IN THIS ISSUE
winter | spring 2017
Rose Art Museum Collection at Work Sonic Experiments From East Asia First Aid to Cultural Heritage Sites
YO U R G U I D E T O T H E A R T S AT B R A N D E I S
Seniors Sarah Ackerman, Sarah Steiker, Andrew Agress and Jamie Semel break new ground in theater performance
INTO THE WILD
visions Artists and Climate Change and climate change, our arts community responds in turn. Aida Yuen Wong, the Nathan Cummings and Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Chair in Fine Arts, will curate an exhibition in the 2017 Venice Biennale by Taiwanese artist and climate activist Vincent J.F. Huang, representing the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. The exhibition is at the center of a worldwide project that calls upon the global community to tackle the climate crisis. (Read more on page 18.)
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© JOSHUA LAVINE PHOTOGRAPHY
Artists have a unique ability to interpret the natural world.
“Once upon a midnight dreary People saw their future clearly Turtles, mangroves, coral gone Instead a watered sinking lawn Climate primate, what a horror! Quoth the Osprey, Nevermore.” So writes Pat Oleszko, the fearless performance artist and activist whose exhibition “Fool for Thought” is on view at the Women’s Studies Research Center through March 3. Oleszko’s elaborately costumed spectacles address urgent environmental issues such as Arctic drilling and sea-level rise, a commentary that is equal parts Dada, burlesque and vaudeville. Artists have a unique ability to interpret the natural world. Visual artists can hold a mirror up to the environment they want us to treasure, or open a window onto new worlds. The performing arts can animate the scientific and political forces and events that we must not ignore. As Brandeis embarks on the ambitious and necessary 2016 Climate Action Plan, which aims to improve energy and waste management on campus and educate the community about sustainability
Adrianne Krstansky, the Barbara Sherman ’54 and Malcolm L. Sherman Director of Theater Arts, coteaches with Laura Goldin (Environmental Science) a new course, Visions of Nature and Environmental Theater, in which students create works for the stage that can facilitate activism. Peter Kalb’s Ecology and Art class investigates artists such as Fritz Haeg, whose “edible estates” replace domestic lawns with food plantings. Courses in European culture and coexistence address environmental justice and other topics. Last semester saw the premiere of the environmental requiem “Elegy and Observation” by Eric Chasalow, the Irving Fine Professor of Music. And on March 25, the Lydian String Quartet will perform the world premiere of “Spinning Silence in the Possible Blue,” written for the quartet by Jon Nelson, PhD ’91, based on the patterns of flocking birds (paired with Haydn’s “Lark” Quartet). Sustainability is the theme of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. We’re putting out the call to artists who engage with ideas that contribute to a sustainable world, or who use sustainable methods or materials. And thanks to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, we will make significant changes to our operations, such as using solar power and post-consumer waste paper whenever possible. (Read more about the festival on page 11.) Join us, April 27-30!
INGRID SCHORR Acting Director, Office of the Arts
contents WINTER/SPRING 2017 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 State of the Arts is published twice a year by Brandeis University Office of the Arts.
Editor Ingrid Schorr Art Director John Sizing www.jspublicationdesign.com Editorial Assistant Brooke Granovsky ’18 Photography Mike Lovett Copy Editor Susan Pasternack Contributors Cynthia Cohen Kim Conaty Christine Dunant Judith Eissenberg Peter Kalb Susan Metrican Kristin Parker Deborah Rosenstein Caitlin Julia Rubin Robbie Steinberg ’13
TOMMY HARTUNG, “KING SOLOMON’S MINES,” 2017 (STILL, DETAIL). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ON STELLAR RAYS, NEW YORK.
2 Calendar 6 Visual Arts
Your guide to winter/spring 2017 plays, concerts, symposiums and exhibitions.
Collection at Work: Behind the scenes at the Rose Art Museum; new exhibitions at the Rose.
12 Theater
The act of discovery: See how theater arts seniors create their Senior Festival presentations, from original research to working with professional mentors.
Correspondence Office of the Arts MS 092 Brandeis University PO Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02453-2728
15 Music
brandeis.edu/arts
First aid to cultural heritage sites and a framework for ethical crisis management; Karpf and Hahn Peace Awards.
Sonic experimentation from East Asia: The PAN Project synthesizes traditional music with intercultural and modern influences.
17 Arts and Social Transformation
Lydian String Quartet page 2
18 Brandeis in Venice
GUIDE TO THE ARTS BRANDEIS.EDU/ARTS/EXTRAS
Brandeis faculty curate two exhibitions at the international Venice Biennale, featuring the work of artists Mark Bradford and Vincent Huang.
20 Artifacts 21 Calendar Highlights
Must-know info to help you keep up with the arts, from social media to parking.
COVER: MIKE LOVETT PHOTO STYLIST: ALICIA HYLAND
winter/spring 2015
One-page guide to winter and spring arts events at Brandeis.
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calendar Chamber Singers (Robert Duff, conductor) perform selections from their upcoming European concert tour. A free light lunch follows. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. Free and open to the public.
MUSIC
LYDIAN STRING QUARTET OPEN REHEARSALS Mondays through April 24, 10 a.m.-1p.m. (No rehearsal Feb. 20, Feb. 27, April 10) Drop in and observe the Lydian String Quartet rehearse masterpieces by Haydn and Brahms. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS CHAMBER SINGERS Wednesday, February 15, noon Mandel Center for the Humanities The elite undergraduates of the Brandeis
ACROSS EAST ASIA: THE PAN PROJECT Saturday, March 4, 8 p.m. (Pre-concert talk, 7 p.m.) MusicUnitesUS presents the PAN Project, which draws on the rich intercultural music traditions of East Asian instrumental performance, ritual and theater. Jeff Roberts, PhD ’08, and the musician gamin, cofounders. (See article on page 15.) Tickets: $20/$15/$5.
Lydian String Quartet
Fine was the university’s Walter S. Naumburg Professor of Music from 1950-1962, and is the namesake of the Irving G. Fine Professorship in the Department of Music. His work focused on lyricism, the 12-tone system, and confident or unusual musical turns. This year’s tribute concert features special guest artists Zéphyros Winds. Free and open to the public.
A TRIBUTE TO IRVING FINE Sunday, March 5, 3 p.m.
