mid the dust and noise of what
some have taken to calling Grand
Construction University, a completely
different —but no less daunting—
building project is being celebrated this spring.
Grand Canyon University’s arts program,
which closed in 2006 with little hope of being
revived, graduates the first significant number
of students from the College of Fine Arts and
Production, the 2010 reincarnation of a theatre
and music program that had a distinguished run
back in the day.
The University’s recovery from its near-
death experience of 10 years ago has been
well-documented. Without the financial rescue
undertaken by an investment group led by Brent
and Chris Richardson, GCUmight not exist today.
However, the arts program
did
die, and its
four-year purgatory is not remembered fondly
by alumni.
“I never thought it would come back,” says
Michael Kary, one of the most accomplished actors
in the history of the program, who himself has
come back as a theatre instructor.
Claude Pensis, crushed by the loss of the theatre
programhe had begun from scratch in 1982,
when he was fresh out of graduate school at the
University of Wisconsin, soldiered on in a variety
of capacities with the University.
“The only hope we ever had was Claude and
his tenacity,” says Jeff Gray, a music major who
graduated in 2001 and nowworks for GCU. “He
didn’t leave.”
When BrianMueller took over as Grand
Canyon’s chief executive officer in 2008 and
decided to bring back the performing arts, he
turned to Pensis, who was ready with a forward-
looking plan to expand the traditional program to
include dance and digital film.
As dean of the new college, Pensis assembled
a talented team in Dr. Juan Hernandez (choral
music), Bill Symington (stage design), Susannah
Keita (dance) and Gregg Elder (digital film).
Kary and esteemed voice coach Dr. Sheila Corley
returned. Later on, Paul Koch (instrumental
music) and Sheila Schumacher (graphic design)
were brought on board.
The thinking went like this: GCU students
would be trained across disciplines, and the payoff
would be a wider
range of employment
Graduating seniors (standing, from left)
Natalie Shuler, AdamBenavides, Ashley
Brown and Samantha Erdmann have
shown the way for (seated, from left)
sophomores Andrea Hall, Devyn Garrett,
Nicole Mayes and Anthony DiMaria
in their respective fields of study.
photo by darryl webb
,
shot at sunset on campus
Rebuilt
to Last
Foundation for arts program
is solid, thanks to senior class
B Y D O U G C A R R O L L
14 • GCU TODAY
Class of
2014
