Arts 2011
Bates
As an integral part of our distinctive liberal arts mission, Bates celebrates the arts in ways that are intensely collaborative and courageous. The Bates Arts Collaborative provides both creators and audiences with opportunities to gather, perform and participate in our search for common ground through music, drama, dance, visual art and language arts. Like us, the arts are diverse and complicated — and like us, the arts have the power to transform. Our talented students, facult y and staf f are joined throughout the year by great artists from across the globe in exploring this power. Through this energetic engagement in the arts, our Bates communit y aspires to a renewed understanding of the human condition. — Nancy J. Cable, Interim President
Left: Detail from Sports for the Masses, a 2010 oil painting on canvas by Marta Solomianko ’11. Solomianko is working in the Project 2048 artist residency program in San Francisco, a residency she was granted on the basis of artwork she made at Bates.
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Welcome! From the Bates Arts Collaborative I
n the Bates Arts Collaborative’s inaugural year, we took strides to organize, contemplate, advocate and connect people in the arts in ways old and new. One was the first Bates Arts Summit, which convened a range of voices who validated our strengths and encouraged our collaborations. Activist and performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph told the summit that we should regard arts advocacy in environmental terms: why not view people in the arts as an ecosystem whose health relies on a network of well-connected, well-nourished and flourishing constituents? Outreach and connections have clearly sustained the Bates arts ecosystem for a long time. And this wonderful first year of the Arts Collaborative shows that our theme of community through collaboration and outreach is taking root. We mark that theme through this edition of Arts | Bates, itself a new tradition. We marked it in January 2011 with the Arts Summit and the first campus Arts Crawl, which turned a chilly night into a warm festivity destined to return at least yearly. Student energy is phenomenal, and from students other traditions will emerge this fall. The Arts House is a student residence with an arts focus. The Bates Authors Guild celebrates authorship in exciting new ways. The Arts Collaborative has proven the value of honoring and nurturing the campus arts community for increased visibility, advocacy and institutional change. We hope to find ways for more voices to support and inspire our work. As I pass the privilege of chairing the Bates Arts Collaborative to Jim Parakilas, I do so with gratitude to the charter members I have served with, and with great excitement for the year ahead. Take it away, Jim!
— Kirk Read, Chair, Bates Arts Collaborative, 2010–11 Professor of French
The first year of the Arts Collaborative provided an inspiring start to this enterprise and great momentum to build on. My thanks to all who made so much happen in one year.
As Arts | Bates continues to appear, we hope that it and related publications will provide more and more comprehensive ways to follow what’s going on here in the arts. Our theme of connecting Bates and the community through the arts means more than just inviting the public to events. As you’ll see throughout this issue, Bates already partners in fruitful relationships with local institutions, such as L/A Arts and the FrancoAmerican Heritage Center — but we’ll dedicate this academic year to strengthening those collaborations and opening them to even more people. On campus, an important theme for the Arts Collaborative this year is to support the burgeoning ranks of student arts organizations — both longstanding groups like the Robinson Players and the a cappella singing ensembles, and newer ones like the Musicians Union. We’ll also be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Olin Arts Center, home of the Museum of Art, our splendid concert hall and studios for visual artists and musicians. Finally, this is a moment of growth in the teaching of the arts at Bates. This year a major in dance will be inaugurated. We will continue to develop our teaching in screen and media studies. And as the Arts Collaborative defines its place within the structures of the college, we intend to promote discussions of how the arts at Bates can evolve to best benefit college and community. We welcome you to all the events listed herein, and we welcome your thoughts on this calendar and the work of the Arts Collaborative. Please email comments and questions to the Bates Arts Collaborative at aodom@bates.edu. — Jim Parakilas, Chair, Bates Arts Collaborative, 2011–12 James L. Moody, Jr. Family Professor of Performing Arts
Music Bates
Music at Bates reflects the energy and diversity of music in the world. Student and faculty musicians, and renowned guest artists, offer more than 150 presentations and performances in the acoustically superior Olin Arts Center Concert Hall during the academic year. Bringing a global perspective to the study of music is an academic priority at Bates. Departmental ensembles include the College Choir, the College Orchestra, fiddle and jazz bands, the Caribbean-based Steel Pan Orchestra and the Bates Gamelan Orchestra, a bronze percussion ensemble from Indonesia. The department offers one-on-one instruction in instrumental and vocal performance. Guest artists reflect this diversity, too. They’ve included Bates’ own Corey Harris ’92, a bluesman who also explores the music of Africa and the Caribbean; jazz singer Gretchen Parlato; singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega; Germany’s Auryn String Quartet; Wu Man, who has popularized China’s ancient, lutelike pipa among Western audiences; former Yes lead singer Jon Anderson; and gospelR&B singer Naomi Shelton.
