Smith Hall cinema to be named after Towson alum
By Hailey Ensor, Contributing Writer
The new cinema in Smith Hall will be named after 2002 alumni Mike Flanagan after he donated an undisclosed amount of money to Towson University.
Flanagan is a Towson graduate of the Electronic Media and Film program and an involved alumni. He made the donation in December of 2024, so when Smith Hall re-opens in 2027 its theater will be called the Flanagan Cinema.
Since his graduation Flanagan has come back to Towson numerous times to speak with students, including speaking at the commencement ceremony for the College of Fine Arts and Communication in the spring of 2024, bringing Towson students onto his movie set of “The Life of Chuck” and holding a Q&A for students in 2023 after a local screening of his show “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
“We were up a long time,” Electronic Media and Film Department Chair Ryan Murray said. “I think they eventually had to kick us out of the Union.”
The new, 250-seat cinema will feature state of the art technology including a 4K projector, and will be one of six cinemas in the Baltimore region that are Dolby Atmos certified. The certification means the theater’s surround sound system is clearer and more effective all around the room.
This new cinema will be used to house the end-of-semester screenings for the Film 2 and Film 3 classes, where students work on short films during the semester and screen the final product. Right now the screenings are held in the University Union theater.
“That can be a meaningful experience,” Associate Professor Marc May from the EMF department said. “It can instill confidence, it can instill training, it can have a benefit.”
The Flanagan Cinema will also hold screenings for local film festivals.
“The idea is to start bringing in the, some of the local film festivals; to use our venue as part of the Maryland Film Festival programming; to bring in guest artists and their films and to be able to screen that; it’s actually to be able to bring in the Towson community, not just the campus community, onto campus to see the works that we can present and student works as well,” College of Fine Arts and Communication Associate Dean Greg Faller said.
Flanagan is also creating a scholarship endowment. His endowment will fund senior student film projects, production and editing technology and student financial aid. Towson expects the first endowment to be awarded in the Fall of 2027.