LYDIAN STRING QUARTET: SNEAK PEEK Wednesday, March 22, noon Mandel Center for the Humanities Enjoy a preview of the upcoming Lydian String Quartet concert. A free light lunch follows. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. Free and open to the public.
The PAN Project
COURTESY OF THE PAN PROJECT
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BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
SUSAN WILSON
All events take place at Slosberg Music Center, unless otherwise noted.
MIKE LOVETT
Brandeis Chamber Singers
ACROSS EAST ASIA: THE PAN PROJECT PREVIEW Wednesday, March 1, noon Mandel Center for the Humanities Enjoy a preview of the upcoming concert by the PAN Project. A free light lunch follows. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. Free and open to the public.
LYDIAN STRING QUARTET Saturday, March 25, 8 p.m. (Pre-concert talk, 7 p.m.) The legendary quartet continues their season with a performance of Haydn’s Quartet in D major (“Lark”), 2015 commission prizewinner Steven Snowden’s “Appalachian Polaroids,” Brahms’ Quintet in G major with guest violist Amadi Azikiwe, and a world premiere from Jon Nelson, PhD ‘91. Tickets: $20/$15/$5.
winter | spring 2017
brandeis.edu/tickets
TICKETS 781-736-3400
KALEIDOSCOPE CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Saturday, April 1, 8 p.m. Kaleidoscope, founded in 1996, presents a musical repertory diverse in style, period and instruments. As the name implies, the ensemble’s combination and number of instruments is constantly changing, even within a single concert. The group’s flutist, Jill Dreeben, is a music instructor at Brandeis. Tickets: $20/$10/free (students), available at door. BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY CHORUS Sunday, April 2, 3 p.m. Robert Duff, conductor. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS WIND ENSEMBLE Sunday, April 2, 7 p.m. Tom Souza, director. Free and open to the public.
GRADUATE STUDENT SOCIETY SHOWCASE Friday, April 21, 8 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Humanities. Free and open to the public. PIRATES OF PENZANCE* Thursday, April 27, 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 29, 1 p.m. In this student-directed production of the beloved 1879 comic operetta by Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert, pirate’s apprentice Frederic meets Mabel, the love of his life. Daniel AlbertRozenberg ’19, producer. Free and open to the public.
BRANDEIS CHAMBER SINGERS Sunday, April 23, 3 p.m. Robert Duff, director. Free and open to the public. LEONARD BERNSTEIN FELLOWSHIP RECITAL Sunday, April 23, 7 p.m. The Leonard Bernstein Fellowship provides talented music students with coaching from Brandeis faculty and staff, including members of the Lydian String Quartet. Free and open to the public. BOB NIESKE, BASS, AND BILLY NOVICK, CLARINET Wednesday, April 26, noon Mandel Center for the Humanities Join Brandeis Jazz Ensemble director Bob Nieske (bass) and Boston favorite Billy Novick (clarinet) for an informal jazz concert. A free light lunch follows. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the
FAFALI* Friday, April 28, 7 p.m. Experience the irresistible rhythms of Ghana. Ben Paulding, director. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS EARLY MUSIC ENSEMBLE* Saturday, April 29, 8 p.m. Bethlehem Chapel Sarah Mead, director. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS-WELLESLEY ORCHESTRA: CATCH A RISING STAR* Sunday, April 30, 3 p.m. Featuring the winners of the annual Concerto Competition, including Nina Sayles ’17 (marimba). Neal Hampton, conductor. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS JAZZ ENSEMBLE* Sunday, April 30, 7 p.m. Bob Nieske, director. Free and open to the public. COURTESY OF ZEPHYROS WINDS
Zéphyros Winds, March 5
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UNDERGRADUATE COMPOSERS’ CONCERT Monday, May 1, 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. BRANDEIS IMPROV COLLECTIVE Tuesday, May 2, 7 p.m.
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calendar managed by graduate student composers in Brandeis’ illustrious composition program and features professional concerts of student works. Free and open to the public.
Andrea Segar
SUSAN WILSON
*Part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.
VISUAL ARTS
PAT OLESZKO: FOOL FOR THOUGHT Through March 3 Kniznick Gallery, Women’s Studies Research Center Pat Oleszko is an internationally known visual and performance artist whose work ranges from the street to stage to silver screen through humor by way of absurdity.
Tom Hall, director. Free and open to the public.
All visual arts events and exhibitions are free and open to the public.
POST-BACCALAUREATE PAINTING AND SCULPTURE February 15-March 23
CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL Wednesday, May 3, 7 p.m. Featuring the students of MUS116. Free and open to the public.
WINTER/SPRING EXHIBITIONS February 17-June 11 Rose Art Museum
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 15, 5-7 p.m. Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
BERGER AND SEGAR STUDIO RECITAL Thursday, May 4, 7 p.m. Students of Mark Berger (viola) and Andrea Segar (violin), members of the Lydian String Quartet, perform a variety of violin and viola works in this culminating performance. Free and open to the public.
For exhibition descriptions, see page 9. Opening Reception: Thursday, February 16, 5-8 p.m. Helène Aylon
JARED REDMOND, PIANO Friday, May 5, 8 p.m. Jared Redmond is a pianist, composer and doctoral candidate at Brandeis. Redmond has been a Presidential Fellow and an Irving G. Fine Fellow in Music Composition. His research focuses on the late works of composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), and his music focuses on making bold, unexpected and creative choices. Free and open to the public. NEW MUSIC BRANDEIS: SEASON FINALE Sunday, May 7, 8 p.m. The contemporary music series New Music Brandeis is programmed and
COURTESY OF HELÈNE AYLON
brandeis.edu/tickets
TICKETS 781-736-3400
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BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
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RISE UP: NEW WORK BY THE CLASS OF 2018 March 29-April 27
Leveling Up
MIKE LOVETT
HELÈNE AYLON | AFTERWORD: FOR THE CHILDREN Kniznick Gallery, Women’s Studies Research Center March 20-June 16 Artist Talk: Tuesday, March 21, 5 p.m. Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 21, 6-8 p.m. Internationally acclaimed Jewish feminist artist Helène Aylon, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Artist in Residence, presents her conclusion to “The G-d Project: Nine Houses Without Women,” her 20-year series highlighting the dismissal of women in Jewish traditions and text. Aylon dedicates her immersive digital installation to the future generation, challenging all who regard the Ten Commandments not to shrug off a dark foreboding that emanates — in her view — from the patriarchy, not from God. The artist’s examination of the text reveals a universal dilemma through its connection to contemporary policies and practices that shape the world our children will inherit.
his gaming skills into a job at the National Security Organization, his friends learn that what happens in the virtual world can have grave consequences in the real one. Tickets: $20/$15/$5. Presented by the Department of Theater Arts.
