CA L E NDAR OF EVENTS
Arts and Culture at Wellesley
Spring 2015
ARTS AND CULTURE AND WELLESLEY SPRING 2015
01 1/8–2/2, p.25 Woolf’s ORLANDO Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre
1/26–2/27, p.15 1975: Works from Cambodian Artists Jewett Art Gallery
1/31 (Sat), p.28 The Cantata Singers Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil
8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
02 2/2 (Mon), p.15 1975: Works from Cambodian Artists Opening Reception 4:00–6:00 PM Jewett Art Gallery
2/5 (Thu), p.9 Jill Lepore: Paradise Island: From Herland to Wonder Woman 4:30 PM Collins Cinema
2/8 (Sun), p.33 Cinéphile Sundays: A Corner in Wheat and Margin Call 3:00 PM Collins Cinema
2/8 (Sun), p.28 Music Department Honors Concert 7:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
2/10 (Tue), p.17 Davis Museum Spring Celebration Artist’s Lecture
2/19 (Thu), p.22 Symposium: Spanish Still Life, Revisited
2/10 (Tue), p.17 Davis Museum Spring Celebration Reception
2/21 (Sat), p.28 Jazz-World Music Faculty Concert: Are You Real?: Celebrating the Music of Benny Golson
5:00 PM Collins Cinema
6:00-8:00 PM the Davis.
2/10–6/7, p.2–3 Parviz Tanavoli the Davis.
2/10–6/7, p.20 Rembrandt and the Landscape Tradition the Davis.
2/10–6/7, p.20 Edged in Black: Selections from SMS the Davis.
2/10–6/7, p.18 Hanging with the Old Masters: Davis Museum Reinstallation the Davis.
2/10–6/7, p.18 Michael Craig-Martin: Reconstructing Seurat the Davis.
2/12 (Thu), p.16 Timothy Colton: The United States and Russia: A New Cold War? 8:00 PM Clapp Library Lecture Room
2/18 (Wed), p.28 Midday Muse: Arcadian Winds
2:00-4:30 PM Collins Cinema
8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
2/22 (Sun), p.35 Cinéphile Sundays: L’Argent (Money) 3:00 PM Collins Cinema
2/23 (Mon), p.27 Artist in Residence Welcome Reception: Geoffrey Burleson 5:30 PM Tishman Cow Chair Room
2/24 (Tue), p.27 Midday Muse: Geoffrey Burleson 12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
2/24 (Tue), p.12 Distinguished Writers Series: Joshua Ferris and Helen Oyeyemi 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
2/24–6/7, p.21 Warhol @ Wellesley the Davis.
2/24–6/7, p.21 What Does History Know of Nail Biting? the Davis.
12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
www.wellesley.edu/events
2/28 (Sat), p.27 Piano Concert: Geoffrey Burleson 8:00PM Jewett Auditorium
03 3/3 (Tue), p.18 Gallery Talk: Hanging with the Old Masters and Conservation 3:00 PM the Davis.
3/3 (Tue), p.11 Elizabeth Turner Jordan ’59 Endowed Humanities Lecture: Achille Mbembe: South of Theory 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
3/4 (Wed), p.30 Midday Muse: Tari Aceh: Music and Dance from the Tip of Sumatra 12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
3/4 (Wed), p.22 Film Series: Blackboards 6:00 PM Collins Cinema
3/5 (Thu), p.30 Tari Aceh Concert: Music and Dance from the Tip of Sumatra 7:30 PM Houghton Chapel
ARTS AND CULTURE AND WELLESLEY SPRING 2015
3/5 (Thu), p.16 The Harry Halverson Lecture on American Architecture: Eric Avila 5:00 PM Jewett Arts Center, Room 450
3/8 (Sun), p.35 Cinéphile Sundays: Xala (The Curse) 5:00 PM Collins Cinema
3/11 (Wed), p.12 Distinguished Writers Series: Dorianne Laux and Kevin Young 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
3/11 (Wed), p.22 Film Series: The Day I Became a Woman 6:00 PM Collins Cinema
3/14 (Sat), p.6–7 Benny Golson and Friends: Jazz Legend 8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
3/17 (Tue), p.20 Gallery Talk: SMS and Experimental Poetry 3:00 PM the Davis.
3/30 (Mon), p.13 Distinguished Writers Series: Ha Jin 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
04 4/1 (Wed), p.11 Hilton Als: Diane Arbus in Manhattan 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
4/1 (Wed), p.22 Film Series: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 6:00PM Collins Cinema
4/2 (Thu), p.16 The Calderwood Lecture in Economics: Anne Case 4:30 PM Knapp Atrium in Pendleton East
4/7 (Tue), p.21 Gallery Talk: What Does History Know of Nail Biting? 3:00 PM the Davis.
4/9–4/12, p.26 The Home Front: Women’s Voices from The Great War Diana Chapman Walsh Auditorium
4/12 (Sun), p.35 Cinéphile Sundays: Bamako 5:00 PM Collins Cinema
4/15 (Wed), p.22 Film Series: Fifi Howls from Happiness 6:00 PM Collins Cinema
4/17 (Fri), p.23 Film Screening: Parviz Tanavoli: Poetry in Bronze 5:00 PM Collins Cinema
4/18 (Sat), p.23 Symposium: Contemporary Middle Eastern Art in Context Collins Cinema
4/24–5/2, p.31 Ayaman: Celebrating 30 Years of Jazz and World Music at Wellesley
05 5/1–5/2, p.8–9 House & Home Conference: Theories, Texts, Metaphors Newhouse Center
5/1 (Fri), p.4–5 The Wilson Lecture: Michael Ondaatje in Conversation with Pico Iyer 8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
5/3 (Sun), p.35 Cinéphile Sundays: A Touch of Sin 5:00 PM Collins Cinema
5/21–6/21, p.25 Three Sisters
Jewett Auditorium Tishman Commons
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre
4/25 (Sat), p.23 Family Day at the Davis: Words + Pictures
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11:00 AM - 3:00 PM Davis Galleries, Lobby, and Collins Cafe
4/28 (Tue), p.21 Gallery Talk: Rembrandt and the Landscape Tradition
6/20–6/21, p.26 Princess Vasilisa and The Firebird Diana Chapman Walsh Auditorium
3:00 PM the Davis.
