Brandeis State of the Arts, Fall 2018

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i n t h is i s s ue : A Taste of Ghana, new fine arts faculty, Bernstein and the FBI

OF THE

STATE ARTS a guide to the arts at brandeis

It’s necessary for tightrope walkers and knitters, who can sense exactly how much they need to get the job done.

“We knew that everyone’s level of comfort was going to be different, but that everyone should have some elevated level of stress [along with] that comfort,” says Brimhall-Vargas. “If it’s a perfectly easy walk through the park, then they are probably really not engaging [with] it, or don’t really understand what they are seeing.”

This was not a course meant to shock or desensitize. Students were assured that everything they read or watched was carefully curated by their professors. “We promised them they would be prepared to understand what they were seeing, that we had a trajectory in mind for each and every class session,” says Brimhall-Vargas.

© JOSHUA LAVINE PHOTOGRAPHY

VISIONS: INGRID SCHORR //

When is tension a good thing?

Tension can be a delicious ingredient in dance.

Choreographer Martha Graham understood that the body has only two states: expansion and contraction, and that dance is about the interplay between them.

There’s also the tension caused by the hard edge of discomfort, such as when we encounter a work of provocative art or literature or music. Taken too far, or without context, the discomfort can be perceived as painful.

At Brandeis, where we do like to push the boundaries in exploring the arts, we have to keep asking: What is the responsibility of the artist, the professor, the museum when presenting provocative or controversial art? When does challenging convention cross the line into attack?

These were some of the questions posed in the course Provocative Art: Outside the Comfort Zone, taught in spring 2018 by Gannit Ankori (Fine Arts) and Mark Brimhall-Vargas, chief diversity officer and vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. With participation from faculty and staff across the university, students in the class learned to analyze and discuss works of art that provoke controversy, outrage, fear, discomfort and other strong responses.

Guest artist Dawn Simmons, who directs the Department of Theater Arts production of “Circle Mirror Transformation” this fall, notes that it’s the play’s “uncomfortableness” that fascinates her. In an interview on page 17, Simmons talks about how she will harness that tension for her undergraduate cast.

Outside the classroom, are there long-term benefits of generative tension? What role can the arts play in a student’s development as a friend, colleague or individual? A study of approximately 4,000 undergraduate students at the University of Michigan found that engaging with the arts played a strong social role in creating (10 percent) and strengthening (8 percent) social bonds, supporting friendships (15 percent) and in forming personal identity (9 percent). Students also reported that engaging with the arts helped them gain skills (12 percent), become more open-minded through cultural understanding (12 percent) and find a balance in life (14 percent).

For the artist, too, the exploration continues. I’ll leave you with Martha Graham’s words: “No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

Ingrid Schorr Director, Office of the Arts

Your guide to fall 2018 plays, concerts, readings and exhibitions.

AT T H E ROS E 8 Tuesday Smillie explores transgender-feminist politics and activism; chief curator Luis Croquer unveils a fresh look at the museum's permanent collection.

A TA ST E O F G H A N A 10 Musicians from the four distinct Ghanaian traditions come together for the first time for a residency and concert, sponsored by MusicUnitesUS.

FI N E A RTS W E LCO M E S T WO NE W FACULT Y ME MB E RS 12 Meet photographer and installation artist Sheida Soleimani, and Muna Guvenc, who teaches modern and contemporary architecture.

FA SC I N AT I N G D I SCO M FO RT 1 5 Playwright and director Dawn Simmons finds inspiration in the commonplace as she prepares to guest direct “Circle Mirror Transformation” this fall.

LEO N A R D B E R N ST E I N A N D T HE FB I 16 In an excerpt from his book on the political history of Brandeis, Stephen Whitfield reveals how Bernstein took to the Brandeis stage to defy Cold War interference with his beliefs and values.

BOSTO N L AT I N A M E R I CA N I NDE PE NDE NT FI L M FE ST I VAL 2 0 As a host of the innovative festival of new Latin American films, Brandeis joins the movement for change in the film industry.

A RT O F T H E M AT T E R 22 What’s the buzz? Catch up with our distinguished Creative Arts faculty.

A RT I FACTS Plan your Brandeis arts moments with this pullout calendar.

state of the arts Fall 2018 Volume 15 | Number 1 State of the Arts is published twice a year by Brandeis University Office of the Arts.

editor Ingrid Schorr photography Mike Lovett

copy editor Susan Pasternack contributors Gannit Ankori Jarret Bencks Susan Metrican Ben Paulding Deborah Rosenstein Caitlin Julia Rubin Robbie Steinberg ’13 Katie Sumi Stephen Whitfield

Office of Communications © Brandeis University 2018 J227

correspondence Brandeis University Office of the Arts MS 092 | PO Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 brandeis.edu/arts guide to the arts cover: Francis Akotuah and Attah Poku playing Kpanlogo, a recreational piece of the Ga people of Ghana.

Photograph by Elana Cohen-Khani.

\\ IN THIS ISSUE

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FALL 2018 CALENDAR //

MUSIC Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public, and take place at the Slosberg Music Center. Tickets are available at brandeis.edu/tickets or 781-736-3400. wednesday, september 26, noon

afternoon jazz with bob nieske and billy novick Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium Old friends and collaborators Bob Nieske (bass) and Billy Novick (clarinet) take you on a smooth ride, followed by a free buffet lunch. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. october 4-november 18

Brandeis professors emeriti Dan Stepner and Yehudi Wyner perform music of Bach, Webern, Hindemith, Wyner and Debussy.

Proceeds benefit the Unaccompanied Bach Workshop Scholarship Fund.

Tickets: $20/$15/$5. friday, october 26, 8 pm

new music brandeis: composers’ collective Premieres of new works by Brandeis graduate composers. sunday, november 11, 2 pm

brandeis chamber singers and university chorus

Robert Duff, conductor.

Wednesday-Sunday, noon–5 p.m. and Thursday, noon–8 p.m.

wednesday, november 14, noon

Spingold Theater Center (additional materials in Slosberg Music Center and Shapiro Admissions Center) For exhibition description, see pages 12 and 13. wednesday, october 10, noon

Many events are free and open to the public while some require tickets.

Tickets are available online at brandeis.edu/tickets.

Visit the box office in the Shapiro Campus Center or call 781-736-3400.

unaccompanied bach workshop benefit concert

leonard bernstein: the power of music

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 11, 5-7 p.m.

The arts are central to Brandeis’ commitment to global citizenship and social change. State of the Arts provides information about events and programs from the Division of Creative Arts and other initiatives around Brandeis.

sunday, october 14, 3 pm

lydian string quartet: sneak peek

Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium Enjoy a preview of the Lydians’ October 13 concert, followed by a free buffet lunch.

Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. saturday, october 13, 8 pm

lydian string quartet

(Pre-concert talk, 7 p.m.)