Footloose
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 29, 5-7 p.m. Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center CLASS OF 2017 STUDIO MAJORS May 3-22 Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 3, 5-7 p.m. Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
THEATER LEVELING UP By Deborah Zoe Laufer Directed by Robert Walsh March 9-12 Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center “Leveling Up” follows three 20-something roommates who are obsessed with video games, and considerably less engaged with making a living. When one parlays
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FOOTLOOSE March 30-April 2 Shapiro Campus Center Theater The perennial musical theater favorite comes to Brandeis in its most lively, inclusive form as an open-cast musical. (No performance Friday, March 31.) Tickets: $3/$5. Presented by the student-run Hillel Theater Group.
SENIOR FESTIVAL March 31-April 2 Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center Graduating students in the Theater Arts Department present shows of their own making, including a devised piece about environmental activism, a sketch comedy show based on history, and a musical that deals with addiction. For complete schedule, visit the Theater Arts Department online. Free and open to the public. ALICE IN WONDERLAND April 22 Shiffman Humanities Center Follow Alice and friends around campus in this mobile, nonsensical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic story. Tickets: $3/$5. Presented by the student-run Brandeis Ensemble Theatre. BORIS’ KITCHEN BIG SHOW April 28-29 Shapiro Campus Center Theater The student-run sketch comedy group Boris’ Kitchen should have no shortage of material for their annual show, which skewers and satirizes global events, on-campus events and pop culture. For ticket information, visit Brandeis Tickets.
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Collection at 6
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
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The Rose showcases the inside work of collections care by Kim Conaty | Curator, Rose Art Museum
Work T
his semester, the Rose Art Museum will unveil a rather unusual exhibition in its Lois Foster Gallery. “Collection at Work,” as the presentation has been simply titled, will turn the Rose’s largest exhibition space into a work area, inviting visitors to witness some of the most important behind-the-scenes work of a museum: the study and stewardship of the artworks under its care. In plain sight, staff members and outside specialists will work together in the Rose’s Foster Gallery to photograph, catalog, (continued on page 8) winter | spring 2017
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re-house and conserve a rotating selection of works from the Rose’s renowned permanent collection. The public will see these artworks without their usual trappings of display: drawings and photographs will be unframed and resting on simple worktables; sculptures may be in the process of being physically assembled; and paintings might be propped against the wall. The presentation offers a unique opportunity to realize a significant amount of essential collections care work. It will also provide a special occasion for patrons and the university community to learn about the lives of objects in a museum context as well as about the various roles that arts professionals play in caring for them. Visitors will be oriented in an entry space, in which a single work from the collection will be featured. The “Spotlight” work will be rotated each month to showcase just a few of the Rose’s masterworks and will be accompanied by rich didactic labels researched and written by the Rose curatorial interns. The rest of the Foster will be an active work space, with highlights that include the reinstallation and digitization of several groundbreaking works of sculpture
by pioneering women artists such as Jackie Ferrara, Mary Miss, and Jackie Winsor, all of which were acquired in relation to the critically acclaimed Rose exhibition “More Than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the ’70s” (1996). While these larger works are being assembled and photographed, staff members from the Rose’s collections team will study, measure, photograph and re-house when necessary the largely unknown collection of over 1,000 photographs, including works by 20th-century greats Robert Capa, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Paul Strand. Alongside these daily projects, the Rose will also collaborate with outside conservators to perform treatments on a few key works in the collection, including Yayoi Kusama’s stuffedand-sewn cotton “Blue Coat” (1965). A key impetus for this exhibition is the prestigious federal grant that the Rose received in 2015 to support sustained work on a portion of its collection. This twoyear, $150,000 grant from the Collection Stewardship Program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was awarded to the Rose based on its proposal to assess, catalog and digitize some 3,000
Mary Miss, “Stake Fence,” 1970.
works from its collection — more than 30 percent of the museum’s total holdings. Along with a subsequent matching grant from the Jasmine Charity Trust, the IMLS funding added critical fuel to the Rose staff’s unwavering dedication to studying and improving access to its collection. Part of the work was completed last summer, when staff took advantage of the temporarily empty 4,400-square-foot Foster
An exhibition as well as a workspace, “Collection at Work” will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the museum cares for objects in its collection, such as Robert Rauschenberg’s “Second Time Painting,” below.
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visual arts Gallery to install and document 97 largescale paintings, including Jack Whitten’s 17-foot-long “The Pariah Way” (1973) and Judy Chicago’s 10-foot-long “Desert Fan” (1970), whose sheer weight (the painting was made on a sheet of heavy acrylic) required a team of preparators to lift it into place.
PAGE 6, CHARLES MAYER; PAGE 7, MIKE LOVETT; PAGE 8 TOP, COURTESY OF MARY MISS; BOTTOM, MIKE LOVETT.
Supporting the Rose’s mission statement, which affirms and advances the values of diversity and social justice that are hallmarks of Brandeis University, the current collection documentation project focuses on 20th- and 21st-century works by female and African-American artists, as well as the museum’s historically rich but lesser-known collections of photography and works on paper. These noteworthy collections deepen and complicate the understanding of accepted narratives within art history and forge stronger ties with academic interests on campus. A principal component of the museum’s collection work — and the visible portion of that project taking place in the Foster Gallery — is dedicated to bolstering object data and capturing high-resolution images that can be incorporated into the museum’s website. Why? Museum websites, and specifically the digital databases of an institution’s permanent collection of artworks, are considered by many institutions to be a second venue or gallery for good reason: Imagine how many more people can search a museum’s website but cannot travel to its physical site. For outside researchers and scholars, and even for Brandeis faculty and students, the Rose collection is often only “knowable” through works on view in the galleries and, more significantly, through its digital collection. Two years ago, only about 10 percent of the Rose’s collection was online; by the end of the grant period (October 2018), more than half of the collection will be digitized. These long-term, behindthe-scenes projects are the hard work of museums, but the payoff is immeasurable. “Collection at Work” is on view at the Rose Art Museum from Feb. 17 to June 11, 2017.
