Donors offer transformative support for the arts

Nearly $1.7 billion in support for the U-M comes from donors and gifts from every county across Michigan. Support also comes from alums, and that happened in a significant way this year in the arts at U-M.

Penny and E. Roe Stamps

As a symbol of gratitude and recognition of the vision of Penny and E. Roe Stamps, the University of Michigan Board of Regents this fall approved the renaming of the art-and-design school to the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. The total commitment to U-M’s School of Art and Design—where Penny Stamps is an alumna (BS, Design ’66)—is $40 million, $32.5 million from the Stamps family foundations, and a $7.5 million match from the university. The transformative support makes the Stamps the most generous donors in the School of Art and Design’s history and among the most charitable benefactors to an art-and-design school in the United States. The Stamps funding addresses an urgent need for universities to be affordable while fostering creativity and global citizenship in college students. The funding further adds to the Stamps’ support for programs and facilities on campus while adding Stamps Creative Work Scholarships to provide merit scholarships for a significant number of art-and-design students.

William K. and Delores S. Brehm

The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, ranked among the top performing arts schools in the nation, has received an $8-million gift from William K. and Delores S. Brehm to renovate and expand one of the school’s principal North Campus buildings, the Earl V. Moore Building.

“We do art and science very well at this university; what binds the two is the university’s capacity for creativity,” President Mary Sue Coleman said when announcing the gift. “With their generosity, the Brehms are expanding the U-M environment for creative work and creative approaches. This transformation of SMTD is genuinely exciting, and complements new performance spaces such as the Walgreen Drama Center and Arthur Miller Theatre.”

Bill majored in mathematics and physics when he attended U-M in the late 1940s/early 1950s, graduating with honors in mathematics. Dee is a 1952 graduate of Eastern Michigan University; she concentrated in special education and taught in that field in California.

Stamps gift   Brehm gift

More Regional Stories