Brandeis’ resident string quartet performs Gubaidulina’s Quartet No. 4, Prokofiev’s Quartet No. 2 and Beethoven’s first “Razumovsky” quartet. Andrea Segar and Judith Eissenberg, violins; Mark Berger, viola; and Joshua Gordon, cello.

Tickets: $20/$15/$5.

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music unites us preview: a taste of ghana

Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium Enjoy a preview of the November 16 concert, followed by a free buffet lunch.

Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. friday, november 16, 8 pm

music unites us presents: a taste of ghana Levin Ballroom, Usdan Student Center Five world-class Ghanaian performing artists representing four of the major ethnic traditions of Ghana — Asante, Ewe, Ga and Dagomba — come together to offer a joyous festival-style celebration, complete with Ghanaian food. (See article on page 10.)

Tickets: $20/$15/$5. sunday, november 18, 3 pm

brandeis-wellesley orchestra

Neal Hampton, conductor. sunday, november 18, 7 pm

brandeis wind ensemble

Tom Souza, director.

saturday, december 1, 8 pm

wednesday, december 12, 4 pm

Robert Nieske, director.

Shapiro Campus Center Atrium

sunday, december 2, 3 pm

Join the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra and the University Chorus in the annual community sing of Handel’s holiday masterpiece. Music scores and seasonal refreshments are provided.

brandeis jazz ensemble

leonard bernstein fellowship recital

Brandeis’ elite undergraduate musicians perform chamber music works. sunday, december 2, 7 pm

undergraduate composers’ collective

Premieres of new works by undergraduates.

messiah sing

saturday, december 15, 8 pm

new music brandeis: lydian string quartet

World premieres by composers in the Brandeis graduate program in music, performed by the Lydian String Quartet.

wednesday, december 5, noon

brandeis improv collective

Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium Expect the unexpected from the Brandeis Improv Collective Showcase in this informal performance, followed by a free buffet lunch. Presented by the Department of Music and the Mandel Center for the Humanities. wednesday, december 5, 7 pm

fafali: music and dance from ghana

Experience the irresistible rhythms of Ghana, performed by students in the music department ensemble Fafali.

Ben Paulding, director. saturday, december 8, 8 pm

mark berger, viola, with robyn bollinger, violin Lydian String Quartet violist Mark Berger performs violin duos by Mozart, Kurt Rohde and more, with special guest Robyn Bollinger, violin. Tickets: $20/$15/$5. sunday, december 9, 3 pm

brandeis early music ensemble

Discover the music that became the foundation for Bach and his successors, performed on historical instruments such as viols, harps and sackbuts. Sarah Mead, director. sunday, december 9, 7 pm

PHOTOGRAPH BY MIKE LOVETT

brandeis improv collective

The Improv Collective meets weekly to explore the infinite possibilities of sound and rhythm, culminating in this freshest of concert presentations. Tom Hall, director. monday, december 10, 7 pm

chamber music recital

End-of-semester recital by students in MUS116.

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VISUAL ARTS september 7-december 2

fall exhibitions at the rose

Rose Art Museum The Rose presents a selection of highlights from the permanent collection spanning seven decades; and the first solo exhibition by Tuesday Smillie, the 2018-19 recipient of the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence award. For exhibition descriptions, see page 8. through september 26

new work from home and abroad by award-winning students Goldman-Schwartz Art Studios through october 26

more weight | rachel stern

Kniznick Gallery, Women’s Studies Research Center, Epstein Building Artist's Lecture and Reception: Thursday, September 20; Lecture 5 p.m., Reception 6-8 p.m.

Philadelphia-based Rachel Stern addresses the conflation of histories with their representation in storytelling and literature. Prompted by the phrase “more weight,” uttered by Giles Corey during his execution in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 for practicing witchcraft, Stern capitalizes on the fascination with the trappings and complexities of macabre history, building a queer-washed world from the language, logic and images surrounding these events. friday, october 12, 4 pm

artist talk: liz cohen Goldman-Schwartz Fine Arts Studios, Room 115 Liz Cohen is a performance artist and automotive designer, known for her 2007 project “Bodywork,” in which she transformed a 1987 East German Trabant into a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino. Sponsored by the Department of Fine Arts. thursday, october 18, 5 pm

artist talk: maría magdalena campos-pons International Lounge, Usdan Student Center Cuban-born Boston-based artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons works with themes of gender and sexuality, FROM “MORE WEIGHT”: PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL STERN TOP: ”VISION,” 2018, C-PRINT BOTTOM: KNIZNICK GALLERY INSTALLATION, 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL STERN

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multicultural identity (especially Cuban, Chinese and Nigerian), Cuban culture and religion and spirituality.

She is considered a key figure among Cuban artists who found their voice in a post-revolutionary Cuba. Presented by the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program as the 2018 Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture, a series created in 2004 to honor Roosevelt’s commitment to social justice and her important place in women’s history.

THEATER Tickets available at brandeis.edu/tickets or 781-736-7400.

sunday, september 16, 8 pm

14th annual 24-hour musical Shapiro Campus Center Theater

Goldman-Schwartz Fine Arts Studios, Room 115

See what happens when Brandeis students put on a musical in 24 hours! You won’t want to miss this annual event. Free tickets will be distributed at 1 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center. Presented by the student-run Undergraduate Theater Collective.

Artist and educator Ria Brodell's work addresses issues of gender identity, sexuality, religion, history and contemporary culture. Sponsored by the Department of Fine Arts.

this place / displaced

tuesday, october 23, 2:30 pm

artist talk: ria brodell

wednesday, october 24, 3:30 pm

talk: hyman bloom’s “corpse of a man” Rose Art Museum David Sherman (English) and Anita Hannig (Anthropology) discuss Hyman Bloom’s painting, “Corpse of a Man.” Part of the Mandel Center for the Humanities’ Close Looking series. november 8, 2018 - february 15, 2019

half-silvered | anne lilly and karin rosenthal

Kniznick Gallery, Women's Studies Research Center, Epstein Building Anne Lilly and Karin Rosenthal explore the notion of fracturing through the lenses of water and mirrors. In Lilly’s kinetic sculptures and Rosenthal’s photographs, figures are fungible: subject to splitting, undulation and disappearance, alluding to an interior space that openly coexists with external realities. monday, november 12, 4 pm

artist talk: marc handelman Goldman-Schwartz Fine Arts Studios, Room 115 Brooklyn-based artist Marc Handelman is known for large-scale paintings, landscapes and abstract images.

Sponsored by the Department of Fine Arts. december 12, 2018-january 15, 2019

senior midyear exhibition

Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center

september 28-29

Artists’ Theater of Boston has partnered with Boston-area residents who have experienced eviction and displacement to create a new work exploring gentrification, loss of community and local memory, and the fight to have a home. “This Place / Displaced” weaves together stories by seven playwrights, including Kirsten Greenidge, David Valdes Greenwood and MJ Halberstadt, with original music.

Directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden of Boston's Company One Theatre. Anneke Reich ’13, artistic director. Sponsored by Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation (CAST). For time and location, visit the CAST website.

october 18-21

dream a little dream

Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center In the new dance theater work by Susan Dibble, the Louis, Frances and Jeffrey Sachar Professor of Creative Arts, a company of students and guest artists bring to life the dreams of two people who are asleep in their beds.

Presented by the Department of Theater Arts.

Tickets: $20/$15/$5. october 19-21

the tempest Shapiro Campus Center Theater In Shakespeare’s last play, a betrayed magician is bent on revenge, but his anger lessens when his daughter teaches him that love conquers darkness. Presented by the student-run Hold Thy Peace. Free to Brandeis students; $5 general admission.

Exhibition by senior studio art majors in the Class of 2019.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, December 12, 5-7 p.m.

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october 25-27

LITERARY ARTS AND FILM

Multipurpose Room, Shapiro Campus Center

Readings are sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and are free and open to the public. Visit brandeis.edu/ departments/english for locations.

hookman

This 2016 existential slasher comedy by Lauren Yee confronts a hook-handed serial killer. Presented by the student-run Undergraduate Theater Collective. Free to Brandeis students; $5 general admission. november 1-4

noises off

Shapiro Campus Center Theater Michael Frayn’s classic comedy “Noises Off” delights with on- and offstage intrigue, a symphony of slamming doors, and nonstop laughs. Presented by the student-run Undergraduate Theater Collective. Free to Brandeis students; $5 general admission. november 15-18

circle mirror transformation Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center When four New Englanders enrolled in a community-center drama class begin to experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart, and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. The New York Times described Annie Baker’s 2009 play as “absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny.” Directed by Dawn Simmons (read the interview with Simmons on page 17). Presented by the Department of Theater Arts. Tickets: $20/$15/$5.

sunday, september 16, 6 pm

screening: shirkers

Wasserman Cinematheque, Sachar International Center Special advance screening of the Sundance award-winning documentary, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Sandi Tan. Sponsored by the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program.

tuesday, september 25, 5:30 pm

poetry reading: chen chen

Chen Chen is the 2018-20 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence and the author of “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities” (BOA Editions, 2017), which won the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. Recently, Poets & Writers featured Chen as one of “10 Poets Who Will Change the World.”

november 15-18

godspell

Shapiro Campus Center Theater Stephen Schwartz’s 1971 musical, based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, features iconic songs like “Day

by Day,” ranging in style from pop to vaudeville. Presented by the student-run Undergraduate Theater Collective.

Free and open to the public. november 30-december 1, 8 pm

boris’ kitchen sketch comedy festival

Shapiro Campus Center Theater Sketch comedy by the undergraduate-run Boris’ Kitchen, with guest performers from other colleges.

Free to Brandeis students; $5 general admission. december 8, 8 pm

ballet club presents: the nutcracker

Shapiro Campus Center Theater The Ballet Club’s third annual retelling of the holiday classic adds original choreography and contemporary music to Tchaikovsky’s timeless score. Free and open to the public.

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MIRA T. LEE

tuesday, october 23, 5:30 pm

fiction reading: mira t. lee

Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, “Everything Here Is Beautiful” (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking), was selected as a top pick for 2018 by O Magazine, Poets & Writers, and New York magazine, among others. “A tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters — one that’s frayed by mental illness and stretched across continents, yet still endures...” — Celeste Ng. “If you love anyone at all, this book is going to get you.” — USA Today.

october 4-november 18

leonard bernstein: the power of music

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 11, 5-7 p.m.

Spingold Theater Center Leonard Bernstein is headed back to Brandeis. The exhibition “Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music” will be on view from October 4-November 18. Organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) in Philadelphia, the exhibition includes artifacts and photographs — on loan from the composer’s family and other collections — that explore his life, Jewish identity and social activism. Additional materials from Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections document Bernstein’s time at Brandeis as a member of the music faculty and the Board of Trustees.

Audiences may be familiar with Bernstein’s works, notably, “West Side Story” (1957), but not necessarily how his music was informed by the political and social crises of his day.

Visitors will find an individual who expressed the restlessness, anxiety, fear and hope of an American Jew living through World War II and the Holocaust, Vietnam, and turbulent social change around the world.

Spingold Theater Center’s Dreitzer Gallery houses the main part of the exhibition, with additional materials in Slosberg Music Center and Shapiro Admissions Center.

Visitors will listen to Bernstein's music and view excerpts from “West Side Story” and documentary films of him conducting. One of the many innovations is Samples of Faith, an interactive multimedia display that encourages visitors to peel back the many layers of Bernstein’s compositions, including their roots in his early years in Boston.

“Leonard Bernstein is remembered as a passionate, largerthan-life personality — a charismatic conductor, devoted educator and skilled musician,” says Ivy Weingram, NMAJH’s associate curator and organizer of the exhibition.

“This exhibition delves into his memorable works while also exploring a lesser-known side of Bernstein — the American Jew who inspired social progress, both on and off the stage.”

Bernstein’s Boston roots and his years teaching at Brandeis are important to understanding his complex life, says Brandeis University Professor Jonathan D. Sarna, NMAJH’s chief historian. “He’s perhaps the only great American composer who heard his first serious music in a synagogue, Boston’s Congregation Mishkan Tefila.”

“Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music” continues Brandeis’ yearlong celebration of Leonard Bernstein at 100.

The exhibition is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Local support from the Office of the President, the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Brandeis Library, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, Mandel Center for the Humanities, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, American Studies, International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, Robin Brooks '57 F'12, Lisa B. Popowich and Jonathan B. Popowich, P'12, and Robert Safron '66 and Lynda Safron.

Organized at Brandeis by Ingrid Schorr, director, Office of the Arts. Curated by Ellen Smith, associate professor of the practice and director, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Exhibition consultants: Kristin Parker and Hepzibah Rapoport '12.

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AT THE ROSE // 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 modern and contemporary art. A center of cultural and intellectual life on campus, the museum serves as a catalyst for the exchange of ideas: a place of discovery, intersection and dialogue at the university and within Greater Boston.

The Rose works to affirm and advance the values of social justice, freedom of expression, global diversity and academic excellence that are hallmarks of Brandeis University. Postwar American and international contemporary art are particularly well represented within the Rose’s renowned permanent collection of more than 9,000 objects.

FALL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

rose collection | passage

september 7-december 2

Lower Rose and Foster Galleries

The Rose presents interdisciplinary programs and artist talks throughout the semester. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete listing of upcoming programs, visit brandeis.edu/rose or call 781-736-3434.

