Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Michael S. Tick joined Syracuse University in June 2016 after serving six years as dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky (UK). He was chair of the Department of Theatre at Louisiana State University (LSU) from 1999-2010, where he also served as artistic director of Swine Palace, Louisiana’s premiere professional theater company. During his tenure, Swine Palace produced several regional and American premieres, including the world premiere of Cocktail by Ping Chong. Tick’s production of Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, the first professional production of a Wasserstein play in Asia, was staged in Shanghai and Beijing. His production of Antigone was staged at the Young Theatre Festival 젊은 연극제, Seoul, Korea.
At UK, Tick oversaw the Departments of Arts Administration and Theatre and Dance, the Schools of Art and Visual Studies and Music, the Singletary Center for the Arts, and the UK Art Museum. During his tenure more than $30 million in capital projects were realized, including a new home for the School of Art and Visual Studies and a Creative Arts Living Learning Community, the centerpiece of a new 900-bed residential hall opening fall 2016. Shortly before relocating to Syracuse, Tick and his colleagues launched a capital campaign for a new music education building to support UK’s Wildcat Marching Band.
Before joining LSU in 1999, Tick served on the planning committee that established the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) in 1985, a regional secondary arts school sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education and affiliated with the Virginia Stage Company, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Ballet Theatre. As founding chair of the GSA Department of Theatre, Tick also served on the faculty of Old Dominion University. He has taught and directed at the University of Rhode Island, Northwestern University, Harvard University Extension School, Rend Lake College (Illinois), the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas), and Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds.
Tick received the M.A. in performance studies from Northwestern University and the Ph.D. in theater from New York University (NYU). He began his professional career working as an actor on the long-running sitcom M*A*S*H.
Raised in Newport, Rhode Island, Tick spent many years associated with Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company, the Newport Music Festival, and the Newport Jazz Festival. While an adjunct professor at NYU, Tick worked on Wall Street as a trading support specialist with Merrill Lynch’s High Yield Bond Group. He is a proud member of AEA (Actors’ Equity Association) and SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society).