Music Building Campaign

By Dr. Michael Sitton, Dean College of Fine Arts/Professor of Music

The excitement and enthusiasm mounts among faculty, students, community supporters, and alumni as planning continues toward the summer 2008 start of a construction project which will completely renovate ENMU’s Music Building and expand it to meet the needs of our thriving and growing music program.

The project began with $4.5 million in base funding from the 2006 General Obligation Bond for higher education in New Mexico, to which Dr. Gamble has added $3 million in institutional funding, totaling $7.5 million. After planning began with the Albuquerque architectural firm Van Gilbert in spring 2007, the need to add as much additional funding as possible became quickly apparent, in order to meet the needs of the program and to bring this 50-year-old building up to current construction, safety, accessibility, and environmental standards. The faculty identified a number of critical needs, including improved and expanded rehearsal space, larger and more effective classrooms, and above all a performance facility that truly serves the program well. A renewed and expanded Music Building will serve the entire campus and community as an important venue for performances and other events, and as a facility in which outstanding future musicians and teachers are educated.

We have just received very good news from Santa Fe that an additional $1 million in state funding will be added to the project budget, bringing the total in state and institutional funding to $8.5 million. Our “Sound Investment” capital campaign, which was launched in 2007, to date has garnered over $100,000 in pledges and gifts, bringing the budget for the project to at least $8.6 million. While this significant amount will provide for an exciting renovation and expansion addressing a large number of program needs, rapidly escalating construction costs and expenses associated with new environmental regulations make it important to add all we can to the designated budget before final plans are drawn up.

As a final challenge phase of the “Sound Investment” campaign, five members of the ENMU administration have announced personal gifts of $5,000 each, and have challenged other friends and supporters of ENMU to join them in contributing substantially to this project during the time left before final architectural plans are drawn up in late spring 2008. In response to this challenge, other $5,000-level donations have been received recently.

Many of you received the “Sound Investment” mailing in November 2007. If not, or if you’d like additional information about this giving opportunity, please contact Noelle Bartl at the ENMU Foundation by calling 575-562-2412 or 888-231-5524, or send an e-mail to noelle.bartl@enmu.edu. Please help us make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave a true cultural legacy to future ENMU students and to the entire region.