4/14 (Tue), p.13 Distinguished Writers Series: Salar Abdoh and Gina B. Nahai 4:30 PM Newhouse Center
www.wellesley.edu/events | 781.283.2373 |
Please note that student performances are not included in our pullout section. Please see page 26 for student theatre productions and pages 31-32 for student music ensembles.
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ARTS AND CULTURE AT WELLESLEY
The arts speak the languages of all people—they cross racial, socioeconomic, generational, and educational barriers. The arts help us to express what we may not communicate otherwise, and to understand that one question may be answered truthfully in many different ways. They are both personal and collaborative. The power of the arts is, as First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed it, “to remind us of what we each have to offer, and what we all have in common.” Wellesley’s dedication to the arts is at the core of our mission, as is our deeper exploration of the individual disciplines of a liberal arts education. A rich, inter- and cross-disciplinary dialogue among artists, scientists, economists, sociologists, and interpreters of history and literature enriches and enlivens Wellesley’s curriculum and intellectual culture. We invite the larger community to join us as we welcome acclaimed artists, authors, performers, and scholars to Wellesley. All of the arts and cultural events listed in this calendar are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted), and ample parking is available at no cost. Please join us this fall to celebrate the arts at Wellesley.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Parviz Tanavoli ............................................................ 2–3 The Wilson Lecture: Michael Ondaatje in Conversation with Pico Iyer...................................... 4–5 Benny Golson and Friends.......................................... 6–7 The Newhouse Center................................................... 8–13 Arts & the Liberal Arts ................................................. 14–16 The Davis..................................................................... 17–23 Theatre......................................................................... 24–26 The Concert Series...................................................... 27–32 Cinema and Media Studies......................................... 33–35
Cover and side image: Parviz Tanavoli, The Poet (detail), 1973. Bronze, 83 1/16 x 7 1/16 x 11 13/16 in. Collection of the artist. Photograph: John Gordon
For disability services, contact Jim Wice at 781.283.2434. www.wellesley.edu/events | 781.283.2373 |
Parviz Tanavoli, Heech Lovers, 2007 (with the artist). Courtesy the artist. photo: John Gordon
THE DAVIS PRESENTS
PARVIZ TANAVOLI refined a complex system of symbols and motifs into a distinctive visual lexicon, fusing Persian traditions with pop sensibility.
Parviz Tanavoli On View: February 10–June 7 Marjorie and Gerald Bronfman Gallery / Camilla Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler Gallery
Among his many long-standing projects, heech—initiated in February 1965, and set to mark a 50th anniversary with the opening of the Davis exhibition—perhaps best exemplifies Tanavoli’s work. The artist treats the calligraphic script for “heech,” the Farsi word for “nothing” or “nothingness,” to multiple expressions in three dimensions and variable materials—from delicate jewelry to polished bronze and hi-gloss fiberglass sculpture. The concept of heech, as Tanavoli explains, is abstract, philosophical, and celebratory; he says, “Heech is not nothing. It has a body, a shape, but also a meaning behind it.”
Drop-in Public Tour February 28 (Sat) | 2:00 PM Film Screening April 17 (Fri) | 5:00 PM, Collins Cinema
The Davis is proud to present Parviz Tanavoli, the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work to be mounted by a U.S museum. Critically acclaimed and widely acknowledged as the “father of modern Iranian sculpture,” Tanavoli’s trajectory has spanned east and west as he has innovated ambitiously across media. Best known as a sculptor, his expansive oeuvre also includes painting, printmaking, ceramics, rugs, and jewelry. He is also a highly regarded collector, scholar, and poet. This exhibition shares the breadth and richness of his work from the 1960s to the present.
Curated by Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director, with Shiva Balaghi, Brown University. Presented with generous support from The Maryam and Edward Eisler / Goldman Sachs Gives Fund on Art and Visual Culture in the Near, Middle, and Far East.
Based in Tehran and Vancouver, Tanavoli (b.1937) was a leading influence among a generation defined by its commitment to artistic practices that are both modern and distinctly Iranian. Over decades, he has
Free and open to the public. www.theDavis.org
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THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, IN COOPERATION WITH THE SUSAN AND DONALD NEWHOUSE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES, PRESENTS
THE WILSON LECTURE:
MICHAEL ONDAATJE IN CONVERSATION WITH PICO IYER
The Wilson Lecture, sponsored by the College’s Office of the President, has been referred to by H. Kim Bottomly, president of Wellesley College, as “the centerpiece of the academic year at Wellesley.” Each year, the College brings speakers to campus whose contributions in their fields of expertise have major implications across a broad spectrum.
Pico Iyer is the author of 12 books, on subjects as varied as Cuba, globalism, Graham Greene, Canada, and the XIVth Dalai Lama, and writes up to 100 articles a year for magazines such as The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, and Wired. He delivered popular TED talks in both 2013 and 2014, wrote a film script for Miramax, produced liner notes for Leonard Cohen, and has written introductions to roughly 50 books, among them Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.
The Wilson Lecture: Michael Ondaatje in Conversation with Pico Iyer May 1 (Fri) | 8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
From the memoir of his childhood, Running in the Family, to his Governor General’s Awardwinning book of poetry, There’s a Trick With a Knife I’m Learning to Do, to his classic novel, The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje casts a spell over his readers. He is the author of four collections of poetry and six works of fiction, and The English Patient was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Ondaatje has garnered several literary prizes including the Booker Prize for fiction, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the Prix Médicis, and the Giller Prize.
This program is generously funded by an endowment from Carolyn Ann Wilson Class of 1910.