MUSIC IS THE HEARTBEAT OF CAMPUS LIFE FOR THE MANY STUDENTS WHO TAKE MUSIC COURSES, STUDY VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE, AND PARTICIPATE IN OUR ENSEMBLES THAT REFLECT MUSIC MAKING AS A GLOBAL ENDEAVOR.
Jack Schneider ’12 plays the timpani in Listening In, Looking Out, a multimedia concert created by music professor Hiroya Miura with collaborators including Bates music students and schoolchildren from Lewiston and Sendai, Japan.
Tale Spinning (see Museum of Art), and Effi Briest vocalist Barrett collaborate on Yondering — as “path-minding vignettes and stories, spirit meandering, signseekerwalkabouts” that combine guitar, drums and diverse other sounds. Free admission, but tickets required
Plan to Attend
Listed concerts take place in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St., Lewiston. Ticket prices list [general public] / [seniors and students]. Buy tickets: www.batestickets.com. Learn more: 207-786-6135 •
olinarts@bates.edu • www.bates. edu/music-concerts.xml
SEPTEMBER Sept. 30 Richard Goode, Pianist Friday at 7:30 p.m. Called “one of America’s most singularly gifted pianists” by The Baltimore Sun, this legendary musician performs Mozart and Chopin to help celebrate Parents & Family Weekend and the 25th anniversary of the Olin Arts Center. (Goode recalls a great affection for Olin’s Steinway, also 25 years old this season.) Admission cost TBA
Oct. 6–8 Asphalt Orchestra in Residence Richard Goode
Mixing half-time theatrics and
OCTOBER Oct. 1 Chanticleer Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Joining the Parents & Family Weekend festivities, this Grammywinning male a cappella choir presents its Love Story program, exploring the inexhaustible story of love through six centuries of song by such composers as De Sermisy, Vaughan Williams, Arlen and Porter. Admission cost TBA
Oct. 5 Brad Kahlhamer and Kelsey Barrett Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Kahlhamer, performing as part of a Bates residency that also involves the Museum of Art group exhibition Asphalt Orchestra
cutting-edge cool, the New York City marching band comes to Maine for workshops, flash concerts, collaboration — and most of all, the Oct. 8 celebration of Olin Arts Center’s 25th anniversary (see inside back cover). With specifics to be announced, the band appears at Bates and in the region, including spontaneous outdoor performances. Supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts, Portland Ovations and L/A Arts. Watch for details!
of Bates student compositions, demonstrations for local fourthgraders and an evening performance where the audience will be invited to shape the program. Admission cost TBA
SPOTLIGHT
DECEMBER Dec. 2–3 Bates College Choir Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Conductor John Corrie leads the choir in Part I of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Free admission, but tickets required The roster of Bates singing ensembles gained a new dimension of spirituality with the formation of the Gospelaires, comprising members of the Bates and greater Lewiston-Auburn communities.