Organized by Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator Luis Croquer, this exhibition draws together a selection of works from the Rose Art Museum’s permanent collection. Featuring both well-known and rarely seen paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures, the show reveals the depths of the museum’s early and mid-20th-century holdings. Includes works

by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Marisol Escobar, Wifredo Lam, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson and Pablo Picasso.

tuesday smillie | to build another world Building on a history of protest signage, Tuesday Smillie explores transgender-feminist politics and activism, questioning the address of language and the imprint of the past in a multimedia practice that includes watercolor, collage and textile-based work. Smillie’s show at the Rose is her first solo museum exhibition. Organized by assistant curator Caitlin Julia Rubin, it coincides with Smillie’s residency as the 2018-19 recipient of the Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-inResidence award.

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Tuesday Smillie, “S.T.A.R.,” 2012.

Watercolor, collage on paper.

Courtesy of the artist.

tony lewis: plunder Foster Mural Chicago-based artist Tony Lewis has created a new, site-specific drawing for the outward-facing wall of the Rose Art Museum’s Lois Foster Wing, extending his ongoing investigations of the relationships between drawing, abstraction and language. As the museum’s 2017-18 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-inResidence, Lewis made this mural — the artist’s first solo museum presentation in the Northeast — with the help of Brandeis University students. Using screws and graphite-dipped rubber bands, Lewis and his collaborators generated a large line drawing in the form of a Gregg shorthand notation, the stenographic script similar to abbreviated cursive. Rising in loose arcs across the expanse of the Foster wall, the drawing is an abstracted symbol of the word “plunder,” from which the work takes its name.

Rose Art Museum assistant curator Caitlin Julia Rubin speaks with Tony Lewis during the installation of “Plunder” last fall.

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MUSIC UNITES US // A TASTE OF GHANA DRUM AND DANCE FROM ASANTE, EWE, GA AND DAGOMBA TRADITIONS By

Ben Paulding, Lecturer in Music

Under the auspices of MusicUnitesUS, Brandeis’ world music residency series, Brandeis will present a weeklong showcase of the music, dance and culture of Ghana.

clockwise from top left: Francis Akotuah, Attah Poku, Koblavi Dogah, Gloria Nyame, Comfort Tetteh, Asante kente cloth from WestonStudioLLC, Ben Paulding performing with Asante Queen Mother’s Kete ensemble in Ghana, 2018

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residency: november 12-16 concert: friday, november 16, 8 pm

a taste of ghana

Levin Ballroom, Usdan Student Center In the winter of 2017, the African music scene was rocked by explosive comments about African countries emanating from the highest office in our country. In this political climate, it felt especially important to reaffirm the richness, beauty and value of Africa here on campus. I decided that as a drummer and percussionist from the Boston area who has spent much of the past 12 years studying and performing in Ghana, my contribution to this celebration of Africa would be to curate “A Taste of Ghana,” a weeklong residency showcasing the music and dance of one of the many culturally rich nations of West Africa.

Roughly the same geographic size as Oregon, Ghana is home to a rich, diverse collection of cultures, many with their own language, food and religion. And, of course, music and dance. These musical forms range from the thunderous Fontomfrom court music of the Asante people, the lunga talking drums that the Dagomba use as a form of speech, the intricate Agbekor call-and-response music of the Ewe, and the grooving Kpanlogo handdrum rhythms of the Ga people.

Individually, any one of these traditions contains a lifetime of study and no one person could ever master every one of them.

So this festival brings together experts in each tradition to present an overview of the nation’s rich heritage — a taste of Ghana.

Under the auspices of MusicUnitesUS, Brandeis’ world music residency series, Brandeis will present a weeklong showcase of the music, dance and culture of Ghana.

Five world-class Ghanaian performing artists — Attah Poku, Gloria Nyame, Francis Akotuah, Comfort Tetteh and Koblavi Dogah — will give lectures and workshops on campus and in the Waltham community. The residency culminates in a West African festival-style concert, complete with Ghanaian food, in Levin Ballroom on Friday, November 16, at 8 p.m.

It will be the first time these performers, who represent the four major ethnic traditions of Ghana, have shared a stage — and we cannot wait to see the chemistry that results.

They will be joined by the Ahenema Cultural Group, the leading Asante drum and dance group in the United States, for a cappella Nnwonkoro singing in the Twi language and royal Fontomfrom drumming from the Asante palace. And no performance of Ghanaian music on campus would be complete without Fafali, the Brandeis drum and dance ensemble. “A Taste of Ghana” will allow us to experience the various Ghanaian cultures together for the first time, both in intimate learning environments and in a joyous final festival-style performance.

Ben Paulding is a lecturer in music at Brandeis University and directs the ensemble Fafali: Music and Dance From Ghana. He plays drums and percussion in Kotoko Brass and the Agbekor Society, and holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from Tufts University.

meet the artists ATTAH POKU was born and raised in the Asante king’s palace, and grew up playing drums in the percussion entourage that accompanies the Asante monarch across West Africa. He teaches Ghanaian drumming at Tufts University.

GLORIA NYAME is an Asante dancer who danced professionally throughout Ghana and Nigeria with the Centre for National Culture and the Adinkra Cultural Troupe. She is based in New York City, where she dances with the Ahenema Cultural Troupe.

FRANCIS AKOTUAH grew up in the capital city of Accra, and is widely considered an expert of Ga hand drumming. He teaches at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Oakland, California.

COMFORT TETTEH is a Ga singer and dancer who has worked as principal dancer with the Ghana Dance Ensemble, and has performed throughout Europe, Africa and the United States. She is based in New York City.

KOBLAVI DOGAH was born into the Ewe tradition and is known for his spirited approach to Ewe dance. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music, and is based in Burlington, Vermont.

The MusicUnitesUS program opens unique pathways to understanding and appreciation across today’s global community. For full residency schedule, visit musicunitesus. info. Concert Tickets: $20/$15/$5.

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fine arts welcomes two new faculty members, enhancing its global reach by

Gannit Ankori

Professor of Art History and Theory; Head of the Division of Creative Arts

The Department of Fine Arts welcomes two brilliant new faculty members, assistant professor of modern and contemporary architecture Muna Guvenc and assistant professor of studio art Sheida Soleimani.

Muna and Sheida share strong connections to the Middle East; a commitment to social justice; a global perspective; and a creative body of work that seamlessly melds theory and practice. Their energetic, innovative presence on campus has already made a strong impact on their students and colleagues, myself included. This summer, they stepped away from their research and studio work to answer some questions so that I could share my excitement with the rest of the Brandeis community.

gannit: Welcome to Brandeis! I know how enthusiastic we are about having you join our community, but what made you decide to come here?

muna: First, Brandeis University’s emphasis on social justice. As a scholar whose work spans the issues of social justice and urban inequality, I felt Brandeis could be a home for me where I can grow. The second reason is the faculty. It is a privilege to be surrounded by colleagues who are strong scholars doing very exciting research. Finally, Waltham and the Boston area offer great cases to better understand the debates on housing, migration, integration and inclusion, some of the themes I am currently interested in.

sheida: I chose Brandeis specifically because of having developed meaningful and supportive relationships with my

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colleagues. The most exciting thing about teaching here is the students: specifically, their ability to lend the knowledge of other disciplines and studies to their art-based practices. It has led to exciting critiques and conversations in my classes.

gannit: What courses are you teaching this year? sheida: I’m teaching Portraiture — specifically Ethics of Portraiture — and Intro to Digital Photography. These are topic- and content-driven classes that go far beyond the traditional introductory art class. As a general pedagogy, I challenge the Eurocentric ideals that have pervaded the history of art as well as the teaching of art. muna: I am teaching survey courses in modern and contemporary architecture and Islamic art and architecture.