Free and open to the public. wellesley.edu/events | 781.283.3650
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photo: Michael Ondaatje Pictured: Michael Ondaatje
photo: Benny Golson
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THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS
BENNY GOLSON AND FRIENDS
Benny Golson and Friends: Jazz Legend March 14 (Sat) | 8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium Q&A and reception to follow the performance
Benny Golson is a legendary composer, arranger, lyricist, and producer whose tenor playing has continued to evolve with time, redefining the term “jazz� along the way. Raised with an impeccable musical pedigree, Golson has played in the bands of world-famous Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Art Blakey, among others. He is the only living jazz artist to have written eight standards for jazz repertoire. He has recorded more than 30 albums for many recording companies in the United States and Europe under his own name, and innumerable ones with other major artists. A prodigious writer, Golson has
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written well over 300 compositions. He is also passionate about teaching jazz to young and old alike, leading workshops and clinics throughout the country. Golson will be joined by internationally acclaimed artists Ron Mahdi on bass, Ralph Peterson on drums, and Hey Rim Jeon on piano. This program is generously supported by the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund. Reservations are required. To receive reservation links as soon as they are available, please email concerts@wellesley. edu, call the Concert Office at the number below, or text CONCERTS to 42828. wellesley.edu/music/concertseries 781.283.2028
Agnes Abbot, House, 20th Century. Watercolor, 10 3/4” x 15 1/16”. Gift of Mrs. Walter Tower. 1992.48
THE SUSAN AND DONALD NEWHOUSE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES The mission of the Newhouse Center for the Humanities is to create a dynamic and cosmopolitan intellectual community that extends from Wellesley to the wider Boston area and beyond. Founded in 2004 by a generous gift from Susan Marley Newhouse ’55 and Donald Newhouse, the Newhouse Center generates and supports innovative, world-class programming in the humanities and arts.
HOUSE & HOME CONFERENCE: THEORIES, TEXTS, METAPHORS
art, literature, film, and on stage. How does the physicality of a house—its architecture, spatial configuration and design, even the furniture within—intersect with the more intangible emotions, aspirations, and sense of ownership we associate with the place we call home?
The conference will bring an interdisciplinary group of scholars together to explore the many ways that the related notions of house and home are constructed both literally and figuratively in
Please see the Newhouse Center website for more details: www.newhouse-center.org. 8
2014–2015 CORNILLE COLLOQUIUM SERIES: THESE AMERICAN LIVES
Session One: Theory and Metaphor May 1 (Fri) | 4:30 PM–6:00 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall Dinner and keynote address to follow the session
Curated by Jane Kamesky, These American Lives will engage the Wellesley community in a sustained meditation on two entwined questions: the challenges of capturing and representing an individual’s story, and the vexed notion of a particular—even, some allege, “exceptional”—American experience. A series of talks and workshops featuring guest speakers and artists as well as scholars from the Wellesley faculty will approach this broad theme through different disciplinary lenses throughout the 2014–15 academic year.
THE WILSON LECTURE Keynote Lecture: Michael Ondaatje in Conversation with Pico Iyer May 1 (Fri) | 8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
The Susan and Donald Newhouse Center for the Humanities is pleased to host the Wilson Lecture on behalf of the Office of the President. The lecture will serve as the keynote address for the House and Home Conference. Please see pages 4-5 for more information.
Jill Lapore
Pico Iyer
Jill Lepore: Paradise Island: From Herland to Wonder Woman
Michael Ondaatje
Session Two: Architecture/Interiors/ Gender
February 5 (Thu) | 4:30 PM
May 2 (Sat) | 9:30 AM–11:30 AM
In an illustrated lecture, Jill Lepore recounts the startling biography of William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, to argue that Wonder Woman is the missing link in a chain of events that begins with the womansuffrage campaigns of the 1910s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.
Collins Cinema
Collins Cinema Lunch to follow the session
Session Three: Emotions/Interiors May 2 (Sat) | 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Collins Cinema
Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her 2013 biography of Jane Franklin, Book of Ages, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent book is The Secret History of Wonder Woman.
Session Four: Leaving Home/ Losing Home May 2 (Sat) | 3:30 PM–5:30 PM Collins Cinema Dinner for conference participants to follow the session
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Photograph of Diane Arbus, Love-In, Central Park, New York City, 1969, by Garry Winogrand.
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Eric Avila
Achille Mbembe
Eric Avila: Chocolate Cities and Vanilla Suburbs: Race, Space and American Culture After World War II
coming to The New Yorker, Als was a staff writer for the Village Voice and an editorat-large at Vibe. He has also written articles for The Nation and collaborated on film scripts for Swoon and Looking for Langston. His first book, The Women, a meditation on gender, race, and personal identity, was published in 1996. In 2010, he co-curated Self-Consciousness at the Veneklasen Werner Gallery in Berlin, and published Justin Bond/ Jackie Curtis, his second book. His collection of essays, White Girls, was published in 2013.
March 5 (Thu) | 5:00 PM Jewett Arts Center, Room 450
The 2015 Harry Halverson Lecture on American Architecture is presented as part of These American Lives. Please see page 16 for details.
Hilton Als: Diane Arbus in Manhattan
ELIZABETH TURNER JORDAN ’59 ENDOWED HUMANITIES LECTURE
April 1 (Wed) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
Achille Mbembe: South of Theory March 3 (Tue) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
As foundational discourses on the human are being displaced and relocated within the histories and anthropologies of objects and things, animals and plants, and other organisms, what can contemporary critical theory gain by looking South and to other precarious margins of the North? Achille Mbembe is a research professor in history and politics at the Witwatersrand Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) and the convenor of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism. He is also the editor of the online magazine The Johannesburg Salon. His latest book is Critique de la raison negre (Paris, La Decouverte, 2013).
Hilton Als
Hilton Als explores a hitherto unexamined aspect of Diane Arbus’ brilliant work: her relationship to and examination of her home town—the real myth that is New York. Als became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1994 and a theatre critic in 2002. Before 11
DISTINGUISHED WRITERS SERIES Joshua Ferris and Helen Oyeyemi February 24 (Tue) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
Dorianne Laux
Dorianne Laux and Kevin Young March 11 (Wed) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
Dorianne Laux’s fifth collection of poems, The Book of Men, was the winner of the Paterson Prize. Co-author of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, she is the recipient of three Best American Poetry prizes, a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She directs the Program in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University and is founding faculty of Pacific University’s Low Residency MFA Program.