Charlie Hunter
Sunday at 7:30p.m. In a dazzling and virtuosic collaboration, guitarist Hunter and French Guianese tap dancer Tamango team up for a performance you won’t forget. Playing seven- and eight-string guitars, Hunter is something like a groove-driven one-man band. The New York Times called Tamango a dancer of “astonishing elegance and virtuosity.” Two decades after they first busked together in Europe (and 10 years since Tamango last performed at the Bates Dance Festival), they come to Bates thanks to the festival and the Jazz @ The Olin Arts Center series. Admission cost TBA
Nov. 29–30 Borromeo String Quartet in Residence
Dec. 7 Bates College Jazz Band
Tuesday and Wednesday at times TBA Called by the Boston Phoenix “extraordinary musicians [who] live inside the music they play,” the quartet returns to Bates for an intensive residency. Still being planned at press time, the residency may feature a concert
Wednesday at 7 p.m. Led by noted jazz pianist Thomas Snow and featuring student vocalists and instrumental soloists, the program combines big-band arrangements and small combo settings in styles ranging from bossa nova to funk to swing to standards. Free admission, but tickets required
Oct. 14 Ethan Lipton + His Orchestra Francine Reed and the Maplejuice Quartet Friday at 7:30 p.m. A powerhouse double bill. Creator of songs that NPR’s Weekend Edition described as “hilarious, twisted, sophisticated, schleppy and sad all at once,” Lipton and his combo return to Bates. Reed, who sings with Lyle Lovett’s Large Band, is also celebrated in her own right as a master of rhythm and blues, as well as other American genres. Supporting her is Maine’s own Maplejuice Quartet. Admission cost TBA
NOVEMBER Nov. 12 Bates and Bowdoin College Orchestra Saturday at 7:30 p.m. For the third season, the orchestras of Bates and Bowdoin colleges combine forces for a concert at each institution, conducted by Hiroya Miura of Bates and Roland Vazquez of Bowdoin. Free admission, but tickets required
Dec. 4 Charlie Hunter and Tamango
NOON TUNES Bates often welcomes the community to free concerts, such as the eclectic weekly Noonday Concerts. “We want the community to hear the music we offer — and to sample unfamiliar music,” says music professor Jim Parakilas. This year, special Noonday events for schoolchildren combine performances with visits to the Bates College Museum of Art. Shown: Violinist Bo Ra Kim ‘14 and pianistcomposer Nicolas Blomberg ‘11 prepare to perform a composition by Blomberg.
SPOTLIGHT RELATIONSHIPS OF NOTE
Nov. 13 Frank Glazer, Pianist Sunday at 3 p.m. Still vital at age 96, Bates artistin-residence Glazer performs Beethoven’s Variations and Fugue for Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 35 — the “Eroica Variations” — along with music by Bach, Berg and Liszt. Free admission, but tickets required
Bates connections endure. For instance, pianist and University of Albany professor Duncan Cumming ‘93 wrote a book, Fountain of Youth, about one Bates mentor, pianist Frank Glazer. And Cumming’s Capital Trio recorded music by professor Bill Matthews for the CD A Book of Hours — a recording that “documents a great history between a teacher and a student,” says Matthews.
Theater+Dance Bates
PROFILE
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT Internationally active as a teacher, choreographer and performer, Carol Dilley became director of dance at Bates in 2003. This year, she realized her longtime goal of establishing a dance major — a goal epitomizing the Bates community’s deep passion for dance. That’s something Dilley understands profoundly. “Dance has been central to my identity,” she says.
OFFERING MAINE’S FIRST DANCE-ONLY MAJOR AND THE WORLD-RENOWNED BATES DANCE FESTIVAL, DANCE AT BATES IS A FOUR-SEASON FIELD OF STUDY THAT’S EAGERLY INTERDISCIPLINARY, FIERCELY CREATIVE AND RIGOROUSLY INTELLECTUAL.
The Department of Theater and Dance, renamed to reflect the new major, offers an exciting expanded range of academic and performance possibilities. Courses in acting and directing, dance composition and technique, theater and dance history, filmmaking, stage design and technology, and performance theory provide wide-ranging options. Our faculty and visiting artists bring lifetimes of experience into both classroom and theater. They work closely with students involved in creating a performance at every level: acting, dancing and directing; writing plays and creating choreography; designing stage settings, sound and costumes; shooting and editing films. Faculty-directed theater productions, along with productions by the student-run Robinson Players, account for more than a dozen performances each year. Programming spans the centuries from Greek tragedy and Shakespeare to contemporary comedy, drama, performance art and experimental work using puppets and masks. Productions are scheduled with the
curriculum in mind. For example, a production of Molière’s The Learned Ladies is offered simultaneously with a course on the history of the classical stage. Students who are learning to design lighting work with those studying choreography.
The creation of the dance major electrified the campus and boosted the program’s national reputation still higher. A second full-time faculty position has been added and the first Bates dance majors graduate in May 2012. continued
THE BATES DANCE FESTIVAL The Bates Dance Festival is internationally recognized as a presenter of contemporary dance. Each summer the festival brings together an international community of choreographers, performers, educators and students to study, create new work and perform. The six-week season of public performances takes place in the intimate Schaeffer Theatre at Bates. Inside Dance lectures offer insights that build audience appreciation for this dynamic art. Training programs with a variety of dance courses serve a total of 360 participants of diverse ages. The festival nurtures a cooperative atmosphere that encourages exploration and a creative exchange of ideas. Over the years renowned choreographers and creators such as David Dorfman, Liz Lerman, Bebe Miller and Marc Bamuthi Joseph have developed major works at Bates that have gone on to tour internationally to critical acclaim. Learn more:
• 207-786-6381 • dancefest@bates.edu • www.batesdancefestival.org
Dancer-choreographer Nicholas Leichter appeared at the 2011 Bates Dance Festival.