Next semester I will teach Housing and Social Justice, in which students connect their analyses of local urban problems to the larger themes of the Euro-American legacy of urbanisms and heterogeneous urbanisms of the global South. gannit: And outside the classroom, what are you planning for Brandeis?

muna: I organize the Richard Saivetz ’69 Annual Memorial Architectural Lectures. Additionally, I am very excited to have a role in strengthening and developing the architectural studies minor.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSEPH AARON SEGAL

Sheida Soleimani

state of the arts | brandeis university  15

Muna Guvenc

sheida: I’m interested in continuing a lecture series titled “Stay Woke” that I began at the last institution I worked at.

It will focus on underrepresented artists who aim to create social change. gannit: What is the path that brought you to your current work? muna: I was a practicing architect in Turkey, where I won several national architectural design competitions. But I have always been interested in the intersection of architecture, urbanism and politics. The moment I saw I could develop this interest at University of California, Berkeley, I decided to change careers.

My current book project is about the Kurds, one of the largest underrepresented communities of the global South.

“Becoming Kurdish” is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study that reveals how the built environment mediated the development of Kurdish nationalism and identity in contemporary Turkey. It contributes to current scholarship devoted to understanding how urban space and its socio-spatial divisions play out in experiencing inequalities, challenging existing political structures, and engendering alternative visions of social justice in the 21st century.

Looking ahead, I plan to explore contemporary appropriations of prisons into cultural and pedagogical institutions

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in the global South. My goal is to reveal the involvement of architecture in the identity politics of urban life.

gannit: Sheida, your multimedia work melds sculpture, collage, film and photography, and has been exhibited widely and featured in major publications such as Artforum and The New York Times. What inspires your practice? sheida: As the daughter of political refugees who were persecuted by the Iranian government in the early 1980s, I make it a priority to insert my own critical perspectives on historical and contemporary socio-political occurrences in Iran into my works while focusing on the severe humanrights violations happening in the greater Middle East.

Having communicated with victims of totalitarian regimes (from my own parents, to families of execution victims within Iran), I believe it is important to discuss these stories, as they are severely underrepresented, especially in the West, where the focus on the Middle East is often in regard to the oil industry. I am very interested in the intersections of art and activism, as well as how social media has shaped the landscape in current political affairs and uprisings. gannit: Thank you both for sharing your fascinating creative work with me. I am so excited that you are part of the Brandeis creative arts community.

fascinating discomfort Dawn Simmons directs “Circle Mirror Transformation” at Brandeis by

Ingrid Schorr

them through the silly games, including the one that gives the play its name, that anyone who’s taken a theater class or participated in a team-building exercise will recognize.

Where’s the drama?

“Annie Baker’s ‘Circle Mirror Transformation’ reveals the power of theater to change everyday lives in unexpected and lasting ways,” says Dmitry Troyanovsky, associate professor of theater arts and department chair, who steered the 2018-19 season selection committee.

Director, Office of the Arts

“I find the uncomfortableness of the play consuming,” Simmons says. “Watching the characters try to sift through their own discomfort to find connection is fascinating.

In that discomfort the truth is revealed.”

For actors to treat their characters as caricatures would be low-hanging and unappetizing fruit. Rather, Simmons will guide them to create “sincere and beautiful connections,” a portal through which they can also poke fun at the silly games and human foibles. Which is where John Waters comes in. Simmons is a fan of Waters’ early films, like “Polyester,” “Pink Flamingos” and “Female Trouble,” the ones that featured on-screen coprophilia and in-cinema pungent smells.

Dawn Simmons

Oh, life. When the darkness seems unrelenting, where does an artist find the light?

Playwright and director Dawn Simmons finds inspiration in the commonplace. And in John Waters — of which more later.

“The mundane can be so much larger than life,” she says. “The challenge is to find the magic in everyday things and lift that up.

How do we build real connections when the stakes are not always high?”

“Circle Mirror Transformation” runs November 15-18 in the Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center. Tickets: $20/$15/$5.

The Boston native had a hit at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston this summer with a revival of “The Wiz” that she infused with Creole and zydeco flavors. This fall, she will guest direct the Department of Theater Arts production of “Circle Mirror Transformation.”

On the surface, the play couldn’t be simpler.

Four individuals take an adult-education acting class. Their teacher earnestly leads

“There is always a sincerity in Waters, a sincere moment somewhere, a heightened goofiness,” she says. She’ll seek out that sincerity in the “Circle Mirror Transformation” characters, to whom the theater exercises reveal something true. By uncovering the core of truth in Baker’s sharp, even biting text, and the connections between the characters, the actors are freed to reach for overthe-top humor.

Simmons aims to get her five undergraduate actors thinking like a hive mind, constantly listening and responding, even during Baker’s trademark long pauses. (The stage directions specify durations for three kinds of pauses and two kinds of silences, leaving plenty of room for audience members and actors to think and connect.) “It’s fun, and challenging, a kind of work that not everyone gets to tackle at this stage of their career,” she says. “They’re in for a treat.”

state of the arts | brandeis university 17

FBI

LEONARD BERNSTEIN and the

by Stephen

Whitfield

Max Richter Chair in American Civilization

IN THE ERA IMMEDIATELY after the Second World War, the “Red Scare” cast a shadow over much of American public life. The legitimate fear of the Soviet Union was heightened domestically by an inordinate suspicion of the influence of Communists as traitors and spies, and the arts were not exempt from excessive and irrational vigilance.

The Red Scare coincided with the rise of Brandeis University, and even threatened Leonard Bernstein, one of the most famous musicians ever to serve on its faculty. The 1950 edition of “Red Channels,” the pamphlet that purported to identify Communist Party sympathizers, members and fellow travelers, included Bernstein’s name. In 1951, the FBI placed Bernstein on its Security Index, which meant that — in case of a national emergency — he could be arrested and placed in a detention camp as an enemy sympathizer under the Custodial Detention Program.

The bureau had begun compiling a record on Bernstein in 1939 (the year he graduated from Harvard) and would eventually need well over six hundred pages to trace the extent of his political activities. This swollen dossier suggests the risks that he took (perhaps unwittingly) by signing the numerous progressive petitions that circulated in the cosmopolitan cultural circles he inhabited.

18 state of the arts | brandeis university

The FBI failed to prove that Bernstein was a Communist but in 1950 did succeed in getting him temporarily blacklisted from the CBS television network. In 1953 the Department of State refused to renew his passport, though Bernstein eventually got his travel documents when he expressed remorse for his association with what the government deemed to be Communist fronts.