Joshua Ferris
Joshua Ferris’s latest novel is To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. His highly acclaimed debut novel, Then We Came to the End, was a finalist for the National Book Award and received the 2007 PEN/Hemingway Award. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, The Guardian, The Iowa Review, and Best American Short Stories 2009. Helen Oyeyemi is the author of five novels, including White is for Witching, which won a 2010 Somerset Maugham award, Mr. Fox, which won a 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and most recently Boy, Snow, Bird. In 2013, Oyeyemi was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She lives in Prague.
Kevin Young’s most recent book of poetry, Book of Hours, was published in 2014. Young was a 1993 National Poetry Series winner for Most Way Home, a finalist for the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets for To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor, and a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Jelly Roll: A Blues. Young is also the author of The Grey Album, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the 2013 PEN Open Book Award. Young is currently Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University.
Helen Oyeyemi
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Kevin Young Salar Abdoh
Ha Jin
His essays and short stories have appeared in various publications, including the New York Times, BOMB, Callaloo, and Guernica, and on the BBC. He is the recipient of the NYFA Prize and the National Endowment for the Arts award. He is the editor of Tehran Noir and the author of Tehran at Twilight, his latest novel.
March 30 (Mon) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
Born in China in 1956, Pulitzer-nominated author Ha Jin was a teenager when the country entered the Cultural Revolution. He became a member of the People’s Liberation Army at the age of 14. His novel Waiting, which won the National Book Award in 1999 and the PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2000, was based on his experiences during his five-year service in the Red Army. He was awarded the PEN/ Faulkner again in 2005 for War Trash. His latest book, A Map of Betrayal, was published in 2014.
Gina B. Nahai is a best-selling author and a professor of creative writing at USC. Her novels have been translated into 18 languages, and have been selected as one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Nahai’s books include Cry of the Peacock, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, Sunday’s Silence, and Caspian Rain. Her new novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., was published by Akashic Books in October 2014. Please note that books pictured are not necessarily those from which the authors will read.
Ha Jin
Salar Abdoh and Gina B. Nahai April 14 (Tue) | 4:30 PM Newhouse Center, Green Hall
Salar Abdoh was born in Iran and splits his time between Tehran and New York City, where he is codirector of the Creative Writing MFA Program at the City College of New York. He is the author of The Poet Game and Opium.
Gina B. Nahai
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LinDa Saphan
Anida Yoeu Ali. (Chicago/Phnom Penh/Osaka). Studio-revolt.com
ARTS & THE LIBERAL ARTS The arts are a vibrant part of the greater intellectual community at Wellesley College. Every year, various academic departments bring art, artists, and experts in their respective fields from all over the world to campus to both enrich their own curriculum and enliven the cultural life of the greater Wellesley community.
JEWETT ARTS CENTER 1975: Works from Cambodian Artists On View: January 26–February 27 Opening Reception February 2 | 4:00 PM Jewett Art Gallery
This exhibition brings together three diasporic Cambodian female artists whose works exemplify the dynamic contemporary art scene in Phnom Penh: Anida Yoeu Ali’s photographs and video installation recall life in a refugee camp following the fall of the Khmer Rouge; Amy Lee Sanford’s video and prints share with viewers the process of uncovering a difficult history, the turmoil of the late 1960s and 1970s, as told in letters written by a father she never knew; and LinDa Saphan’s drawings
Amy Lee Sanford. Photo: ABC
of apartment buildings and architectural monuments in current-day Phnom Penh take us back to her mother’s memories of living there. 15
Judith Baca, Division of the Barrios and Chavez Ravine, 1983, segment of the Great Wall of Los Angeles
RUSSIAN AREA STUDIES
UCLA Professor Eric Avila is an urban cultural historian, studying the intersections of racial identity, urban space, and cultural representation in 20th-century America. He began his undergraduate education at UC Berkeley in 1986 and left that institution with a Ph.D. in history in 1997. Since 1997, he has taught Chicano studies and history at UCLA, and he holds an affiliation with the Department of Urban Planning. He is the author of Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles. His latest book, The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City, was published in 2014.
Timothy Colton: The United States and Russia: A New Cold War? February 12 (Thu) | 8:00 PM Lecture Room, Marjorie Clapp Library
The current crisis over Ukraine has utterly obliterated the “reset� policy toward Russia that Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama launched five years ago, and the world is witnessing a sea-change in U.S.-Russian relations. With President Obama issuing ever-harsher condemnations of his Russian counterpart, and Vladimir Putin accusing the United States of having fomented revolution in Ukraine in order to remove that country from the Russian sphere of influence, are we now being hurtled into a new Cold War?
The Halverson Lecture is presented as part of These American Lives. Please see page 9 for details.
THE CALDERWOOD LECTURE IN ECONOMICS
Harvard Professor Timothy Colton will address this key question in a lecture on U.S.-Russian relations in this time of crisis and beyond. Colton is the Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies and the chair, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Anne Case April 2 (Thu) | 4:30 PM Knapp Atrium in Pendleton East
Anne Case is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and a professor of economics and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University.
This program is generously supported by the Davis Fund for Russian Area Studies.
THE HARRY HALVERSON LECTURE ON AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE
All events are free and open to the public. www.wellesley.edu/events | 781.283.3873
Eric Avila: Chocolate Cities and Vanilla Suburbs: Race, Space and American Culture After World War II March 5 (Thu) | 5:00 PM Jewett Arts Center, Room 450 16
Parviz Tanavoli, Poet Turning into Heech, 1973-2007 (detail). Bronze, 90 x 28 x 23 in. Collection of the artist. Photography: John Gordon
THE DAVIS. One of the oldest and most acclaimed academic fine art museums in the United States, the Davis Museum is a vital force in the intellectual, pedagogical, and social life of Wellesley College. The Davis mission is to create an environment that encourages visual literacy, inspires new ideas, and fosters involvement with the arts in the academy and in life.