SPOTLIGHT Local young people enjoy intensive arts experiences in the Bates Dance Festival’s Youth Arts Program. The 18-year-old
PHOTO: Ebbe Sweet ‘11
program is about all the arts — and all about community. “We realized that we were bringing extraordinary artists to a place where many young people had little access to the arts,” explains festival director Laura Faure. “These youngsters may become the artists of tomorrow.”
PHOTO: Quinn Batson.
This year’s creation of a major in dance, Bates’ first new major since 1997, affords yet another way for students to experience a liberal arts education through the power of the stage. Theater and dance balance creativity, physical discipline and critical attention to the history, theory and literature of the stage arts. Each field is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing on music, visual and language arts, and history to conjure worlds on a stage.
Plan to Attend
Performances take place in Schaeffer Theatre, the Black Box Theater downstairs and in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall — all at 305 College St. See a complete schedule of dance and theater productions, and purchase tickets: www.batestickets.com Except as noted, admission is $6 for the general public and $3 for senior citizens and non-Bates students. Learn more: 207-786-6161
Timothy Fox ’11 played Ben and Gregor Cosgrove ’11 was Gus in a 2011 production of Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, directed by Alex Gallant ’11 as his thesis project.
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
Oct. 1–2 Parents & Family Weekend Dance Concert
Nov. 3–7 Bus Stop By William Inge
Saturday and Sunday at noon Featuring works in progress by guest artists Kendra Portier and the team of Kwame Ross and Michael Wimberly, as well as choreography by students and Bates dance clubs. Schaeffer Theatre Free; no reservations
Thursday–Saturday and Monday at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Eight lonely people chase their dreams of love in a snowbound café in Kansas in this American classic by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. The play explores “the hunger
PROFILE
PHOTO: Kevin Berne
Theater+Dance Bates
A four-season activity at Bates, dance combines academic-year courses and performances with intensive training during the summertime Bates Dance Festival (see previous page). We encourage choreographic exploration through ample opportunities for students to create and present work, with frequent visits from guest artists who help keep our repertory fresh. Performances allow student dancers, as well as spectators, to experience dance as a dynamic process of discovery for body and mind.
Sam Leichter ’08 and Mollie Stickney performed with the Marin Theatre Company in Fuddy Meers.
GOLDEN POND It’s rare when a national publication praises a 20-something playwright, but it happened to theater major Sam Leichter ‘08 in March when the Huffington Post called his play The Pond “magnificent.” Leichter’s acting, too, is in demand. “Directors were immediately impressed by my training” when he arrived in San Francisco, says Leichter, now heading for a Rutgers MFA program. “I’m so grateful to the Bates theater department.”
people have for companionship and understanding. . . . Glorious,” wrote The New York Times. The New York Post called it a “romantic comedy about ordinary people that is at once humorous, simple, steadily entertaining and vastly endearing.” Directed by Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater. Gannett Theater $6/$3
Nov. 12–14 Bates College Modern Dance Company Saturday at 5 p.m. • Sunday at 2 p.m. • Monday at 7:30 p.m. The annual fall concert features
AS IT BRINGS WORLDS TO LIFE ON STAGE, THEATER AT BATES DRAWS STORIES AND SKILLS FROM DIVERSE DISCIPLINES, AND BALANCES CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING — HALLMARKS OF A FIRST-RATE LIBERAL EDUCATION.
From left, Singha Hon ’14, Caitlyn DeFiore ’12 and Schuyler Rooth ’11 appeared in the 2011 mainstage production of Molière’s The Learned Ladies.
