Andy Belser

Andrew (Andy) Belser is the dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Belser came to Nebraska from the University of Arizona, also a land-grant university, where he was director of and professor in the School of Theatre, Film and Television and led arts and medicine initiatives. Prior to Arizona, Belser was a professor of movement, voice and acting in the Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts acting program at Pennsylvania State University, where he taught and researched at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and performance. He was also founding director of the Arts and Design Research Incubator, where he mentored artists, designers and scientists in the research and creation of art and science projects targeted for further funding and presentation at national and international venues.

Belser’s creative endeavors are many and varied and he has directed theater works spanning from reimagined classics to devised works. He recently launched the Stories Travel project, engaging youth from regional Latinx and Indigenous communities in film, sound and performance projects to help them imagine their stories as important elements of potential university study and beyond. As a principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health-funded iLookout for Child Abuse, he wrote and directed films to educate child care workers. He created film and theater projects for a National Science Foundation-funded project educating citizens about environmental and social concerns around gas drilling in Pennsylvania. Belser was named Penn State Laureate for his creation and national tour of a multimedia installation exploring cross-generational interactions. He was founding artistic director of The Gravity Project, a professional theater company, international performance research center and new work incubator.

Belser holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication arts and theater from Grove City College, a Master of Arts in theater from Villanova and a Master of Fine Arts in directing from Virginia Tech.