Please join the Davis in celebrating the opening of our spring exhibitions with an evening program and festive reception in the company of distinguished artist Parviz Tanavoli.
EXHIBITIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Parviz Tanavoli On View: February 10–June 7 Marjorie and Gerald Bronfman Gallery / Camilla Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler Gallery
Parviz Tanavoli
Drop-in Public Tour February 28 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
Spring Celebration
Film Screening April 17 (Fri) | 5:00 PM, Collins Cinema
February 10 (Tue) Artist’s Lecture with Parviz Tanavoli 5:00 PM | Collins Cinema
The Davis presents the U.S. retrospective exhibition of this acclaimed Iranian artist. Please see pages 2–3 for more information.
Reception 6:00–8:00 PM | Davis Galleries & Lobby
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Abraham Janssens, Philemon and Baucis Entertaining Jupiter and Mercury, ca. 1615-25. Oil on canvas, overall: 60 5/16 in. x 91 1/8 in. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur K. Solomon. 1954.35
Hanging with the Old Masters: Davis Museum Reinstallation
Gallery Talk: Hanging with the Old Masters and Conservation
On View: February 10–June 7
March 3 (Tue) | 3:00 PM
Joanne Larson Jobson Gallery and Harold and Estelle Newman Tanner Gallery
Davis Galleries
Co-curators Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Claire Whitner will discuss how the current installation of the Davis’s Italian Old Master paintings collection is intended to provoke discussion of the behind-the-scenes decisionmaking that happens among curators: which paintings should be placed on view and why, whether conservation is an option, how “hangs” should be arranged, and what information should be included in labels. Objects conservator Gerri Strickler will join the conversation with her assessment of the Davis’s collection of polychrome sculpture. She will discuss how these preliminary findings will determine whether treatment is possible and if so, how it will be carried out.
Showcasing Old Master Italian paintings under consideration for the upcoming reinstallation of the permanent galleries, many of which have been off view for decades, the fifth floor of the Davis will become a laboratory for the exploration of the curatorial reinstallation process. One wall will be lined with 3D models of the Davis and will afford the campus community and the general public alike transparent access to the reinstallation process. The other three walls on the fifth floor will be devoted to understanding the curatorial process through Old Master Italian paintings. Issues and concerns—including questions of display, conservation, and aesthetics—that inform whether an individual work of art will be included in the reinstallation will be revealed and, hopefully, demystified for the viewer.
Rembrandt and the Landscape Tradition
Co-curated by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs/Senior Curator of Collections, and Claire Whitner, Associate Curator. Presented with generous support from the Sandra Cohen Bakalar ’55 Fund and the Mildred Cooper Glimcher ’61 Endowed Fund.
On View February 10-June 7 Robert and Claire Freedman Lober Viewing Alcove
Throughout the 17th century, Rembrandt van Rijn and his contemporaries explored the genre of landscape as both the setting for and the subject of their work. This exhibition of 18
Rembrandt van Rijn, Landscape with Square Tower, 1650. Etching and drypoint, 3 1/4 in x 6 1/8 in. Gift of the Class of 1900 in memory of Mrs. J. Sewall Naylor (Edith Moore, Class of 1914). 1960.4
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Hannah Weiner, Signal Flag Poems, SMS portfolio #3, 1968. Museum purchase, The Nancy Gray Sherrill, Class of 1954, Collection Acquisitions Endowment. 2009.393.3.10
Andy Warhol, Flash, 1963, 1968. Screen print, sheet: 21 in. x 21 in. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2013.73
drawings and prints from the Davis collections examines changing attitudes toward nature in the United Provinces and the diverse ways in which landscape—both imagined and observed—was depicted by Rembrandt and other artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Co-curated by Margaret Carroll, Professor of Art, Wellesley College, and Meredith Fluke, Kemper Curator of Academic Programs, with generous support from the Mary Tebbetts Wolfe ’54 Davis Museum Program Fund.
Davis holds the complete portfolio, which includes work by Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Kosuth, and Roy Lichtenstein alongside music by La Monte Young and Terry Riley. This installation focuses on works of experimental poetry and literature in the portfolio.
Gallery Talk: Rembrandt and the Landscape Tradition
Gallery Talk: SMS and Experimental Poetry
April 28 (Tue) | 3:00 PM
March 17 (Tue) | 3:00 PM
Robert and Claire Freedman Lober Viewing Alcove
Lawrence and Ina Lee Brown Ramer Gallery
Margaret Carroll, Professor of Art at Wellesley College and specialist in Dutch and Flemish art, will discuss the work of Rembrandt and his contemporaries, the growth of the landscape genre in the 17th century, and how this growth reflects greater historical, social, and cultural trends of the time.
Nick Monfort is a specialist in the history of electronic literature and a practicing digital poet. In conversation with Michael Maizels, Mellon Curator of New Media Art, Montfort will discuss the principle of coding that is essential to many of the works in the SMS portfolios, and the relationship of these explorations to the birth of the modern computer.
Curated by Michael Maizels, Mellon Curator of New Media Art, with generous support from the Anonymous ’70 Endowed Davis Museum Program Fund.
Edged in Black: Selections from SMS
Michael Craig-Martin: Reconstructing Seurat
On View: February 10–June 7 Lawrence and Ina Lee Brown Ramer Gallery
On View: February 10–June 7
Compiled between 1967 and 1968, the SMS series was one of several important experimental ventures that sought to destabilize the boundaries of traditional media while also making work by the day’s leading artists accessible to those outside of the collector class. Through the generous gift of Nancy Gray Sherrill ’54, the
Dorothy Johnston Towne Gallery
Conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin trains his eye on George Seurat’s monumental painting Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathers at Asnières), 1884, one of the most famous pictures
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Michael Craig-Martin, Reconstructing Seurat (orange), 2004. Acrylic on aluminum panel, 73 5/8 in. x 110 1/4 in. Extended loan from Mildred Goldsmith Palley ’78. Courtesy Alan Cristea Gallery, London
in the collection of the National Gallery, London. Moving several steps beyond Seurat’s own remarkably modern reduction of figures into forms, curves, and colors, Craig-Martin deconstructs and reconstructs the image through his signature style: his painting, and two sets of related prints, recast the scene of boys on the banks of the Seine through sharp graphic line drawings and a thrilling pop palette.