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FRED EVERSLEY, “UNTITLED” (1976). PHOTO: CHARLES MAYER
ROSE ART MUSEUM Founded in 1961, the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is among the nation’s premier university museums dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting 20th- and 21st-century art. A center of cultural and intellectual life on campus, the museum serves as a catalyst for artistic expression, a living textbook for object-based learning, a site for scholarly innovation and the production of new knowledge through art. American painting of the postwar period and contemporary art are particularly well represented within the Rose’s permanent collection, which is now more than 8,000 objects strong. Major paintings by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler and Andy Warhol anchor the collection, and recently acquired works by Mark Bradford, Al Loving, Jack Whitten and Charline von Heyl build upon this strength while reflecting the museum’s commitment to works of both artistic importance and social relevance.
WINTER/SPRING EXHIBITIONS On view February 17-June 11 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 16, 5-8 p.m. Celebrate the opening of the museum’s spring semester exhibitions. On February 17, regular museum hours resume: Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. PROGRAMS AND EVENTS The Rose presents interdisciplinary programs and artist talks throughout the semester. All events are free and open to the public. For complete listings, visit the Rose website. FRED EVERSLEY: BLACK, WHITE, GRAY For more than four decades, Fred Eversley has produced a singular body of work that considers materials, light, and the optical qualities of shapes and colors as part of a broad investigation of visual perception. This exhibition examines a series of black, white and gray scuptures that Eversley began in the early 1970s. A Brooklyn native and engineer by training,
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visual arts EXPAND YOUR EXPERIENCE BRANDEIS.EDU/ARTS/EXTRAS
TOMMY HARTUNG, “KING SOLOMON’S MINES,” 2017 (STILL, DETAIL). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ON STELLAR RAYS, NEW YORK.
Eversley moved to Los Angeles in 1963 to work in the aerospace industry; four years later, inspired by the burgeoning bohemian culture of Venice Beach, he decided to shift careers and become an artist. Since that time, the African-American artist has pushed the boundaries of sculpture, bringing his technical expertise and keen aesthetic sensibility to bear on the remarkable objects that he produces. This exhibition examines a series of black, white and gray “lens” sculptures that Eversley began in the early 1970s. Today, these works prompt us to think about how we see and how we ascribe meaning to color. Curated by Kim Conaty. TOMMY HARTUNG: KING SOLOMON’S MINES Tommy Hartung extends his investigation of mythmaking and storytelling to surveillance, wealth and politics. Alongside his sculptures and Polaroid photographs, Hartung’s new video work, “King Solomon’s Mines,” weaves a new satirical narrative based in the Sahara Desert, a harsh landscape traversed by tourists as well as by the region’s impoverished migrants. Co-curated by Kim Conaty and Caitlin Julia Rubin.
COLLECTION AT WORK See a changing selection of artworks and learn about the museum’s many roles in the lives of the objects in its care. “Collection at Work” transforms the Lois Foster Gallery into a workspace for stewardship of the museum’s renowned collection. Visitors are invited to witness the photography, cataloging and study of artworks from the Rose’s permanent collection.
REFLECTIONS: LOUISE NEVELSON, 1967 In 1967, the Rose presented Louise Nevelson’s first retrospective, organized with the Whitney Museum of American Art. In a display of previously unexhibited archival materials, including installation photographs, correspondence and artistdrawn floor plans, as well as a virtual reality model of the 1967 exhibition, created by students at the Brandeis MakerLab, “Reflections” provides an immersive entry into this moment in the museum’s history. ROSE VIDEO 10: ANA MENDIETA This presentation of Ana Mendieta’s early video “Sweating Blood” (1973) showcases Mendieta’s “Body Tracks” (1982), her triptych of drawings from the Rose collection, within the expanded context of the artist’s practice.
TOMMY HARTUNG, “KING SOLOMON’S MINES,” 2017 (STILL, DETAIL). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ON STELLAR RAYS, NEW YORK.
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Festival of the Arts
Festival of the Arts
April 27-30, 2017 LEONARD BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL OF THE CREATIVE ARTS Experience the unexpected at this annual arts happening. The Festival of the Creative Arts was founded in 1952 by the legendary American composer and Brandeis faculty member Leonard Bernstein. Today, the festival honors Bernstein’s legacy as an artist, educator, activist and humanitarian who believed in the power of art to effect social change and engage young people. Celebrate creativity and community with innovative performances and exhibitions by Brandeis faculty, staff and students, along with guest artists from around New England. A complete schedule will be available online at brandeis.edu/arts/festival and at campus venues in mid-March. The theme of the 2017 festival is sustainability, with a focus on how art and artists can protect our shared world. HIghlights: Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, Culture X (the Intercultural Center’s performance showcase), and a staged reading of “The Square,” a new play by Amy Merrill ’69, directed by Guy Ben-Aharon. All events are free and open to the public.
MIKE LOVETT
SUPER SUNDAY Sunday, April 30, 1-5 p.m. More than 200 actors, singers, dancers and musicians give free performances, with art activities and demonstrations for the whole family.
Festival of the Arts
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The Act of
Devising, writing, assembling the theater thesis
by Brooke Granovsky ’18
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Discovery S
theater
ince 2012, honors candidates in the Department of Theater Arts have generated new plays that investigate political activism, current events and behavioral psychology, among other topics. The process is an “academic and artistic marriage in action,” explains Alicia Hyland, senior academic administrator in the Theater Arts Department and producer of the Senior Festival. “We often say that our department productions are the ‘lab’ component to our classroom work. The festival takes that one step further by putting control in the hands of the seniors, allowing them to ask an artistic or creative question and to explore that question through production.” Students propose a thesis in their junior year, and as seniors, they take extra classes, find professional mentors and collect source material in preparation for their productions. By tackling their topics in fresh, experimental ways, they reap intellectual and creative rewards that cap their four years of rigorous study in theater arts and other areas.
