STEVENS POINT – A $500,000 gift from a private charitable organization will help fund a faculty position in cello and music education advocacy at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The gift is from a charitable organization founded by notable Stevens Point businessman the late Edmund Bukolt.
President of the former Lullabye Furniture Co., Bukolt collected valuable instruments with impressive pedigrees that were used for many years by UW-Stevens Point string faculty members who also performed as part of the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra. Bukolt played violin with several symphony orchestras. He died in 1964.
“We are honored to help ensure that Edmund Bukolt’s contributions to the arts in central Wisconsin will further extend to support music education in such a lasting way,” Chancellor Thomas Gibson said in a news release.
The gift, considered transformative for the department of music, endows a fund that will augment an existing part-time teaching position in the department of music and create the full-time Edmund Bukolt Faculty Fellowship in Cello/Music Education Advocacy. A search for this faculty member will begin soon.