What Does History Know of Nail Biting? On View: February 24-June 7 Joan Levine Freedman ’57 and Richard I. Freedman Gallery
What Does History Know of Nail Biting?, the latest multichannel video work from acclaimed Spanish artist Francesc Torres, examines the extraordinary history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers who fought during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).
Curated by Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director, with generous support from Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis.
Curated by Michael Maizels, Mellon Curator of New Media Art, with generous support from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis ’28 Fund for World Cultures and Leadership.
Warhol @ Wellesley On View: February 24-June 7 Morelle Lasky Levine ’56 Works on Paper Gallery
This exhibition explores the rich holdings of artwork—some iconic and others lesser known—by Andy Warhol (1928–1987) in the collections of the Davis, which were recently greatly enhanced by generous gifts from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. An exciting and challenging array of photographs, prints, and sculpture by the leading figure of pop art will be on view.
Gallery Talk: What Does History Know of Nail Biting? April 7 (Tue) | 3:00 PM Joan Levine Freedman ’57 and Richard I. Freedman Gallery
Carlos Ramos, Professor of Spanish, will lead a conversation with visiting artist Francesc Torres about What Does History Know of Nail Biting?, addressing questions of war and social memory.
Curated by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs/Senior Curator of Collections. Presented with generous support from Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis.
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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber Inc.
The Day I Became A Woman. Image courtesy of Makhmalbaf Film House
FILM SERIES: WOMEN IN MODERN IRANIAN CINEMA
Fifi Howls from Happiness (2013, Dir. Mitra Farahani) April 15 (Wed) 6:00 PM | Collins Cinema
In partnership with Cinema and Media Studies, the Davis presents a series of film screenings dedicated to exploring the groundbreaking achievements of women directors in modern Iranian cinema. Proportionally speaking, there have been more high-profile female directors in Iran than in several Western countries. These films range from drama to comedy and explore a broad range of topics, suspending generalizations of Iranian society and provoking curiosity.
SYMPOSIA Spanish Still Life, Revisited February 19 (Thu) | 2:00-4:30 PM Collins Cinema Reception to follow in the Davis Lobby
When Davis curators recently delved into storage in preparation for the upcoming reinstallation project, they uncovered a rare example of a 17th-century Spanish still life painting. Upon further research, this coveted painting was attributed to Alonso de Escobar and received extensive conservation treatment and a new period frame. Please join us to explore the story of this marvelous discovery with a team of experts: Salvador Salort-Pons, Executive Director, Collection Strategies and Information, Detroit Institute of Arts; Theresa Carmichael, Independent Paintings Conservator; and Andrew Haines, Associate Conservator of Frames at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Generously supported by the Davis Museum Film Program Gift. *Indicates 35mm films.
Blackboards (2000, Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf)* March 4 (Wed) 6:00 PM | Collins Cinema
The Day I Became a Woman (2000, Dir. Marziyeh Meshkini)* March 11 (Wed) 6:00 PM | Collins Cinema
Organized by curators Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Claire Whitner, with generous support from the E. Franklin Robbins Art Museum Endowment.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014, Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour) April 1 (Wed) 6:00 PM | Collins Cinema
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TOURS: GET TO KNOW THE DAVIS.
Parviz Tanavoli: Poetry in Bronze Film Screening | April 17 (Fri) 5:00 PM | Collins Cinema
The Davis Museum at Wellesley College offers guided group tours during open hours by reservation. Special exhibition and permanent collection tours are led by student guides and may be customized to areas of interest.
Art and Reality: Contemporary Middle Eastern Art in Context April 18 (Sat) Collins Cinema | Please visit www.theDavis.org for time
School groups are encouraged to plan visits to the Davis and to apply for our School Bus Subsidy, generously funded by the Palley Endowment Fund for Davis Museum Outreach Programs.
Join us for an exploration of current issues in contemporary Middle Eastern art, an area of newly heightened interest among institutions, collectors, curators, scholars, and patrons. Organized in conjunction with the groundbreaking exhibition Parviz Tanavoli, the event kicks off with a special screening of Terrence Turner’s new documentary film about the artist, Parviz Tanavoli: Poetry In Bronze, with the director in attendance.
Drop-in tours are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. All tours meet in the Davis Lobby.
DROP-IN PUBLIC TOURS
A day-long symposium examines Tanavoli’s art in context and expands to consider the “new” field of contemporary Middle Eastern art, questions of creative freedom and the social responsibility of artists, and matters of “soft power” in the region.
Parviz Tanavoli
Presented with major support from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis ’28 Fund for World Cultures and Leadership. The screening and symposium are free and open to the public, however reservations are required. Please see theDavis.org.
Hanging with the Old Masters
February 28 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
Warhol @ Wellesley March 7 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
March 14 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
Edged in Black April 4 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
FAMILY EVENTS
Michael Craig-Martin: Reconstructing Seurat
Family Day at the Davis: Words + Pictures
April 11 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
April 25 (Sat) | 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM Davis Galleries, Lobby, and Collins Cafe
Learn all about the different ways that text and image interact in this edition of Family Day at the Davis. Ask a graphic designer about his work, watch Persian calligrapher Sina Goudarzi in action, enjoy story time with librarians from the Wellesley Free Library, make your own word art, and explore our special exhibitions with a scavenger hunt and family tours. Light refreshments provided.
Museum Hours Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00 AM–5:00 PM Closed Mondays, major holidays, and campus recesses. For information: 781.283.2051 To schedule a tour, please call: 781.283.3045
All events are free and open to the public. www.thedavis.org
Family Day is generously supported by the Palley Endowment Fund for Davis Museum Outreach Programs.
MassCulturalCouncil.org
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The Davis is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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photo: Angela Bilkic ’15 and Charlotte Peed (AEA)
THEATRE The Department of Theatre Studies allows Wellesley College students to explore the history and literature of the theatre, and then to bring their knowledge from the classroom to a hands-on application of the craft. To facilitate this essential experiential learning, the department hosts multiple active performing programs on campus, ranging from solely professional to student-produced.
WELLESLEY SUMMER THEATRE COMPANY
are magically explored. Ruhl writes and Woolf soars, with both women winning accolades from actors and audiences.
WSTC is the professional Equity company in residence at Wellesley College. The awardwinning company attracts audiences and artists from across New England.
Reservations required: 781.283.2000 or tickets@wellesleysummertheatre.com
Three Sisters
Woolf’s ORLANDO
by Anton Chekhov
by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Nora Hussey
May 21–June 21 | Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 2:00 PM
January 8–February 2 Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM Saturday and Sunday 2:00 PM
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall
Chekhov’s classic 1901 portrait of Russia’s disappearing aristocratic class and their quest for meaning and fulfillment in the ever-changing modern world.
Special performance on February 2 | 7:00 PM Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall
In this blithe and passionate adaptation of the 1928 gender-flipping Virginia Woolf novel, transformation and identity 25
UPSTAGE THEATRE Upstage productions are student-produced and directed. They provide Wellesley College students with the opportunity to explore all aspects of working in theatre independently.
Dumb Show: The Most Technically Dumb Show Ever Written written and directed by Xena Vronay Ruggles ’15 and Rowan Winterwood ’16 February 13–15 | Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 2:00 PM
photo: Margaret Dunn, Will Bouvier* (*AEA)
Barstow Stage, Alumnae Hall
Wellesley Summer Theatre Company productions are $20 general admission, $10 seniors/ students.Reservations required: 781.283.2000 or tickets@wellesleysummertheatre.com.
For every masterpiece, there are 99 pieces of, well, dumb stuff. In Dumb Show, every decision is the wrong decision, and the only road to success is to just keep trying. Dumb Show follows a rag-tag theater troupe that has been trying to produce the same show for over a year. Will they be able to put on the show by opening night? Will the crew ever stop arguing? Will passion prevail? And what the heck is up with Paul?
WELLESLEY COLLEGE THEATRE The Home Front: Women’s Voices from The Great War created by Sarah Barton and Nora Hussey April 9–12 | Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 2:00 PM
The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, directed by Mara Palma ’15
Diana Chapman Walsh Auditorium, Alumnae Hall
March 5–8 | Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 2:00 PM
World premiere. In song, story, and music, the experiences of women in World War I come to vivid life. The performance space is reimagined, and audiences are transported to the sights and sounds of the war that changed the world.
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall
The Lion in Winter dramatizes an imagined conversation between King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine over which of their three sons, Richard, Geoffrey, or John, will inherit the English throne. On a wintry evening in 12th-century Chignon, France, the British royal family has gathered under one roof to celebrate the Christmas season by maneuvering and negotiating the terms of kingly succession. A battle of wits and words ensues, blurring the lines between right and might, love and hate, and the personal and the political. Tensions rise as the characters strike deals with, make promises to, and declare war on one another.
$15 general admission, $10 seniors/students. No reservations required.
WELLESLEY SUMMER CHILDREN’S THEATRE Princess Vasilisa and The Firebird adapted by Marta Rainer, directed by Danny Bolton June 20 (Sat) | 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM June 21 (Sun) | 11:00 AM Diana Chapman Walsh Auditorium, Alumnae Hall
Upstage Theatre shows are $5 general admission, free to students. Reservations: upstage@wellesley.edu.
Wellesley Summer Theatre Company members collaborate on a new and playful interpretation of classic Russian folktales. $5 adults, $3 children. No reservations required.
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THE CONCERT SERIES Organized and curated by the Department of Music, the Wellesley College Concert Series brings world-class performers to campus, complementing the department’s academic offerings and augmenting the cultural life of the College and the surrounding community. With concerts ranging from early music to contemporary, world music to jazz, electronic music and beyond, the series features both visiting artists and members of the performing faculty.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Welcome Reception: Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Geoffrey Burleson, pianist, has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America, and is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer. He has appeared as concerto soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva, Arlington Philharmonic, and more. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University and is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College of The City University of New York.
February 23 (Mon) | 5:30 PM Location to be announced
Midday Muse: Geoffrey Burleson February 24 (Tue) | 12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
Concert: Geoffrey Burleson, piano February 28 (Sat) | 8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
The Artist in Residence Program is generously supported by the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund and the Florence Jeup Ford ’22, Mary M. Crawford ’22, and Virginia Ford ’48 Artist-in-Residence Endowment Fund.
In addition to the events below, the residency will include class visits, workshops, and master classes with Wellesley students.
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Arcadian Winds
The Cantata Singers
PROFESSIONAL SERIES
can combine serious musical study with the depth and richness of a traditional liberal arts curriculum. The performance program is an important component of the Music Department, giving students the opportunity to take instrumental/vocal private instruction with faculty and prepare for professional careers in music. The concert will showcase students who have exhibited exceptional promise as performing musicians.
All Concert Series programs are generously supported by the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund.
The Cantata Singers: Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil January 31 (Sat) Pre-concert Lecture 7:00 PM | Multifaith Room Concert 8:00 PM | Houghton Chapel Reception following the concert
Midday Muse: Arcadian Winds
Hear Sergei Rachmaninoff’s stunning a cappella masterpiece in the original Church Slavonic. Often called simply the Vespers, Rachmaninoff considered the piece one of his finest compositions. Ethereal, poignant, and beloved around the world, All-Night Vigil was composed during the “golden age” of Russian choral music, when composers like Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Rimski-Korsakov were all writing music using texts from the Russian Orthodox liturgy. All-Night Vigil is considered the crowning musical achievement of this era.
February 18 (Wed) | 12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
This concert will feature Jane Harrison, a member of the Classical Music faculty, on the oboe, with members of her ensemble Arcadian Winds—Mark Miller on clarinet and Janet Underhill on bassoon—with guest artists Jacqueline DeVoe on flute and Fred Aldrich on horn. They will perform music by local composers, including Daniel Pinkham, Walter Piston, and Scott Wheeler.
