Southern Miss Partners for the Arts 2026-27 BROCHURE

As the nation celebrates America’s 250th birthday, The University of Southern Mississippi stands as a living example of what has always made this country strong: creativity, collaboration, and community.

For generations, Southern Miss has been a cultural home where art is made with the people it serves, hand in hand, shaping our identity, and preparing the next generation of creators, leaders, and citizens.

When community and campus join hands, creativity multiplies.

National arts research consistently shows that arts partnerships strengthen local economies, civic pride, and educational outcomes, turning creativity into a shared public good.

Founded in 1997, Partners for the Arts is a community alliance between the Pine Belt region and The University of Southern Mississippi’s arts programs. Partners has raised more than $2 million since its inception. As a result, Hattiesburg is able to stage world-class art, music, theatre, dance, creative writing and entertainment.

Inspire student artists

Your donation supports aspiring artists and the faculty who support them, enabling them to pursue their passions and hone their crafts.

Inspire creativity

By supporting our arts programs, you foster an environment where creativity and imagination thrive. Your generosity helps us provide funding for performances, master classes, exhibits and lectures.

Inspire the community

The arts have the power to inspire, provoke thought, and spark dialogue. Your support enables us to host performances, exhibitions and cultural events that engage and enrich our local community.

Art and Design

The Southern Miss Art and Design program prepares students for careers as professional studio artists, graphic designers, web designers, art educators, gallery directors, arts advocates, and more. Our award-winning program features BFA degrees in graphic design and studio art, with opportunity to specialize in sculpture, ceramics, and drawing and painting, and a BA in art that provides students with a study of studio art within a traditional liberal arts framework. Our faculty are practicing artists and scholars who exhibit their work regionally and nationally and actively mentor our students to ensure their success. Our Art and Design program also features a gallery with rotating exhibits that are open to the public and a permanent collection of works with placement across campus. Art and Design regularly brings guest artists and speakers to campus for gallery and other events, such as our annual iron pour.

Hand in hand, we shape place.

Theatre

The Southern Miss Theatre program features a fully produced mainstage season and a summer repertory theatre season, Southern Arena Theatre, with opportunities for students to showcase their talents in both performance and design. The program also produces the Blaine Quarnstrom Playwright Series, bringing award-winning professional playwrights to campus to work directly with our students. Our facilities include two mainstage spaces — the Hartwig Theatre, a flexible blackbox, and the Tatum Theatre, a proscenium thrust. These spaces provide our students and faculty with a range of creative opportunities for theatrical storytelling. Southern Miss offers a BFA in theatre, with opportunity to specialize in acting or design and technology, and a BA in theatre, geared toward students whose interest in theatre is broad-based with a liberal arts focus. Our faculty are professionally active in their areas of specialization, and our students regularly win regional and national awards and recognition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Hand in hand, we move forward.

Creative Writing

The Center for Writers offers degree paths where creative writing students study alongside literary scholars and take courses from literature and creative writing faculty at the forefront of their fields. Students specialize in their chosen genre of fiction or poetry, but also gain expertise in particular fields of literary study based on theme and historical period. A robust and immersive graduate experience involves taking coursework and teaching undergraduate students, as well as participating in public readings, social gatherings, professionalization workshops, and fundraisers. The center celebrates what students do well, and at the same time, opens space in front of them so that what they’ve done becomes what they could do.

Hand in hand, we find our voice.

Media and Entertainment Arts

Students in the Media and Entertainment Arts program focus on bringing together sound, image and story across multiple platforms. Generally working in teams, the students develop film and video projects, record and mix studio albums across musical genres, delve into new technology that enhances existing streaming quality, and study the business and media support systems behind the arts.

Hand in hand, we innovate.

Dance

The Southern Miss Dance program produces a full season of dance concerts featuring student, faculty and guest artist choreographers. Repertory Dance Company performs four concerts each year in the intimate Dance Studio Theatre, and the program produces a Spring Dance Gala annually on the Thomas V. Fraschillo Stage at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center. Southern Miss Dance travels faculty and student work for national adjudication as part of the American College Dance Association conference and for presentation at National Dance Education Organization conferences. Faculty are active contributors to the field of dance as performers, master teachers, choreographers, scholars, and conference panelists and presenters. Career readiness is at the forefront of our student-centered approach, and our BFA dance majors engage with the discipline through research, cultural and community engagement, internships, and working with nationally and internationally recognized guest artists.

Hand in hand, we move forward.

Music

The School of Music at The University of Southern Mississippi is the state’s flagship music program and a destination campus for the study of music in the region, throughout the United States, and around the world. Housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, the school offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees and has earned a longstanding national and international reputation for excellence. Its distinguished faculty are active performers and educators, appearing on stages ranging from local communities to major international venues. The School of Music is home to acclaimed band, choral, orchestral, jazz, opera, and musical theatre ensembles, and offers extensive solo and chamber music performance opportunities. Students regularly perform at regional, national, and international events and engage with leading guest artists in preparation for careers as 21stcentury performers and educators.

Hand in hand, we listen together.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

LEGACY ENDOWMENT

Partners for the Arts offers an opportunity to permanently support the dynamic arts programs at Southern Miss. Turning your annual membership into a legacy gift supports the Partners for the Arts endowment for future generations.

 NEW MEMBER

RENEWAL

Name (as you wish it to be listed)

Address

City/State/ZIP

Phone

Email

 In honor OR  in memory of (name as you wish it to be listed)

PLEASE INDICATE A LEVEL OF GIVING

INDIVIDUAL/CORPORATE (Annual Membership)

 President’s Circle ($5,000+)

 Grand Benefactor ($2,500)

 Benefactor ($1,000)

LEGACY (Gifts for Legacy Endowment)

*Over five years

 Gold

 Silver

 Bronze

 Patron ($500)

 Donor ($250)

 Contributor ($150)

ANNUALLY

$5,000

 Friend ($50)

 Other $______________

$208 $83

$2,500

$5,000 MONTHLY $416

$25,000

$12,500

$1,000 LEGACY SOCIETY

Please note that 75% of your Legacy gift will support the PFTA Endowment.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DESIGNATE YOUR GIFT?

 Friend of the Arts (all disciplines)  Art and Design  Media and Entertainment Arts

 Creative Writing  Music  Dance  Theatre

METHOD OF PAYMENT

 CASH  CHECK

Please make check payable to the USM Foundation, memo: PFTA.

 PAYROLL DEDUCT (Southern Miss employees only)

Employee ID Number

 9-MONTH (FACULTY)

 12-MONTH (FACULTY/STAFF)

AMOUNT $ SIGNATURE

 MATCHING GIFT (enclose form)

MATCHING GIFT COMPANY

SCAN HERE TO PAY ONLINE BY CREDIT CARD.

Become a partner or renew online. Visit usm.edu/partners-arts