Nov. 16 Directing Class Projects Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Plays from FUSION Theatre Company of Albuquerque, N.M., “the most polished theater in town,” founded by Dennis Gromelski ’88. Directed by students in Professor Paul Kuritz’s directing class. Gannett Theater Free; no reservations
DECEMBER Dec. 7 Voice and Speech Performance Wednesday at 7 p.m. Students in Katalin Vecsey’s voice and speech course perform their final project. Gannett Theater Free; no reservations
Dec. 7 Directing Class Projects Wednesday at 8 p.m. Plays from FUSION Theatre Company of Albuquerque, N.M. Directed by students in Professor Paul Kuritz’s directing class. Schaeffer Theatre Free; no reservations
SPOTLIGHT
PHOTO: Michael Reidy
new works by guest artists Kendra Portier and the team of Kwame Ross and Michael Wimberly, and pieces by faculty choreographers Rachel Boggia and Debi Irons. Schaeffer Theatre $6/$3
Danielle Traverse ‘13 played Alice in the Robinson Players production of Alice in Wonderland in May 2011. The troupe’s annual Stages for All Ages production is aimed at local schoolchildren who attend from throughout the region. All four performances sold out in just days, says Alice director Schuyler Rooth ‘11. “The kids were excited to ask questions about the acting, music, costumes, sets and other stage ‘magic.’ ”
Art+Visual Culture Bates
With nearly 100 declared majors, equally divided between studio art and the history and criticism of visual culture, this is one of the largest departments at Bates. Six faculty prepare students to work in painting, drawing, photography, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking and art installation. Five teach courses on the visual cultures of Africa, Asia, the Islamic world, Europe and the Americas from antiquity to the contemporary era. While preparing students for careers throughout the field, we bring to the larger college curriculum insight into both current analytical practice and studio artmaking.
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CAREERS THROUGHOUT THE ART WORLD, THE DEPARTMENT OF ART AND VISUAL CULTURE JOINS STUDIO PRACTICE WITH STUDY IN THE HISTORY AND CRITICISM OF ART.
Lectures by visiting artists and historians, many of them alumni, are open to the public. Speakers have included video artist and Whitney Biennale star Kate Gilmore ’97, Harvard University art conservator Christopher Sokolowski ’90, and Helen Evans, the Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Plan to Attend
Events sponsored by the Department of Art and Visual Culture take place in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.; and at other campus locations. They are usually open to the public at no charge. Learn more: 207-786-6135
EVENTS Autumn events are rooted in our teaching and are often announced at short notice. Please watch the Bates events site (home.bates. edu/views/events/) for announcements of lectures and exhibitions — including the following types of activity that are usually offered at the Olin Arts Center:
Open Studios and Senior Thesis Exhibition In the fall, senior studio majors begin working toward their senior thesis exhibition, which opens April 6, 2012, in the Bates College Museum of Art, Olin Arts Center. The majors often hold open studios to show work in progress to fellow students and the public.
Preparing for the annual Senior Exhibition, Phoebe Reed ’11 works with pen, paper, thread and other materials in her Olin Arts Center studio.
Class Work-In-Progress Installations Students in a course often stage events and install work for public exhibition. Recent examples include an installation marking the International Day of Climate Action and A Series of Unfortunate Ideas, presented in the New Commons Building by a visual-meaning class.
Artist Visits Artists invited to work with classes frequently offer public lectures. In September 2010, two noted filmmakers brought their work to campus: producer and director Bruno Wollheim spoke about his film David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, and Ellen Weissbrod discussed her film on 17th-century artist Artemisia Gentileschi, A Woman Like That. In February 2011, a featured speaker was Brandy Gibbs-Riley ’96 — a faculty member at ColbySawyer College and in-demand graphic designer (profiled at right).
Lectures by Visiting Historians and Critics In connection with courses, and in collaboration with other programs and the Bates College Museum of Art, the department hosts leading curators and other scholars who provide public lectures. Speakers have included: Dorothy Glass, a professor at the Biblioteca Hertziana in Rome; Susan L. Ward, art historian at the Rhode Island School of Design; and Thomas Denenberg ’90, chief curator at Maine’s Portland Museum of Art.
SPOTLIGHT HARD TIMES How did adversity shape and inspire culture in medieval times? The New England Medieval Conference, hosted by Bates, will range across the disciplines to explore the question. Open by registration to community members as well as scholars and students, Medieval Miseries: Responses to Hard Times takes place Oct. 22. To register: 207-786-6400 or bpelleti@bates.edu.
Robert Feintuch, senior lecturer in art and visual culture (at center), guides artist Uriel Gonzalez ’11 as he hangs his work in the Bates Museum of Art for the annual Senior Exhibition. For their thesis requirement, studio art majors spend their senior year creating a cohesive body of work for this popular exhibition.
