 he was elected by the faculty to be the dean of the School of Fine Arts, which included the departments of art and music, and after 1970, the theatre department.

Suycott was a well-known leader in arts outreach and arts education. During his service, WIU became involved in regional arts programming through the Two Rivers Arts Council and continued expanding cultural offerings to the regions through various University groups.

He was a member of the Illinois Arts Council music advisory panel and the Two Rivers Arts Council for West Central Illinois. He also served as the charter president (1974-1976) of the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education (IAAE), the state affiliate of the National Alliance for Arts Education.

He directed the jazz, marching and concert bands; and students voted Suycott the Most Distinguished Professor of 1966-1967.

Suycott, who also founded Western's Symphony Wind Ensemble, retired Feb. 28, 1987.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing