Mary Baldwin University’s main events forum, James D. Francis Auditorium, is getting a major upgrade thanks to a new grant from the Rea Charitable Trust. Music and film programs will also see improvements.
The $150,000 gift will fund numerous improvements — including state-of-the-art stage lighting, live-streaming equipment, studio recording system, and more. It is the seventh grant the Texas-based trust has awarded to support MBU arts programming since 2017, bringing total donations to around $1 million.
“This latest grant continues the generous legacy of Isabel McClintic Rea, a music major who graduated from Mary Baldwin in 1939,” said university President Pamela R. Fox. “These gifts have funded critical projects and dramatically improved learning experiences for our music and performing arts majors. We are enormously grateful for this funding, as the arts have been central to our institution since its founding.”