Alums in the Arts In addition to visits by practicing artists, the department, with the Museum of Art, presents talks by graduates working in the field. These include Jason Goldman ’00, speaking on Beat artist Jay DeFeo; Joshua Holdeman ’93, international director of contemporary art at Christie’s; and Robin Reynolds Starr ’85, director of American and European paintings and prints at the Boston auction house Skinner, Inc.
Presentations by Interns and Grant Awardees Connected with their work at Bates, students often receive internships at auction houses, galleries and such leading museums as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Smithsonian; and in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection. These students, as well as Bates Museum of Art interns and students who have conducted independent projects off campus, describe their work in talks presented to the campus community and the public.
PROFILE GRAPHIC IDENTITY Bates’ art and visual culture faculty steered Brandy Gibbs-Riley ‘96 toward her present art career — or careers, as a professor of graphic design at Colby-Sawyer College and a top-ranked designer whose clients include Boeing, Johnson & Johnson and IBM. At Bates, art professor Don Lent, now retired, and lecturer Robert Feintuch “thought I had an innate sensitivity” to the demands of graphic
Brandy Gibbs-Riley ’96
design, says Gibbs-Riley. And as important as the art faculty was to her, she emphasizes that Bates as a whole gave her both intellectual skills and a disciplinary breadth central to her success. “Good design insists on a sophisticated visual, verbal and quantitative vocabulary gleaned from subjects across the curriculum,” she says. “My Bates education has made me a more effective designer and teacher.”
Museum of Art Bates
East of Mesa East, A 55 Plus Community, ink and watercolor on paper by Brad Kahlhamer (2002) from the autumn Museum of Art exhibition Tale Spinning. Commissioned by the Trustees of Dartmouth College; purchased through the Stephen and Constance Spahn ’63 Acquisition Fund. The Museum of Art brings the world to Bates and the region by organizing a diverse exhibitions schedule of significant art from around the globe, developing innovative educational programming and outreach, and making accessible a growing 4,500-piece permanent collection. Museum staff connect exhibitions, collections and programming to departments across academic disciplines, the college community, and the schools and residents of Lewiston-Auburn and beyond. Educational programming includes lectures, visiting artists and scholars, international films, studio sessions, student internships, and other educational and cultural initiatives. Plan to Attend
The Bates College Museum of Art is located in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. The museum is open to the public at no cost. Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday (until 7 p.m. Wednesdays during the academic year) Learn more:
www.bates.edu/museum.xml • 207-786-6158
Join our Facebook fanpage to stay connected: on.fb.me/bates_bcma
EXHIBITIONS WITH RELATED EVENTS Through Sept. 10 Emerging Dis/Order: Drawings by Amy Stacey Curtis, Alison Hildreth, and Andrea Sulzer Three respected Maine artists created ambitious drawings that explore themes of memory and loss, order and chaos, and emerging and converging human behavior and activity. Emerging Dis/Order is part of the statewide Where to Draw the Line: The Maine Drawing Project.
and watercolors, many of them never before exhibited, from the collection of Victoria Wyeth ’01, granddaughter of Andrew Wyeth and niece of Jamie Wyeth. Included are portraits of family members and neighbors well-known as models for Andrew; landscapes; sketchbooks; studies for noted paintings; and illustrated correspondence among the three Wyeths.
Sept. 24 Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Victoria Wyeth presents a lecture on the Wyeth exhibition. Olin Concert Hall
Sept. 9–Oct. 29 Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Fotografias de Mexico (1933–1976) Bravo (1902–2002) is a leading figure in 20th-century photography
Sept. 9 Panel Discussion with Emerging Dis/Order Artists Friday at 6 p.m. The artists discuss their work in a panel moderated by Anthony Shostak, the museum’s curator of education.
Through Oct. 2 Andrew and Jamie Wyeth: Selections from the Private Collection of Victoria Browning Wyeth This exhibition presents drawings
Victoria Wyeth ’01 gives a tour of Andrew and Jamie Wyeth: Selections from the Private Collection of Victoria Browning Wyeth during Reunion 2011.
THE MUSEUM OF ART CELEBRATES ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR WITH DIVERSE EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMMING AND CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS TO ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES ACROSS BATES. and Mexican art. His photographs are deeply rooted in the culture, people and landscape of Mexico. This exhibition represents Bravo’s major themes and subjects.