Jamie Semel: “Luna”
winter | spring 2017
MIKE LOVETT
Not many people would willingly wade into a knee-high mud puddle for a photo shoot. Even fewer would spend more than 700 days in a redwood tree to protest logging. Maybe that’s why Jamie Semel, the puddle jumper, has what it takes to bring the story of Julia Butterfly Hill, the young American activist, to the stage as a devised work called “Luna.” Devised theater work bridges the traditional roles of actor, playwright, director and collaborator. At Brandeis, undergraduates learn the technique in Adrianne Krstansky’s very popular Collaborative Process class, colloquially referred to as “co-lab.” They work together to create characters, text, themes, and action until a performance is born. Semel’s co-lab class bounced from subject to subject, covering current events, theater history, and the students’ own experiences. One memorable project began with a trip to the local Hannaford grocery store, which segued into a play about Thanksgiving dinner. Inspired to keep creating devised work, during her junior year Semel attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. There, she and her 30 classmates devised a piece about civic responsibility and Joan of Arc. She then made her way to Brooklyn and the Superhero Clubhouse, a collective of artists and scientists, founded by an NTI alum, to learn how to synthesize classical theater techniques with sustainable production methods and topics in environmental studies. (Superhero Clubhouse members will join Semel on campus this semester to lead a workshop on creating eco-theater.) To discover the multiple interpretations of Butterfly Hill’s tree sit, Semel turned to her devising group, some of whom are members of the cast, all of whom are dedicating considerable time to helping her create “Luna.” In early development meetings, she asks them to consider the tree sit from various perspectives. In one session, it is the perspective of the loggers waiting to cut down the tree.
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theater “It’s very easy to accept the destruction we enact as humans, just because it’s what we’ve always known.” — Jamie Semel
Later, the group role-plays radio journalists covering the event, and elementary-school students writing letters to Butterfly Hill. In preparation for writing her final script, Semel also immersed herself in Butterfly Hill’s published memoir, as well as books by Henry David Thoreau and Jon Krakauer. Is Butterfly Hill a hero or a villain? Semel wants audience members to come away with their own questions about humans’ relationship to the natural world. “It’s very easy to accept the destruction we enact as humans, just because it’s what we’ve always known,” says Semel. Her thesis aims to reframe and question that acceptance.
Andrew Agress: “Taking Ages” Andrew Agress’ goal is to engage an audience with his passion (and second major): history. And he’ll do it through his favorite genre: sketch comedy. He says his thesis, which takes place from the Middle Ages to the modern day, is shaping up to be a mix of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged” and Comedy Central’s “Drunk History,” with inspiration from “Hamilton.” Agress began thinking about a comedic thesis during his semester at Second City
The essential question for Andrew Agress is how humor can be a window into knowledge. Chicago, the renowned improv theater school. “On a break between my 5.5 comedy classes,” he says, he brought up the idea with some friends. One of them happened to be Amy Thompson ’11, whose own senior thesis was in sketch comedy form and who, like Agress, was a member of the Brandeis sketch comedy group Boris’ Kitchen. (Thompson will visit campus this semester to lead a sketch comedy workshop and to sit in on Agress’ rehearsals.) “I wrote a comedy sketch for almost every history class that I’ve taken,” says
Agress. He has also asked friends to give him syllabuses and readings from their history classes, effectively “taking” extra courses as research. “One class [from Second City] that I’m drawing from is History and Analysis of Modern Comedy. We spent a lot of time learning about Lenny Bruce, and then [I attended] the Lenny Bruce conference at Brandeis, where I learned even more,” he says. Agress is also honing his comedic skills with Boris’ Kitchen as they prepare for their spring Big Show. And Agress is lucky to have his thesis director, Raphael Stigliano ’18, as a suite mate. As Stigliano notes, he’s “only a wall away.” The essential question for Agress is how humor can be a window into knowledge. “Whenever I hear about an event, I think about how I could make it interesting and funny,” he says. He hopes to add his name to the line of Brandeisians in smart topical comedy, such as Josh Gondelman ’07, who won an Emmy Award for writing on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” and viral video maker Paul Gale ’12.
Sarah Ackerman and Sarah Steiker: “Work in Progress” When Sarah Ackerman and Sarah Steiker began talking about pursuing a senior thesis together, they found inspiration in their shared interest in human behavior. Ackerman, whose second major is psychology, convinced Steiker, a theater and business double major, to look to the subject for thesis material, and they settled on various forms of addiction as their topic. Musical revue is their framework, with songs, dialogue and found text forming a narrative about life with addiction, unhealthy relationships and alcohol abuse. Auditioning actors gave a monologue and a song from musical theater, as the directors wanted to see whether their cast could handle singing, acting and any other forms of theater they might throw their way. Both Steiker and Ackerman have experience in a wide variety of performance genres. When it comes to theater with darker themes, Steiker has the benefit of
14 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
having played Wendla in a student production of “Spring Awakening” and the mentally ill title character in “Grace,” a senior thesis by Charlie Madison ’15. Ackerman brings years of professional experience on television and stage, including an episode of NBC’s “30 Rock.” Clearly, both creators have the experience necessary to synthesize material from different theatrical sources and discover connections that will make the narrative flow smoothly. Adding to their experience is Sara Schoch, MFA ‘14, an award-winning actress, director and theater professor at the University of West Florida, who visited campus to coach Steiker and Ackerman and give a vocal recital. “Sarah and I spend a lot of time looking at text that can inform our work or even be used in the performance,” says Steiker. They are conducting interviews and surveys through their social networks in order to understand personal experiences with addiction and abuse, including those of friends and family members. Ackerman is researching neuropsychology and the scientific explanations for addiction. In short, the show has enough science and story to satisfy any kind of major or viewer. The students’ use of research and analysis will help ground the show in the scientific side of addiction, while the testimonies that Steiker and Ackerman are gathering will round out the show, adding poignancy to the scientific research that is portrayed. With devised plays, sketch comedy and musical revues taking aim at serious topics from many different angles, this year’s Senior Festival has something for everyone. And with students whose training spans the National Theater Institute to Second City to off-Broadway, one can be sure that these devisers, writers and assemblers will deliver. The festival will run from March 31 to April 2 in the Laurie Theater in Spingold Theater Center. —Brooke Granovsky ’18, a politics major, is vice president of Adagio Dance Company, co-president of Ballet Club and a programs assistant in the Office of the Arts.
