Theater updates at St. Thomas More High School will include updated lighting and sound equipment for performances such as musicals. The school offered “The Wizard of Oz” in a past year. (Submitted photo)

More than 100 individual and corporate supporters contributed $1 million to bring St. Thomas More’s “Arts. For All Seasons.” campaign to a successful conclusion.

But the campaign’s impact has only just begun.

“Our alumni and loyal supporters have taken us to incredible heights with this campaign, and we are enormously grateful,” school President John Hoch said. “Since we launched a year ago, I’ve had countless exchanges with donors about the exciting and ambitious direction St. Thomas More is headed.”

Launched in September 2024, the fine arts campaign aimed to raise $1 million to:

  • Enrich and expand the fine arts curriculum to include a broader range of theatrical, musical, dance and visual arts experiences, providing more opportunities to explore creativity across many media.
  • Modernize the school’s 577-seat theater with state-of-the-art equipment, creating a more functional and inspiring space for performances and rehearsals. Renovation and installation work are expected to begin in spring 2026.
  • Establish a fine arts advisor role to provide long-term support for exemplary arts programs, ensuring their continued growth and excellence.

Interest in the fine arts program is high, said Jim McLaughlin, Senior Director of Development at St. Thomas More, in a big change from 2023-24, when combined arts enrollment had dropped to just 213.

“For the 2024-25 school year, the first with a modernized curriculum, fine arts enrollment rose to 334 — a 57-percent increase in just one year,” he said.

And the school projected a fine arts enrollment of 445 for 2025-26, more than doubling in only two years.

Fine Arts Administrator Betsy Corry is excited about the improvements, including elevated acoustics and a design that enhances not only the student experience but also the audience’s experience.

“But most important are the upgrades and renovations that impact the student experience. Students who are performing musical and theatrical works with a subpar acoustical environment do not get the full value of what they are learning because they are not hearing their music or voice in an optimum environment,” she explained.

“Additionally, the technical theater components and capabilities in the current space — the lighting and sound equipment ­— have not been upgraded for many years,” she added. Stage crew students have been learning on “completely out-of-date and unreliable” equipment, she said.

Corry explained that after learning that STM had fewer art offerings than other high schools, the school put significant effort into developing additional arts courses.

“While the auditorium renovation is the capital investment into the arts programs, we are finding ways to incorporate the arts more fully into the STM culture. Some new courses, such as music fundamentals, filmmaking and an introduction to theater class, are part of a revived arts curriculum,” she said. Last year, the school partnered with the local arts organization Danceworks to offer an introduction to dance class.

In her second year, Jeanine Peterson serves as the full-time visual arts teacher and department chair. Previously, she worked for 34 years for Milwaukee Public Schools and retired for two weeks before accepting her current position.

“Some of the new classes this year are digital photography, advanced digital photography, graphic design, advanced ceramics and cultural art. Already, our numbers in the art program have almost doubled, and interest is definitely growing,” explained Peterson. “We anticipate that some of the newer courses will grow in popularity once the kids learn more about them, too, making those courses grow even more in numbers.”

In addition to the new classes, the capital campaign funded the purchase of quality cameras, cases, tripods, software for editing and a photo printer.

The school also hired a part-time arts teacher with hopes of growing her position to full time as the program expands, Peterson said.

“Our new art teacher is in a renovated art room with new furniture, perfect lighting and lots of storage space for her supplies. It is an excellent space, with everything an art room, its art teacher and our students need,” she said. “Our new teacher and the students are excited to have these new facilities.”

Considering the needs of students as a whole, McLaughlin turned to St. Thomas More, the school’s patron saint, describing him as a “man for all seasons.”

“He could adapt to any situation but never compromised his morals and values,” he said. “That’s our aim for all of our graduates — that they’ll be able to excel in many contexts and endeavors and have the resilience to persevere through adversity to live with integrity and serve others.”