Sept. 23–Dec. 17 Tale Spinning: Enrique Chagoya, Leslie Dill, Brad Kahlhamer, Shirin Neshat, Nicky Nodjoumi, Alison Saar These artists of international prominence create work with a strong narrative component. Their imagery and stories take many forms, and their art tells mysterious and provocative tales reflecting their personal and cultural backgrounds.
Sept. 23 Gallery Talk by Dan Mills Friday at 7 p.m. Mills, the Museum of Art director, presents a gallery talk, followed by the opening reception.
Margarita de Bonompak, gelatin silver print by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, 1949. Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago.
Oct. 5 Artist Lecture by Brad Kahlhamer Wednesday at 6 p.m. New York artist Kahlhamer fuses Expressionist painting with comics, street culture and the visionary tradition of Native American art to create narrative work that hovers between autobiography and invention. Followed by a reception for the artist. (Kahlhamer also
Production still from the 2003 film The Last Word by Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York. offers a musical performance with Kelsey Barrett — see Music.)
Nov. 9 Artist Lecture by Dawoud Bey
Oct. 10–Dec. 17 25: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Wednesday at 6 p.m. Photographer Dawoud Bey discusses his photo projects and how they build community. See Profile, below. Olin Concert Hall
Reflecting the curatorial contributions of Gina Crotty ’11 and Julia Foxworth ’13, students in an upper-level museum internship course, 25 celebrates the museum’s 25th anniversary with a select group of artworks from the collection.
Dress of Opening and Close of Being, sculpture by Lesley Dill, 2008. Courtesy George Adams Gallery, New York.
PROFILE DAWOUD BEY, PHOTOGRAPHER A photographer esteemed for extraordinary portrait projects that elicit his subjects’ deep trust and build community, Bey came to prominence with the 1975 series Harlem, USA, an intimate collection of neighborhood portraits. The first Office of Intercultural Education Visiting Artist/Scholar at Bates, he will meet with students and the Lewiston-Auburn community during his residency Nov. 7–9.
ONGOING EVENTS Life Drawing Sessions Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Models, drawing benches and dry-media easels are provided. $7/$6 for museum members). Bulk-admission discounts available
SHOWCASING NEW AND ESTABLISHED VOICES, LANGUAGE ARTS LIVE PRESENTS THE DIVERSE VITALITIES OF TODAY’S POETRY AND FICTION.
Since 1991, with the establishment of a creativewriting concentration within the major, the English department has hosted public readings, class visits and residencies by more than 75 acclaimed poets and writers, among them Nobel Prize laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott; Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Muldoon, Donald Justice, Elizabeth Strout ’77, Yusef Komunyakaa and Richard Ford; Carolyn Forché, Grace Paley, Galway Kinnell, Marge Piercy, Robert Pinsky and Dinaw Mengestu. Recent Bates alumni who have authored prize-winning first books have also returned to read, such as Jessica Anthony ’96, Christian Barter ’90, Gabriel Fried ’96, Christina Chiu ’91 and Craig Teicher ’01. Plan to Attend
Held in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., Language Arts Live readings are open to the public free of charge. Learn more: 207-786-6256 or 207-784-0416
SEPTEMBER Sept. 22 Poetry Reading by Gregory Pardlo Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Pardlo earned a master’s at New York University as a New York Times Fellow in Poetry. The author of Totem, which won the APR/ Honickman Prize (American Poetry Review, 2007), he is an associate poetry editor for Callaloo and teaches creative writing at The George Washington University.
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
Oct. 13 Fiction Reading by Laura Van Den Berg
Nov. 17 Poetry Reading by Sydney Lea
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Van den Berg’s story collection What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009) was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Award. A Baltimore resident, she is the Tickner Fellow at the Gilman School.
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Lea’s most recent poetry collection is Young of the Year (Four Way Books, 2011). A previous collection, Pursuit of a Wound (University of Illinois Press, 2000), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He has written for such national periodicals as The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Sports Illustrated.