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MusicUnitesUS
The MusicUnitesUS program opens unique pathways to understanding and appreciation across today’s global community. For full residency schedules, visit brandeis. edu/MusicUnitesUS. Concerts: Wednesday, March 1, noon Mandel Center for the Humanities Saturday, March 4, 8 p.m. Slosberg Music Center
THE PAN PROJECT
Cross-cultural improvisation from a contemporary East Asian perspective
The ensemble’s name comes from the Korean folk genre p’ansori, which means to come together. “P’ansori is an intense, all-out expression,” says MusicUnitesUS
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EUGENIE CRETE, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND ICCROM
C
Continuing its exploration of cross-cultural musical improvisation, MusicUnitesUS presents the international PAN Project in residence at Brandeis from February 27 to March 4. “PAN Project draws on the rich intercultural music traditions of East Asian instrumental performance, ritual and theater,” says co-founder Jeff Roberts, who earned his doctorate in music composition and theory at Brandeis in 2008. “From there, we add modern influences, drawing on improvisation, Western composition and multimedia technology.”
The artists will visit classes across campus, open to the public for the residency, encompassing subjects from anthropology to literature to art history. About the ensemble: Co-founder Gamin Kang, known professionally as gamin, is one of Korea’s most celebrated performers of the wind instruments piri, taepyeongso and saengwhang. She has received the UNESCO World Heritage Center designation of “yujisa” in piri court music and daechita. Yoo YoungDae, music director of the National Changgeuk Company, describes gamin’s music as “free-spirited in restraint, delicate in bluntness, and sorrow in bliss.” Co-founder Jeff Roberts, PhD ’08, is a professor at the University of Alberta in the departments of music and East Asian studies. As a performer, Roberts improvises and collaborates on Chinese guqin and guitar.
director and professor of the practice Judith Eissenberg. “The members of PAN Ensemble are masters of the most expressive Asian instruments; the combined effect is sonically gorgeous.”
Percussionist Woonjung Sim is the winner of the World Music Award (2009) and Experimental Spirit Award (2010) of the 21st-Century Korean Music Project Competition.
The central importance of nature in Chinese, Korean and Japanese traditions inspires the multimedia work that accompanies the ensemble’s performances. Video projections of movement in nature — wind on grass, moonlight on water — are controlled by sensors worn by the musicians, changing in response to their movements and also to the pitch and vibrations of their instruments. Field recordings of rain and found objects provide additional texture that is in turn emulated by the ensemble.
Kaoru Wantanabe is one of the top taiko drum masters in the world, a master of Japanese flutes, a jazz flutist, and a collaborator with some of the top ensembles in the world, including Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Wang Ying-chieh is her generation’s most celebrated player of the two-stringed ehru. A former principal in the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, she teaches at the National Taiwan University of Arts.
STATE OF THE ARTS | BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 15
Culture Cannot Wait A
museum professional learns how to Ahel reorient a community disoripent ed by trauma
s a specialist in heritage preservation who has worked in museums for more than 15 years, when I enter a museum gallery, historic home or archaeological site, I see more than just beautiful works of art. I see human experience expressed through objects — sculpture, paintings, manuscripts, film, architectural fragments and built heritage.
unprecedented level of cultural destruction and natural disasters, it is critical for those of us in the heritage field — art curators, conservators, archaeologists, heritage lawyers — to support local expertise in countering these losses. Access to cultural heritage — to sacred and historic sites, national symbols and ob-
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs humanitarian cluster framework. The program is run by ICCROM, the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (Italy); the Smithsonian Institution; and the Prince Claus Cultural Emergency Fund (Netherlands).
Heritage professionals participated in several simulations ranging from negotiations to militaryassisted artifact rescues and repairs.
In times of conflict or natural disaster, the first goal, of course, is to save lives. The next thing to save, in the words of a Haitian heritage worker, is “a people’s reason for living.” With the world experiencing an
by KRISTIN PARKER Interim Director, Rose Art Museum
jects, music, even familiar food — is critical to helping reorient a community disoriented by trauma. Yet the risks are enormous. Recently, in the Syrian cities of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor, Ismail Mohammad Ali and Khalad al-Assad were executed by ISIS for protecting ancient artifacts. In June 2016, with support from the Provost’s Research Fund at Brandeis, I participated in a professional training program called First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis, in Washington, D.C. Now in its fifth year, the program has the mission of incorporating cultural heritage response into the United Nations Office
16 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
Twenty-one heritage professionals from 17 countries (including Malawi, Syria, New Zealand, Iraq and Sri Lanka) engaged in 20 days of intense theoretical training and emergency simulations. We learned salvage techniques for a range of artifacts, emergency documentation of museum collections, and preservation planning (preventive maintenance). We were tasked with exercises that would hone our negotiation and public relations skills. How do you gain access to a military installation bedded down in a museum? How do you create preservation strategies
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EUGENIE CRETE, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND ICCROM
The mission of preserving works is to protect their stories so they may be shared with future generations. Cultural heritage is a manifestation of the human spirit. Our shared heritage represents our diverse and nuanced identities.
when access to traditional conservation supplies are limited? We discussed ethical dilemmas: Who gets to decide what is most important to save? How do we care for traumatized victims who want to assist in the work? Eight hours a day, we were pushed to our physical and mental limits, working through simulations of real-world situations that encompassed political instability, civil unrest and unfolding disasters. The intensity came to a head on the day of our final exercise. At a military training center in Maryland, my team was given the following scenario: The director of a national museum whose country was suffering civil unrest had brought us to a facility where important artifacts belonging to each of the warring communities had been evacuated. A car bomb exploded, injuring museum workers and damaging the storage facility. We were asked to lead an on-site survey, emergency documentation, and salvage, triage and stabilization of objects. After my team negotiated access to the site and helped first-aid workers remove the injured, I was hoisted in a harness inside a boiling hot, dangerously damaged metal container, directing soldiers — real soldiers of the 911th Engineering Company — to box up damaged artifacts. I had to move quickly, triaging objects for recovery, considering the historic, evidential and sacred value to each of the stakeholders. The military are key actors in times of crisis. These soldiers were genuinely curious and enthusiastic about assisting us. “Why are these things so important?” one asked me, as we crawled into the rubble. “They represent the community’s identity,” I said. “Imagine the U.S. Constitution was buried in here.” “Nice!” He grinned, and with a burst of energy cleared a path of shrapnel and other debris so I could continue to work. The framework for recovery calls for consensus building with all stakeholders, requiring close listening to the community
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arts&social transformation KARPF AND HAHN PEACE AWARD WINNERS NAMED Four of the six undergraduate recipients of the 2016 Karpf Peace Awards and the Hahn Peace Awards will engage in projects in the arts.
