Salem State & its associates rise to the occasionBy: Courtney Denning12/5/11

Salem, Mass. -- The North Shore’s rich arts culture makes for a perfect home for the only state school in New England with an accredited theatre department. Associate Director of Advancement Communications Kathleen McDonald has special interest in this topic, but not only because her previous title was Staff Associate for the Center of Creative and Performing Arts (CCPA) at Salem State University.

Kathleen’s interest comes from her investment in the school itself. McDonald received her bachelor’s degree in English at Salem State after growing up in Lynn and choosing to stay close to home for college. She then went on to earn her master’s degree in gender and cultural studies from Simmons College. McDonald did make her way back to Salem State as she now works in the Alumni House on South Campus, writing proposals to produce more fundraising for the university. Prior to her promotion to associate director, McDonald handled much of the publicity writing, blogs and social media for the CCPA.

“We have a person starting this month who will only have the responsibility of running our Facebook page,” she said. “It’s up and coming and hopefully having someone on the social media full-time will allow for more updates and more involvement from alumni and donors.” The plan is to promote Salem State’s CCPA to prospective students as well as the surrounding area, and in recent years, the department has been using downtown Salem’s fall activities and tourists to their advantage. McDonald said that there have been a few activities they’ve participated in, although time is not on their side considering the hectic schedules that include rehearsals, studio hours and other commitments.

“We have done the Mass Poetry Festival, a yearly Dance Workshop at the Boys & Girls Club in Salem, as well as the floating sculpture exhibit behind the House of Seven Gables that (a professor) had his students work on three summers ago,” she explained. “We’re trying to get our name out there while having a positive impact on the community.”

The department is also working on a fundraising project to raise $3.5 million to renovate the Mainstage Auditorium into a fully functional theatre with loge boxes, a balcony, handicap accessibility, new sound and lighting equipment as well as a catwalk to make things easier for the crew. These new additions will completely change the way that an audience can view the shows that the department puts on throughout the school year.

Along with fundraising for the huge Mainstage project, there is also the fund for the department’s grants and scholarships program that opens up money for students to pursue a private art project of their choice over the summer to further their experience. This way, they can return to the school and teach other students some of the things that they have learned.

“The way we see it, it’s nice to spread the wealth a little bit,” said McDonald. “We give one student the opportunity to have the experience and then others can benefit from it as well. Harvard has a similar program that we modeled ours after.” The grant is specifically for upperclassmen that have, as McDonald put it, “really learned about their craft, built some skill and have had some experience working at it.” It recently allowed one particular student and his film crew to attend a major movie festival in LA this past summer, offering great networking opportunities and a well-deserved reward for winning the campus’ Movie Fest.

The CCPA at Salem State has a lot of different things to offer within each department, including dance, music, theatre, art and creative writing. With many confident and experienced professors, it’s easy to see that the accreditation of the department is well deserved.

“We are not only the flagship of the arts North of Boston, but we represent every state school in New England as the best,” said McDonald, with confidence. “This is where it’s happening.”