Noted USM alum, renowned actor leading campaign for new university arts center

Actor Tony Shalhoub has been named honorary chair of the fundraising campaign for the University of Southern Maine Center for the Arts to be built on the school's Portland campus, in what the university president called "an extraordinary new home for music and arts at USM."

Courtesy/USM

Tony Shalhoub

During Thursday's press conference at USM, Shalhoub, a member of the USM Class of 1977, announced a $500,000 matching challenge by the Crewe Foundation. For every $2 raised, the foundation will make a $1 match.

“We are thrilled to have Tony Shalhoub, one of our own, as our honorary chair of the Center for the Arts campaign, helping us successfully complete this historic fundraising effort,” said Jacqueline Edmondson, president of USM. “With Tony at the helm, fueled by the Crewe Foundation’s incredibly generous matching gift challenge, we expect to surge past the finish line this spring. "USM expects to break ground on the new Center next fall, pending approvals from the University of Maine System Board of Trustees as well as the city of Portland, in what is being touted as 'the centerpiece of the university’s Great University Campaign.'"

Shalhoub also announced his own gift of $150,000 as part of the Crewe matching gift challenge, saying, “I’m going to be the first one in.”

Now in its third and final year, USM’s Great University Campaign has raised $44.5 million to date and expects to exceed its $46 million goal in the largest fundraiser in USM history. In 2021, the Crewe Foundation donated $5 million to build the arts center at USM.

Recalling his undergraduate years, Shalhoub said at the press conference, “Being able to work so closely with dedicated professors and mentors in USM’s Theatre Department allowed me to discover my own potential and passion for acting — and helped me go further than I ever imagined. Building a new Center for the Arts on USM’s Portland campus will help ensure that today’s talented students will discover their own greatness, too.”

Shalhoub is an award-winning performer with stage, screen, and television roles to his credit. His breakout role was as cab driver Antonio Scarpacci in the NBC sitcom "Wings" from 1991 to 1997. He starred in the USA Network series "Monk" from 2002 to 2009, earning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

For his supporting role as Abe Weissman on Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Shalhoub won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Shalhoub also won a Tony in 2018 for best lead actor in a Broadway musical for his role in “The Band's Visit.”

Shalhoub first studied acting at the USM, where he graduated with a theater degree in 1977. He went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama. He then spent four years at the prestigious American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. before moving to New York, where his acting career took off.

In 2003, the Green Bay, Wisc., native returned to USM to give the commencement address and receive a Distinguished Achievement award. He served as a Foundation Board member and made a significant philanthropic contribution to Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign in 2006.

As honorary chair of USM’s Center for the Arts campaign, he will help bring to life the visual arts center on USM’s Portland campus, the new home of the Dr. Alfred and D. Suzi Osher School of Music.

The Crewe Foundation, led by Dan Crewe and his daughter Reid Crewe, was an early supporter of the Center for the Arts project. The recent $500,000 matching gift challenge comes in addition to $6 million in philanthropic contributions from the Foundation over the past two years.

Ainsley Wallace, president and CEO of the USM Foundation, said, “At every turn, the Crewe Foundation has helped to ensure that a decades-long dream of a Center for the Arts becomes a reality — and at every turn, dedicated friends and alumni, like Tony Shalhoub, have made this project the best it can be.

"The new Center will be the crown jewel of the USM Portland campus. It will include state-of-the-art spaces for the arts, from music, dance, and theater to visual arts and create new opportunities for interdisciplinary exhibitions and performances.”