1 2 3 4
Marcelo Brociner ’18 will curate an exhibition in Hanoi of paintings and posters by his grandfather, Rene Mederos, a well-known Cuban artist who was sent to Vietnam in 1969 to record scenes from the war. The exhibition in Hanoi will also include works by several contemporary Vietnamese artists. Matt Hoisch ’19 will attend the Sustainable Water Management Conference in New Orleans as preparation for curating the second annual Climate Change Art Exhibition, an event that brings together student artists of diverse artistic mediums to create pieces reflecting on climate change and its impact. To be presented at the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, April 27-30. Gilberto Rosa ’19 will travel to La Vega, Bonao, Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic to photograph communities and visually show the consequences that colonialism had in those regions. These images will eventually become a photo book of the current issues affecting Caribbean countries as a result of colonialism. Jessica Star ’17 will create an ensemble production that highlights the personal and social costs of nonviolent protest, with the intention of performing this piece for the Brandeis community. The Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Program gives the Karpf Peace Awards and the Hahn Peace Awards annually to Brandeis undergraduate and graduate students who wish to work toward coexistence and peaceful ways of addressing and resolving conflicts of many sorts. The awards are meant to enhance peace culture as it evolves in our society and elsewhere in the world.
about what they most value. If invited into a crisis situation, a cultural first aider maintains cultural sensitivity and neutrality, and builds relationships with local emergency responders. Even if armed with scholarly expertise, an outsider organization cannot go into a site — however well-intentioned — and tell a community what needs to be recovered. When I returned to Brandeis, I introduced the framework for recovery to students in the Introduction to Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation course. These students then worked on a crisis simula-
tion with heritage experts visiting from Aleppo. Programs in the Heller School and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life have also welcomed me as a resource for exploring cultural sensitivity training and recovery. This important work will take root at Brandeis and will spread wherever it is urgently needed. To learn more, visit culturalrescue.si.edu. More resources, including a report written by the students in Introduction to Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation, can be found in State of the Arts online extras.
STATE OF THE ARTS | BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 17
brandeis in venice The 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, May 13-Nov. 26, 2017 The 121-year old Venice Biennale is the oldest and most prestigious international art exhibition in the world. It is rare for any university to make curatorial contributions to two national pavilions in the same year. This year, Brandeis is doing exactly that, with one exhibition representing one of the largest participating countries and the other representing the smallest. Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford will represent the United States in an exhibition presented by the Rose Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Aida Yuen Wong, Nathan Cummings and Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Chair in Fine Arts, will curate an exhibition by Tai-
wanese artist and climate activist Vincent J.F. Huang, representing the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. As a showcase for leading contemporary art, the Biennale is often referred to as the Olympics of the art world. The exhibition is based at a Venice park known as the Giardini, which includes 29 pavilions built and managed by the various participating nations, and a large central exhibition hall curated by the Biennale’s director. Christine Macel, chief curator at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, directs this year’s Biennale.
Bradford
Mark Bradford’s sweeping canvases conjure the sublime and evoke deep feeling while incorporating layers of social comment. In parallel with his work in the studio, Bradford maintains a social prac-
tice, anchored by his Los Angeles-based not-for-profit Art + Practice, an educational platform that emphasizes practical skills for foster youth and stresses the importance of art within a larger social context. The Biennale exhibition “Tomorrow Is Another Day” will reflect Bradford’s interest in renewing traditions of abstract and materialist painting, as well as his longtime social and intellectural interests, most notably in marginalized populations. The exhibition is curated by Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, and co-curated by Katy Siegel. Bedford served as director of the Rose Art Museum from 2013 to 2016 and is an adjunct professor of the practice in fine arts at Brandeis. Siegel is a former curator at large at the Rose. In conjunction with the exhibition, Bradford will embark on a six-year collaboration
Bradford will collaborate with a social collective in Venice that trains incarcerated men and women in artisanal production.
COURTESY OF MARK BRADFORD
18 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
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“When extreme weather rages around the world, how can art take a stand?” —VINCENT HUANG VINCENT HUANG
In 2016, Vincent Huang planted more than 7,000 mangrove trees on the coast of Tuvalu to form a QR code. Viewers can scan the code and connect to information about global climate change and rising sea levels.
with Rio Terà dei Pensieri Cooperative Association, a social collective in Venice that trains incarcerated men and women in artisanal production and servicerelated activities.
Huang
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Wong specializes in transcultural exchanges in modern and contemporary Asia. During a 2015-16 sabbatical in Taiwan, funded by Brandeis and by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wong was introduced to Huang. The artist’s “no-nonsense attitude” and dedication to addressing climate
“Tuvalu is the smallest nation in the Biennale, dealing with the biggest problem,” says Wong. “The ongoing global engagement that begins with the exhibition will strengthen Brandeis’ commitment to social justice.” Vincent Huang and Aida Wong, along with eco-art historian Mark Cheetham, will give a public discussion on March 24 at 2 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities, G03. To participate in the global engagement program related to the Tuvalu pavilion, write to aida@brandeis.edu. “For every component, there is research,” says Wong. “We must learn how to have a dialogue with previous works about environmental crisis.”
MIKE LOVETT
Vincent Huang’s exhibition in the Tuvalu Pavilion, titled “Climate Canary,” will serve as the heart of a worldwide “social sculpture” in the form of a global engagement program. This series of physical and online projects, including programs on the Brandeis campus, will call upon the global community to tackle the climate crisis that currently threatens to destroy Tuvalu. The only small Pacific island nation to have an official national pavilion in the Biennale, Tuvalu is best known for its low elevation and its designation by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change as the likely first victim of the rising sea level. Though it has thrived for thousands of years as a self-sufficient fishing community, with a population now numbering just under 10,000, Tuvalu is paying the price of global industrialization and indifference. As Huang points out, this tiny island country and Venice share a common troubling future.
Huang focuses his art and activism on a single question: When extreme weather rages around the world, how can art take a stand, and furthermore, play a role in social reform? His 2015 Venice Biennale exhibition, “Crossing the Tide,” brought Tuvalu’s fate to the attention of mainstream journalists as well as the art press all over the world.
change impressed Wong, who sees her curatorial role as interacting with the artist to transform his ideas into concrete designs. “For every component, there is research,” says Wong. “We must learn how to have a dialogue with previous works about environmental crisis.” Students will have opportunities to support the project by investigating art historical precedents as well as the work of environmental scientists.
