Amanda Milewski

Love, Legacy, and the Arts: How Rick Davis and Julie Thompson are shaping the future of �鶹��Ƶ Arts

ckearney — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:39:05 +0000

Love, Legacy, and the Arts: How Rick Davis and Julie Thompson are shaping the future of �鶹��Ƶ Arts ckearney Thu, 01/15/2026 - 12:39

Dean Rick Davis and Center for the Arts Executive Director Julie Thompson joke that, even among their College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) colleagues, some people don’t realize that they are married. Now the proverbial cat is out of the bag.

College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean Rick Davis and Julie Thompson, executive director, Center for the Arts. Photo by Emily Rusch/CVPA

They’re not only married but were college sweethearts, meeting during their undergraduate days at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. The arts have played a role in their relationship from the start; Davis chuckled when recalling that their courtship even included a pre-requisite stint at The Troupe of American College Players, Thompson’s father’s summer stock theater in Colorado.

That was back in the 1980s, making it clear that long-term commitments are a hallmark of Thompson’s and Davis’s characters. Davis has been at �鶹��Ƶ for 34 years, serving as CVPA dean since 2015 and as executive director of the Hylton Performing Arts Center since August 2011. Thompson became the executive director for the Center for the Arts on the Fairfax Campus in 2007, but has served in other capacities at the university, including as a faculty member in the graduate Arts Management Program, for nearly 30 years.

They have recently ensured that their longstanding legacies will continue to enhance, nurture, and grow the arts at George �鶹��Ƶ through a planned gift with multiple designations. The $700,000 estimated gift will support the Give Voice initiative for the renovation of the Center for the Arts; Center for the Arts programming; the Hylton Performing Arts Center Endowment; the William Reeder, Founding Dean Endowment in the Arts; and the establishment of the Rick Davis and Julie Thompson Theater Scholarship Endowment.

The main motivator for the gift is the renovation of the Center for the Arts on the Fairfax Campus, “something that Rick and I are emotionally involved in,” explained Thompson. “It’s been there for us all these years as well as for the college and the university.”

The Give Voice initiative is a $35M fundraising effort to renovate and modernize the Center for the Arts, seeking to improve and enhance the venue’s ability to support the needs of artists, audiences, and CVPA students and faculty. It will include technological and acoustical upgrades, improved accessibility and sightlines, additional aisles on the orchestra and balcony levels, a remodeled lobby, expanded teaching and rehearsal spaces, and more.

Davis invoked former university President George Johnson (1978-1996), who asserted that the arts are the front door to George �鶹��Ƶ. “The arts pique the interest of the broader community and give them ways to interact with the university that they otherwise might not have had,” said Davis. The Center for the Arts is the hub of artistic performances, classes, and university events, and Davis observed that it’s “getting creaky” after admitting more than 6.5 million audience members since its doors opened in 1990.

Thompson and Davis agree that �鶹��Ƶ Arts—the community of staff, faculty, students, artists, musicians, and performers and the audience they attract—is one of the tangibles that makes George �鶹��Ƶ “all together different.”

“The arts here are so dynamic,” said Thompson, “we’re not into a set pattern of things. We’re always looking at how to reinvent, and look at things differently, which is exciting. And I think that’s what’s kept Rick and me here much longer than we’ve probably ever anticipated: the fact that [it is] such a dynamic place.”

Both Davis and Thompson were quick to credit Susan Graziano, senior director of development for CVPA, who helped them realize that they could make even more of an impact through a planned gift than they originally thought.

They encourage members of the George �鶹��Ƶ community—whether faculty, staff, alums, parents, or longstanding friends—to consider making a gift to the university. “If you have been paying attention,” Davis said, “you know that �鶹��Ƶ does more with less than many other institutions.

“A philanthropic dollar at George �鶹��Ƶ has so much more immediate impact than a philanthropic dollar almost anywhere else,” he continued. “You see how much good �鶹��Ƶ does for people. You see how you’re changing lives. And we are excited to imagine how our legacy gift will keep that spirit going for a long time to come.”

In This Story

Rick Davis

Julie Thompson

Learn More

Topics

Campus News

�鶹��Ƶ Now: Power the Possible

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

philanthropy

�鶹��Ƶ’s Early Identification Program establishes new scholarship with gift from Women’s Club of Great Falls Scholarship Fund

ckearney — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 17:15:01 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ’s Early Identification Program establishes new scholarship with gift from Women’s Club of Great Falls Scholarship Fund ckearney Mon, 01/30/2023 - 12:15

Topics

Campus News

philanthropy

Scholarships

Early Identification Program (EIP)

Strategic Direction

Amanda Milewski

Love, Legacy, and the Arts: How Rick Davis and Julie Thompson are shaping the future of �鶹��Ƶ Arts

In This Story

Related News

Topics

�鶹��Ƶ’s Early Identification Program establishes new scholarship with gift from Women’s Club of Great Falls Scholarship Fund

Read More about EIP

Topics