At Brandeis he was better protected from political surveillance than he would have been at some other universities.

As an American Jew, Bernstein did not need to soft-pedal his ethnicity or his values. He taught works by many Jewish composers, both American and European. An undergraduate reporter for the Brandeis Justice noted that when “the mood of the music” made Bernstein joyous, the class followed “the movement and [roared] with laughter.” Yet when he found himself swept by “a sea of torment and despair,” his students wept “passionate tears.”

By the summer of 1953, it was evident that Bernstein’s conducting responsibilities would not allow him to remain on the faculty. He wrote to founding president Abram L. Sachar, who had become a close friend, “it has finally dawned on me that I have been dancing at far too many weddings (please translate).” Nevertheless, he stayed through fall 1954 and served as a Brandeis Fellow for the following two

decades, as a trustee from 1976 until 1981, and as a trustee emeritus until his death in 1990.

International fame had long eclipsed whatever threat Bernstein faced in the years of his close association with Brandeis, and his liberalism rather faithfully mirrored the values of postwar American Jewry. He supported civil rights and racial equality, objected to violations of civil liberties, and opposed the military intervention in Vietnam. The zeitgeist affected him deeply, whether in response to the emptiness of suburban success (as portrayed in his opera “Trouble in Tahiti”) or to the shadow of the bomb (as depicted in Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety”).

Bernstein’s public activism came back to bite him in 1970, when he and his wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, hosted a party to raise legal defense funds for a group of Black Panthers. Among the guests was author Tom Wolfe, who discredited their efforts with the phrase “radical chic” in a subsequent report in New York magazine.

Bernstein’s reputation never quite recovered from the jab, which was even repeated in his 1990 obituary in The New York Times. But Wolfe failed to mention that the FBI trolled through newspapers’ social columns to identify the Bernsteins’ guests, generating files on Americans who had no previous paper trail. A scheme by the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) operation was also designed to neutralize the host himself. Its nastiest tactic was to try to plant gossip about the homosexuality that Bernstein was so carefully concealing. The press was not interested.

His last musical, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” (1976), with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, was intended to be a searing Bicentennial critique of slavery and racism.

Bernstein’s most overtly political work abjectly failed. But another musical suggests even more forcefully how his artistic gifts

right: Detail from Leonard Bernstein's handwritten editorial draft to the New York Daily News.

Image from the Library of Congress, Music Division; Courtesy The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

state of the arts | brandeis university 19

Rehearsals for the 1952 Brandeis production of “The Threepenny Opera.” Lotte Lenya seated front left. Marc Blitzstein on the far right.

Image courtesy of the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University

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and his political courage were entwined. In 1952, Bernstein chose for the centerpiece of the first Brandeis Festival of the Arts “The Threepenny Opera.” This stinging, left-wing masterpiece by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht flopped on Broadway in 1933 and had not been revived. Bernstein championed a brand-new translation and adaptation by his friend Marc Blitzstein, a former Communist and composer of the pro-labor union musical “The Cradle Will Rock” (1937). And Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, even came to campus to resurrect the role that had made her famous in Berlin: the ferocious, vengeful Pirate Jenny. The success of the Brandeis performance, with an audience of about 3,000 people and covered by The New York Times, helped fuel an off-Broadway run later in the decade. Rediscovered, “The Threepenny Opera” ran nearly nine years, topping the Broadway record then held by “Oklahoma!”

Staging this musical at a high-profile event demonstrated audacity in the era of rampant McCarthyism. The national atmosphere, Bernstein wrote to his Brandeis colleague, composer Irving Fine, encouraged “caution” and “fear.”

(Of the 221 Republicans elected that year to the House of Representatives, 185 requested to be assigned to the House Un-American Activities Committee.) This fear, Bernstein believed, needed to be punctured. In transplanting a cabaret work from Weimar Germany to a suburban Massachusetts campus, Bernstein asked audiences to consider a savage satire of capitalism as an economic system indistinguishable from criminality, a musical that equated free enterprise with predatory freebooting.

In paying tribute to the work that Weill and Brecht had created as their own nation edged toward the abyss, Bernstein — American-born, American-trained — validated the heritage that several of his faculty colleagues personified. In a decade so timorous that even “A Lincoln Portrait” (1942) was dropped from the program of the 1953 Eisenhower inaugural because the left-leaning Aaron Copland (one of Bernstein’s most important mentors) had composed this manifestly patriotic piece, the university had positioned itself as something of a refuge from the excesses of the domestic Cold War.

Stephen Whitfield’s publications include “The Culture of the Cold War” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) and “In Search of American Jewish Culture” (University Press of New England, 1999).

He is editor of “A Companion to 20th-Century America” (Blackwell, 2004). This essay is excerpted from a forthcoming book on the political history of Brandeis University.

state of the arts | brandeis university 21

boston latino international film festival comes to brandeis by

Jarret Bencks

News and Communications Specialist

Associate professor of Latin American literature and culture Jerónimo Arellano has been an admirer of the Boston Latino International Film Festival for years. Every September, he and his colleagues in Latin American and Latino Studies attend the festival’s screenings, often at other college campuses, and marvel at the quality and relevance of the films.

“I kept thinking it would be great to have Brandeis be a part of this,” Arellano says.

He has finally brought that notion to fruition. When he became chair of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program last year, he saw his chance to establish a partnership between the festival and the university.

Brandeis will be an official host of the 2018 festival in late September, presenting screenings and talks with filmmakers in the Wasserman Cinematheque, Sachar International Center.

The culture of filmmaking in Latin America is based around many hubs of activity within cities throughout South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

There are large national film industries in Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and Argentina, along with small yet active centers in places like Chile and the Dominican Republic, which results in a diversity of styles and perspectives.

There is also a long tradition of formally innovative, politically militant film, Arellano says, that in a way sets the stage for young filmmakers, and encourages them to

22 state of the arts | brandeis university

discover their own ways of telling a cinematic story rather than borrowing from other traditions and industries.

“I think some people might not be aware of the quality of filmmaking coming out of Latin America. It is a vibrant filmmaking culture,” he says. “Experiencing these fresh new films will be a real treat.”

Now in its 16th year, the festival features a variety of feature-length and short films, documentaries and fiction alike, along with discussions with directors and producers.

Choosing the films involves actively seeking out important new work from emerging filmmakers as well as a highly selective review of more than 100 submissions.

The festival is a labor of love. Everyone involved is either working on a limited part-time basis, or is a volunteer.

Sabrina Avilés, a Boston-based documentary producer, has directed the festival since 2016, and has her sights set on making national noise. Avilés and programmer Isabel Dávalos scour the Latin American filmmaking landscape looking for the next big thing. Dávalos is a producer based in Ecuador and is well connected in the South American film scene, while Avilés is tapped into what Latino filmmakers are doing in the United States.