STATE OF THE ARTS | BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 19
artifacts STAY IN TOUCH To join the Arts at Brandeis E-List and receive invitations to plays, concerts and exhibitions at Brandeis, as well as free and discount tickets to arts events across Greater Boston, visit brandeis.edu/arts. Get even more up-to-the-minute news on the Arts at Brandeis on the Facebook page and Twitter feed. MAKE AN ONLINE GIFT Brandeis University relies on the support of alumni and friends to educate the best students, maintain a world-class faculty, provide state-of-the-art performance and studio facilities, and offer dynamic extracurricular programming. Visit giving. brandeis.edu/arts. ARTS AT BRANDEIS CALENDAR ONLINE Visit brandeis.edu/events for comprehensive event listings, including film, dance, lectures and arts symposiums. ONLINE EXTRAS For additional resources, video and audio files, and other extras, plus archived issues
of State of the Arts, visit brandeis.edu/ arts/office. THEATER AND CONCERT TICKETS To buy tickets for events at the Spingold Theater Center, Slosberg Music Center or Shapiro Theater, visit brandeis.edu/ tickets, call 781-736-3400, or stop by the Brandeis Tickets office in the Shapiro Campus Center, Monday-Friday, noon-6 p.m., and Saturday, noon-4 p.m. Tickets are available for pickup or purchase in the lobbies of Spingold, Slosberg and Shapiro one hour before curtain. Reservations are recommended. Any person requiring wheelchair or other accommodations should call Brandeis Tickets at 781-736-3400. VISITING THE ROSE ART MUSEUM The Rose Art Museum is free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit brandeis.edu/rose or call 781-736-3434.
attention, please contact Visitor Services Manager Robert Chester, rmchester@ brandeis.edu, 781-736-3442. VISITING THE KNIZNICK GALLERY The Kniznick Gallery at the Women’s Studies Research Center is open MondayFriday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and during WSRC events. Admission is free. For more information, visit brandeis.edu/wsrc or call 781-736- 8102. PARKING Brandeis arts venues are located on Lower Campus within easy walking distance of each other. Free parking is available directly behind the Spingold Theater in the Theater Parking Lot (T Lot). There are accessible parking spaces in front of Spingold, Slosberg and the Rose. Programs, artists and dates are subject to change. For updates and additional arts events, visit brandeis.edu/events/arts. For directions to Brandeis University, call 781-736- 4660 or visit brandeis.edu.
If you plan to bring a group of more than 15, or any group that may require special
20 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY | STATE OF THE ARTS
winter | spring 2017
HERATCH EKMEKJIAN
Robert Duff, choral conductor and associate professor of the practice, at the inauguration of President Ronald D. Liebowitz.
calendar highlights
JENNIFER STERN
Senior Studio Majors Exhibition, 2017
Through March 3
Pat Oleszko: Fool for Thought
Kniznick Gallery, Women’s Studies Research Center
February 15-March 23
Post-Baccalaureate Painting and Sculpture
Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
February 17-June 11
Winter/Spring Exhibitions
Rose Art Museum
Wednesday, March 1, noon
Across East Asia: The PAN Project Preview
Mandel Center for Humanities Atrium
Saturday, March 4, 8 p.m.
Across East Asia: The PAN Project Concert
Slosberg Music Center
Sunday, March 5, 3 p.m.
Tribute to Irving Fine
Slosberg Music Center
Monday, March 6, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Open Rehearsal
Slosberg Music Center
March 9-12
Leveling Up
Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center
March 13 and 20, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Open Rehearsal
Slosberg Music Center
March 20-June 16
Helène Aylon | Afterword: For the Children
Kniznick Gallery, Women’s Studies Research Center
Tuesday, March 21, 5 p.m.
Helène Aylon Artist Talk
Women’s Studies Research Center
Wednesday, March 22, noon
Lydian String Quartet: Sneak Peek
Mandel Center for Humanities Atrium
Friday, March 24, 2 p.m.
Discussion: Vincent Huang, Aida Y. Wong and Mark A. Cheetham
Mandel Center for Humanities, G03
Saturday, March 25, 8 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Concert
Slosberg Music Center
March 29-April 27
Rise Up: New Work by the Class of 2018
Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
Monday, March 27, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Open Rehearsal
Slosberg Music Center
March 30-April 2
Footloose
Shapiro Campus Center Theater
March 31-April 2
Senior Festival
Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center
Sunday, April 2, 3 p.m.
Brandeis University Chorus
Slosberg Music Center
Sunday, April 2, 7 p.m.
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Monday, April 3, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Open Rehearsal
Slosberg Music Center
Sunday, April 23, 3 p.m.
Brandeis Chamber Singers
Slosberg Music Center
Sunday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Leonard Bernstein Fellowship Recital
Slosberg Music Center
Monday, April 24, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lydian String Quartet Open Rehearsal
Slosberg Music Center
Wednesday, April 26, noon
Bob Nieske, Bass, and Billy Novick, Clarinet
Mandel Center for Humanities Atrium
April 27-30
Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts
Campuswide
Friday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Fafali
Slosberg Music Center
April 28-29
Boris’ Kitchen Big Show
Shapiro Campus Center Theater
Saturday, April 29, 7 p.m.
Culture X
Levin Ballroom, Usdan Student Center
Saturday, April 29, 8 p.m.
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Bethlehem Chapel
Sunday, April 30, 3 p.m.
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra
Slosberg Music Center
Sunday, April 30, 7 p.m.
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Slosberg Music Center
Monday, May 1, 7 p.m.
Undergraduate Composers’ Concert
Slosberg Music Center
Tuesday, May 2, 7 p.m.
Brandeis Improv Collective
Slosberg Music Center
May 3-22
Class of 2017 Studio Majors Exhibition
Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
Sunday, May 7, 8 p.m.
New Music Brandeis: Season Finale
Slosberg Music Center
winter | spring 2017
STATE OF THE ARTS | BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 21
Volume 13 / Number 2
Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Boston, MA Permit No. 15731
Brandeis University Office of the Arts MS 092 / PO Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454 - 9110
brandeis.edu/arts
SAVE THE DATE! Across East Asia: The PAN Project, March 4, 8 p.m., Slosberg Music Center
COURTESY OF THE PAN PROJECT
The PAN Project’s residency, presented by MusicUnitesUS, offers a rare chance to see virtuosos in East-Asian instrumental performance and cross-cultural musical improvisation at work.