SPOTLIGHT OCT. 25–29 TRANSLATIONS 2011: POETRY FESTIVAL Presented by the language faculties at Bates, this second annual festival explores the translation of poetry: as poets from Japan, Europe and the Americas read their work during four evening sessions, faculty and students provide English translations. Receptions open and close the festival and a conference on translation will deepen the exploration. “Poetry can illustrate issues pertinent
PHOTO: William Ash
Language Arts Live Bates
Bates has a long tradition of welcoming poets and fiction writers to read from their work. During a 1932 U.S. tour, William Butler Yeats read his poetry to a large audience in the Bates Chapel. For 30 years, the inimitable professor and poet John Tagliabue brought distinguished writers to Bates, including Allen Ginsberg and Gwendolyn Brooks.
to our times,” says festival organizer Claudia Aburto Guzmán, associate professor of Spanish. “And translation can help us focus on the challenges of cross-cultural communication.” Learn more: gdumais@bates.edu or 207-786-8293. Chase Hall and Edmund S. Muskie Archives / Free Naomi Otsubo, poet
25 YEARS OF THE OLIN ARTS CENTER SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8
MORE OF THE ARTS AT BATES — AND BEYOND Student energy powers Bates arts. And at this college dedicated to community engagement, the arts afford a compelling way to reach beyond the campus borders. Dating back to the founding of the all-male Deansmen in 1957, a cappella singing is a beloved Bates tradition. Sharing the a cappella stage are the male Manic Optimists, co-ed ensembles Crosstones and Takenote, and all-female Merimanders. An exciting addition to the group roster, if not strictly a cappella, is the Gospelaires. All these singers share their gifts with the community at large. For instance, they often perform at a Lewiston housing facility for seniors and the disabled, Blake Street Towers.
Built with a gift from the F.W. Olin Foundation and opened in 1986, the Olin Arts Center marks its 25th anniversary — celebrating this focal point of visual art and music on campus. Please join us for an open house featuring: • Olin Arts Center tours led by the acclaimed Asphalt
Founded in the early 1920s, the Robinson Players, Bates’ student-run theater ensemble, offer everything theatrical from traditional musicals to avant-garde one-acts. The annual Stages for All Ages production is aimed specifically at pupils from elementary schools in the region (see Theater and Dance).
Orchestra
The Freewill Folk Society’s monthly contradances, a traditional social dance form distinctive to the Northeast, attract folk dancers from all over the region. The student-run radio station, WRBC-FM, is an expressive outlet for volunteer DJs from Lewiston-Auburn as well as Bates broadcasters.
and faculty
The station also sponsors concerts by Maine and national performers. Learn more: bit.ly/facebookwrbc. Also importing top-shelf contemporary performers is the Chase Hall Committee, which books comedians, magicians and such diverse musicians as the Kinsey Sicks, Matt and Kim, Trey Anastasio and Lupe Fiasco. Learn more: www.bates.edu/CHC.xml
animals and other family
College offices and academic departments also offer arts events of interest to the community — such as the Multifaith Chaplaincy’s contemplative gatherings called {Pause} that feature performances in the Chapel every Wednesday. Learn more: www.bates.edu/chaplaincy.xml Hosting photographer Dawoud Bey at Bates this fall (see Bates College Museum of Art), the Office of Intercultural Education supports arts events that celebrate the many dimensions of diversity at Bates. And creative work is often showcased by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. Learn more: Office of Intercultural Education, www.bates.edu/x157930.xml • Harward Center, www.bates.edu/harward-center.xml Finally, visual arts and performance are key to signature events like Bates’ distinctive Martin Luther King Day observance and the Mount David Summit, a showcase of student achievement — both occasions that Bates shares eagerly with the community.
• dance, visual art and music by Bates students, alumni
• face-painting, balloon entertainments. More information coming soon! Learn more: olinarts@bates.edu
Bates
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Bates College
2 Andrews Road Lewiston, ME 04240-6228
Catherine Jones
In the image above, a local youngster taking part in the Bates College Museum of Art’s Thousand Words Project works with an education student, Morgan Lynch ‘11, to compose poems in response to paintings. Through a dynamic website featuring video interviews with artists, lesson plans and technology integration strategies, the TWP gives teachers an innovative way to teach writing skills using art as a subject and a window into the creative process. A generous grant from the Maine Community Foundation supports mini-grants to Androscoggin County teachers whose expertise helps the TWP evolve. Catherine Jones, the museum’s first Education Fellow, joins the staff this fall to focus on the TWP, thanks to a significant two-year grant from a private foundation. Learn more: www.thousandwordsproject.org
Bates
© B ates College Bates Arts Collaborative Designer: V ictoria Blaine-Wallace. Cover photograph: Ebbe Sweet ’11. Copy Editor: Doug Hubley, Bates Communications Office. Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen except where indicated.