Thomsen Fund is the Ticket for Fine Arts Fans

Tuition for the semester. Money for room and board. Seats to hear the Dallas Opera perform Puccini’s Tosca.

Because the latter could be a tough fit in a student’s budget, Margaret McDermott wanted to lend a hand.

A gift from the Dallas philanthropist continues to make a limited number of tickets available free to UT Dallas students who have an interest in the performing arts.

Mrs. McDermott, the wife of the late Texas Instruments co-founder Eugene McDermott, endowed UT Dallas in 2000 with $32 million. Part of the gift was designated the Carl J. Thomsen Fund for Student Enrichment, in honor of the McDermotts’ longtime family friend and TI colleague.

The Thomsen Fund supports a wide array of on-campus cultural and artistic events. Off campus, it pays the way for UT Dallas students to attend performances and other fine arts events in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Among the tickets the Thomsen Fund routinely buys are for the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, TITAS Music and Dance Series, The Living Opera, and events at Richardson’s Charles W. Eisemann Center.

The Eugene McDermott Scholars Program administers tickets monthly on a first-come, first-serve basis during the regular school year.

The distributions are generally on Wednesday mornings at 9 at the Eugene McDermott Library, Suite 3.2.  Three distributions remain this school year:

• Feb. 20 for March.
• March 19 for April.
• April 16 for May.

Any currently enrolled UTD student is eligible for tickets purchased by the Thomsen Fund simply by presenting his or her Comet Card. Students may receive one pair of event tickets in any 30-day period.

Call ahead or stop by the McDermott Program suite to check availability for a select performance.

Students receiving Thomsen Fund tickets who find that they cannot make it to the performance are asked return them to the Thomsen Fund desk so that another student may attend.

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