Penn State News

February 15, 2000
University Park, Pa. — Richard W. Durst, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts and professor of theatre at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been selected to be dean of the College of Arts and Architecture and executive director of University Arts Services at Penn State, effective July 15. His appointment will be recommended to Penn State’s Board of Trustees for approval at their next meeting, March 17.

"Richard Durst is an internationally known specialist in theatre design and the role of theater in colleges and universities, and he has an outstanding record as an academic administrator," says Rodney A. Erickson, vice president and provost. "We look forward to his leadership at Penn State."

His current research is focused on information technology and the incorporation of technology into the classroom, international training and exchanges in theater design and technology, theatrical scenery — especially Italian Renaissance practices and designers -- and has recently completed research on American scenic designer Jo Mielziener.

In addition to being dean, Durst is also special assistant to the Chancellor at Nebraska, president of the International Organization of Designers, Theatre Architects and Technicians and president-elect of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans.

As special assistant to the chancellor at Nebraska, he coordinates all arts outreach programs and arts fundraising for the university and supervises the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, the Lied Center for the performing Arts and the Lentz Center for Asian Culture.

As dean since 1996, Durst has been responsible for long-range planning and implementation, faculty, staff and student recruitment and retention, budgets and fundraising. He served in a leadership role in the design development for the $8.7 million renovation to Richards Hall, new construction of the $9.2 million Mary Riepma Ross Film Theatre and Van Brunt Visitors Center, as well as the new facilities for the Lentz Center for Asian Culture, all on the University of Nebraska campus.

The College of Fine and Performing Arts at Nebraska is made up of the departments of Visual and Performing Arts, Art and Art History, including graphic design, Theatre Arts, the Dance program, and the School of Music. Durst also supervises the Artists Diversity Residency Program for minority artists, Arts are Basic, an outreach educational program for K-12, and the Geske Lecture Series and the Arts and Issues series on contemporary issues in the arts.

In addition to his current professional posts, Durst was president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, is a member of the Commission on Technology for the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, has been a consultant on building design, a guest scenery designer for theater, television, ballet and opera, and a keynote speaker at numerous national and international conferences on theater technology and design.

He was co-designer of the U.S. exhibit of theatre design and architecture at the Prague Quadrennial, which opened in June last year. Among his most recent publications are "Korean Scenography 1997: A Critical Analysis" and "OISTAT World Congress: an Overview."

Before joining the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Durst was dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 1989 to 1996. At Minnesota-Duluth, he also was head of the Department of Theatre and served as director of the Study in England Programme at Birmingham, England. He has also taught at the University of South Dakota and the University of Oklahoma.

Durst studied theater at Maple Woods College in Kansas City and received a bachelor of arts degree in theater from Missouri Western State College in 1972, and his master of fine arts degree in scenery design and technical theater from the University of Oklahomoa in 1974.