Some notable screenings in recent years have included the 2017 Venezuelan film “La Familia,” which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, and “I Dream in Another Language,” which won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017.

“Over the years, I think the festival hasn’t gotten the attention that it should,” Avilés says. “Our goal is for it to have international recognition. That’s what I’m trying to build.”

Avilés wasn’t initially sold on the idea of bringing the festival to Brandeis, as colleges don’t always offer the best physical spaces for screening films.

“It’s important [to filmmakers] to showcase the films in real theaters. It’s their baby and they want to showcase it in the best conditions possible,” Avilés says.

She warmed to Brandeis as a venue after taking a tour of the Wasserman Cinematheque, with its 100-plus seats and cinema-quality projection system. She also started to consider the number of people that a venue just outside Boston could attract.

“Not everyone who is interested in the festival necessarily wants to, or is able to, come into the city for a screening,” she says. “There is an opportunity to grow our audience here.”

Associate professor of history Alice Kelikian, who oversees the Wasserman Cinematheque as chair of the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program, says the festival is a welcome addition to Brandeis’ screening schedule, which regularly brings in filmmakers from around the world.

“We are very happy to make the cinematheque available for a global initiative like the Boston Latino International Film Festival, especially considering that the events will be free of charge for all,” Kelikian says.

Hosting the festival will be part of a larger effort by the Latin American and Latino Studies Program to host events with broad appeal, Arellano says.

A scene from the filming of “La Familia” — one of the works that will be screened at Brandeis during the festival.

Image courtesy of director Gustavo Rondón

“Film can be a vehicle to foster diversity on campus through the arts. We want to go beyond academic showcases to attract the attention of the wider community, to galvanize the interest students have in Latin American culture,” he says. “It’s a collaboration that we hope will be in place for many years to come.”

The Boston Latino International Film Festival will hold screenings at the Wasserman Cinematheque in the Sachar International Center from Sept. 28-29.

For a full schedule and more information, visit bliff.org. Tickets are free, but reservations are highly recommended. See the website for details.

state of the arts | brandeis university 23

ART OF THE MATTER //

FINE ARTS

MUSIC

GANNIT ANKORI, professor of art history and theory and head of the Division of Creative Arts, served as special adviser to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, collaborating on the exhibition and catalog “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” and will give two keynote talks at the V&A in November. Her book “Frida Kahlo” (Reaktion, 2018) has been revised and republished in English and in Chinese.

Professor YU-HUI CHANG had two world premieres last spring: “Incredulous,” performed by Ensemble Échappé in the library and galleries of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in New York, and “Pixelandia,” performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project at Jordan Hall, in Boston.

Associate professor of sculpture TORY FAIR and SUSAN LICHTMAN, Charles Bloom Chair in the Arts of Design, received Massachusetts Cultural Council 2018 Artist Fellowship awards for drawing and painting, respectively.

CHRISTOPHER FROST, lecturer in fine arts,

had a solo exhibition at Boston Sculptors Gallery and participated in group exhibitions at the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and at Boston National Historical Park at the Charlestown Navy Yard. His work was also commissioned by the city of Arlington for the Minuteman Bike Path.

PETER KALB, associate professor of contemporary art on the Cynthia L. and Theodore S. Berenson Chair, delivered a talk titled “‘Put in Another Way’: Linda Nochlin’s Modernism,” in honor of the late art historian, at the College Art Association’s 105th Annual Conference, in Los Angeles.

The International Medieval Congress in Leeds, England, invited CHARLES B. MCCLENDON, Sidney and Ellen Wien Professor in the History of Art, to give a lecture on Old Saint Peter’s Basilica.

This fall, Brandeis celebrates 70 years of inquiry, discovery and action. Creative Arts faculty and staff continue to make their mark with research, publications, exhibitions and performances around the world.

VoCA (Voices in Contemporary Art) and Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts hosted SONIA ALMEIDA, lecturer in fine arts, for an artist talk.

Professor NANCY SCOTT has been selected as a 2018-19 Tyson Scholar at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she will continue her research on Georgia O’Keeffe.

24 state of the arts | brandeis university

Irving Fine Professor of Music and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ERIC CHASALOW had performances of “Ariel Fantasy” in Chicago, with additional performances at NUNC! Festival, at Northwestern University, and the CUSP Festival, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Chasalow also performs on “Ford Hill Road,” the new CD by the BARBARA CASSIDY BAND, described by one critic as “a dandy of an album.”

(Cassidy is associate director of Centers and Initiatives at the Brandeis International Business School.)

Assistant professor KAREN DESMOND received a Provost Research Award to support her project “Measuring Polyphony: Digitally Mediated Access to the Music of the Middle Ages.” She also published two books: “Music and the Moderni, 13001350” and “The Montpellier Codex: The Final Fascicle.”

Associate professor of the practice NEAL HAMPTON made his Boston Symphony Hall debut conducting the Boston University Symphony Orchestra in the program “Protest Without Words: The Arts and Social Change.”

Members of the LYDIAN STRING QUARTET stayed close to home after a year of international travel. JOSHUA GORDON performed in the Composers Conference, which moved to Brandeis this summer. MARK BERGER taught at Boston University Tanglewood Institute and performed in the Newport Festival.

JUDITH EISSENBERG co-founded and taught in the inaugural season of a chamber music festival in Harvard, Massachusetts.

John Williams’ music for television was the topic of a paper given by assistant professor

PHOTOGRAPH BY MAGGIE HALL PHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY OF SPEAKEASY STAGE

Adrianne Krstansky with members of the audience in “Every Brilliant Thing” at Boston's SpeakEasy Stage.

PAULA MUSEGADES at the Music and the Moving Image Conference at New York University.

Fafali director BEN PAULDING wrote about West African bell patterns for the journal African Music, based out of Rhodes University, South Africa.

The New England Philharmonic performed the world premiere of “Water,” the first movement of the seventh symphony by DAVID RAKOWSKI, Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Composition.

Associate professor MARYA LOWRY played “Mom” in Sam Shepherd’s “True West” at Gloucester Stage. She also received a Provost Research Grant to support training in Emotional Body Work, which develops expressive emotional and physical tools.

DMITRY TROYANOVSKY was promoted to associate professor with tenure, and directed the North American premiere of “The Rosenbergs: An Opera” at Brandeis and at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.

THEATER ARTS

Associate professor of the practice ROBERT WALSH directed a new translation of “Cyrano” at Gloucester Stage, where he is artistic director.

Critics described associate professor ADRIANNE KRSTANSKY as “marvelous” and “an actor of extraordinary warmth and heart” in “Every Brilliant Thing” at Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage.

Women’s Studies Research Center scholar ANNETTE LIBERMAN MILLER ’56 was recognized by The Wall Street Journal for her outstanding performance in “4000 Miles” at Shakespeare and Company, in Lenox, Massachusetts.

state of the arts | brandeis university 25

HELLO...

CHEN CHEN, recently featured by Poets & Writers as one of “10 Poets Who Will Change the World,” is the 2018-20 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence.

SHEIDA SOLEIMANI and MUNA GUVENC have joined the fine arts department as full-time faculty. (See pages 12-14 for an interview with them.) ARIEL FREIBERG is the new coordinator of the Postbaccalaureate Program in Studio Art.

The Rose Art Museum welcomes JESSICA CLOER, associate registrar; ANTHONY DIPIETRO, associate director of administration and operation; KATE MCBRIDE, assistant director of communications; and BESS PAUPECK, manager of academic and public programs.

ALUMNI WEEKEND Acclaimed actor, director, producer and activist TONY GOLDWYN ’82 received the Alumni Achievement Award and joined University Professor ANITA HILL for a discussion about activism in Hollywood, facilitated by ALICE KELIKIAN, associate professor of history and chair of the Film, Television and Interactive Media Program.

Alumni College shone a spotlight on the arts with a discussion of “West Side Story” by ROBERT WALSH, NEAL HAMPTON, CARINA RAY (African and Afro-American studies) and INGRID SCHORR (Office of the Arts).

PETER KALB gave a talk titled “Art Today: Life at the Intersection of Everything.”

...AND GOODBYE SEAN DOWNEY, senior lecturer in fine arts and coordinator of the Postbaccalaureate Program in Studio Art, has accepted a faculty position at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

Tony Goldwyn engages with alumni during the reception at the Alumni Achievement Awards, June 2018.

26 state of the arts | brandeis university

PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB KEENE

KRISTIN PARKER, longtime deputy director of the Rose Art Museum, has accepted a position as archivist of the John Singer Sargent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is also continuing her consulting work in first aid for cultural heritage.

Sheida Soleimani’s works on display, 2017.

Installation photo courtesy of Atlanta Contemporary

Installation shot, “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up,” June 16-November 4, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Sponsored by Grovesnor England & Ireland. © Victoria & Albert Museum, London

state of the arts | brandeis university 27

OF THE

STATE ARTS fall 2018 artifacts

The arts are central to Brandeis’ commitment to global citizenship and social change. State of the Arts provides information about events and programs from the Division of Creative Arts and other initiatives at Brandeis.

E-LIST

KNIZNICK GALLERY

Go to brandeis.edu/arts to sign up for Arts at Brandeis Newsletter and get regular news and announcements, plus free and discount tickets to arts events across Greater Boston.

The Kniznick Gallery is located in the Epstein Building and is free and open to the public Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and during WSRC and HBI events. For more information, visit brandeis.edu/wsrc or call 781-736-8102.

TICKETS

PARKING

To buy tickets for events at Spingold Theater Center, Slosberg Music Center or Shapiro Campus Center Theater, visit brandeis.edu/tickets or call 781-736-3400.

The Brandeis Tickets office in the Shapiro Campus Center is open Monday-Friday, noon-6 p.m., and Saturday, noon-4 p.m. Any person requiring wheelchair or other assistance should call Brandeis Tickets.

Brandeis arts venues are located on Lower Campus within easy walking distance of each other. Free parking is available in the Theater Parking Lot (T Lot). There are accessible parking spaces in front of Spingold Theater, Slosberg Music Center and the Rose Art Museum.

ROSE ART MUSEUM Admission to the Rose Art Museum is free and open to the public Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit brandeis.edu/rose or call 781-736-3434.

Please note: If you plan to bring a group of more than 15, or any group that may require special attention, please contact Visitor Services Manager Robert Chester, rmchester@brandeis.edu or call 781-736-3442.

28 state of the arts | brandeis university

For directions and a map of parking locations, go to the Brandeis home page and click on “visit.”

SUPPORT THE ARTS AT BRANDEIS 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.

G OING

through september 26 | new work from home and abroad

november 15-18 | circle mirror transformation

Goldman-Schwartz Art Studios

november 15-18 | godspell

october 4-november 18 | leonard bernstein: the power of music

Shapiro Campus Center Theater

Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center

Spingold Theater Center

november 16 | musicunitesus presents: a taste of ghana

through october 26 | rachel stern | more weight

Levin Ballroom, Usdan Student Center

Kniznick Gallery, Epstein Building

november 18 | brandeis-wellesley orchestra

through december 2 | fall exhibitions at the rose

Slosberg Music Center

Rose Art Museum

november 18 | brandeis wind ensemble Slosberg Music Center

S EP T

september 16 | 14th annual 24-hour musical

november 30-december 1 | boris’ kitchen sketch comedy festival

Shapiro Campus Center Theater

Shapiro Campus Center Theater

september 26 | afternoon jazz with bob nieske and billy novick Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium

september 27-30 | boston latino international film festival

D EC

Wasserman Cinematheque, Sachar International Center

O CT

october 10 | lydian string quartet: sneak peek Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium

october 11 | opening reception for leonard bernstein: the power of music Spingold Theater Center

october 13 | lydian string quartet Slosberg Music Center

october 14 | unaccompanied bach workshop benefit concert Slosberg Music Center

october 18-21 | dream a little dream Laurie Theater, Spingold Theater Center

october 19-21 | the tempest Shapiro Campus Center Theater

october 24 | talk: hyman bloom’s “corpse of a man” Rose Art Museum

october 26 | new music brandeis: composers’ collective Slosberg Music Center

N OV

november 1-4 | noises off Shapiro Campus Center Theater

november 11 | brandeis chamber singers and university chorus

FALL 2018 ARTIFACTS

ON-

december 1 | brandeis jazz ensemble Slosberg Music Center

december 2 | leonard bernstein fellowship recital Slosberg Music Center

december 2 | undergraduate composers’ collective Slosberg Music Center

december 5 | brandeis improv collective Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium

december 5 | fafali: music and dance from ghana Slosberg Music Center

december 8 | mark berger, viola, with robyn bollinger, violin Slosberg Music Center

december 8 | ballet club presents: the nutcracker Shapiro Campus Center Theater

december 9 | brandeis early music ensemble Slosberg Music Center

december 9 | brandeis improv collective Slosberg Music Center

december 10 | chamber music recital Slosberg Music Center

december 12 | messiah sing Shapiro Campus Center Atrium

december 12 | opening reception for senior midyear exhibition Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center

december 15 | new music brandeis: lydian string quartet Slosberg Music Center

Slosberg Music Center

november 14 | musicunitesus preview: a taste of ghana Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium

Programs, artists and dates are subject to change.

For updates and additional arts events, visit brandeis.edu/events/arts.

state of the arts | brandeis university 29

OF THE

STATE ARTS

Brandeis University | Office of the Arts MS 092 | PO Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454- 9110 brandeis.edu/arts

SAVE THE DATE April 7-14, 2019

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

FESTIVAL CREATIVE ARTS OF THE

TM

brandeis.edu/arts/festival

30 state of the arts | brandeis university