Anna Winestein, art historian and executive director of the Ballets Russes Cultural Partnership, will deliver a pre-concert lecture.
Jazz-World Music Faculty Concert Are You Real?: Celebrating the Music of Benny Golson
This concert is a special collaboration between the Wellesley College Concert Series and the Cantata Singers. Tickets are free with student or staff ID and reservations. Tickets are available to the general public for $25-$69 at www.cantatasingers.org.
February 21 (Sat) | 8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
Renowned jazz artist Benny Golson’s compositions hold an honored place in the jazz canon, and include classics such as Whisper Not, Stablemates, and I Remember Clifford. The evening’s performance, prefacing Golson’s Wellesley performance on March 14, will feature original arrangements of Golson standards, showcasing the creativity and breadth of the Wellesley Jazz-World Music faculty.
Music Department Honors Concert February 8 (Sun) | 7:00 PM Jewett Auditorium Reception following the concert
The Music Department at Wellesley College fosters an environment in which students 28
Tari Aceh: Music and Dance from the Tip of Sumatra
Jazz-World featured performers: Kris Adams, voice; David Harris, trombone; Mark Henry, bass; Greg Hopkins, trumpet; Doug Johnson, piano; Steven Kirby, guitar; Steve Langone, drums; Lance Martin, flute; Cercie Miller, saxophones; Kera Washington, percussion and voice; and Paula Zeitlin, violin.
Tari Aceh Midday Muse: Meet the Artists March 4 (Wed) | 12:30 PM Jewett Auditorium
Bring a lunch and enjoy a live performance and discussion of the history and cultural context of this unique music and dance form, facilitated by Wesleyan scholar Maho Ishiguro.
Benny Golson and Friends: Jazz Legend
Tari Aceh: Art & Soul Evening Concert
March 14 (Sat) | 8:00 PM
March 5 (Thu) | 7:30 PM
Jewett Auditorium
Q&A and reception following the concert Houghton Chapel
Jazz legend Benny Golson appears at Wellesley for one night only. Please see pages 6–7 for details. Reservations required.
This concert presents Tari Saman, a music/ percussive dance tradition that includes stunning synchronicity, rhythmic body percussion, and the singing of both Islamic liturgical and folk texts. Originally performed by men, the music and dances were taught to women in the 20th century and in some districts are still forbidden.
TARI ACEH: MUSIC AND DANCE FROM THE TIP OF SUMATRA The Concert Series, in collaboration with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life’s Art & Soul program, is honored to present Tari Aceh! (Celebrate Aceh!), a group of nine female performers aged 14-24 from the province of Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, on their first tour of the United States. Their music and dances, inherited from their ancestors, are among the best illustration of the trans-cultural blending of Islamic and Indonesian culture.
This program is generously supported through a grant from the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as ORSL’s Art & Soul program, the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund, and other campus programs and departments.
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Jazz World Music faculty
Yanvalou
AYAMAN: CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF JAZZ AND WORLD MUSIC AT WELLESLEY
Ayaman: Round Table Discussion
Ayaman signifies a call to gather. We gather for a week-long series of events to celebrate 30 years of vibrant Jazz-World Music at Wellesley.
Professor Emeritus Gerdès Fleurant heads a panel of jazz and world music educators, practitioners, and alumnae in a discussion about the music of the African diaspora and the history of Afro-Caribbean music and jazz performance at Wellesley over the past 30 years.
May 2 (Sat) | 2:00 PM Tishman Commons
Ayaman: BlueJazz Strings, Combos, and Friends in Concert April 24 (Fri) | 7:30 PM
Ayaman: Yanvalou
Jewett Auditorium
May 2 (Sat) | 7:30 PM
Reception to follow the performance
Jewett Auditorium
Wellesley BlueJazz Strings and Combos open the week-long celebration with special guests from Yanvalou and jazz alumnae, in a musical journey from Africa to the Americas.
Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble is joined by special guests, including Wellesley BlueJazz, Wellesley BlueJazz Strings and Combos, Haitian master artists, Yanvalou founders, and alumnae.
Ayaman: Wellesley BlueJazz Big Band and Friends in Concert
Ayaman: Gran Moun! The Mentors May 2 (Sat) | 8:30 PM
May 1 (Fri) | 7:30 PM
Tishman Commons
Jewett Auditorium Reception to follow the performance
Gran Moun are those who have come before. The closing event of our week-long celebration calls many of the innovators of jazz and African folkloric music who have informed Wellesley’s jazz and world music programs to perform in the true spirit of Ayaman. Enjoy the masters while all eat, dance, and celebrate.
Wellesley BlueJazz are joined by Welllesley Jazz alumnae, faculty, and members of Yanvalou.
Ayaman: Master Class May 2 (Sat) | 10:30 AM Tishman Commons
The Ayaman programs are generously supported by the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life Art & Soul program, and additional Wellesley departments and programs.
Learn and explore African diasporic rhythm, dance, and song, led by Peniel Guerrier and Kera Washington, and featuring visiting master artists from Haiti. 31
STUDENT ENSEMBLES The Baum Memorial Concert: Wellesley College Choir and Chamber Singers Lisa Graham, Conductor April 11 (Sat) | 8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
The Wellesley College Chamber Singers will perform with the Lehigh University Glee Club (Steven Sametz, conductor). The Wellesley College Choir will also perform music from their March tour to Seoul, South Korea.
Chamber Music Society Spring Concerts
This program is generously supported by the Marjorie Copland Baum Memorial Fund.
David Russell and Jenny Tang, Directors April 30 (Thu) | 7:00 PM | PNW 220 (Pendleton Salon) May 3 (Sun) | 2:00 PM | Jewett Auditorium
Collegium Musicum Spring Concert: 600 Years of Music by Women Composers: From St. Hildegard to Barbara Strozzi
May 4 (Mon | 7:00 PM | PNW 220 (Pendleton Salon) May 6 (Wed)
| 12:30 PM | Jewett Auditorium
The Chamber Music Society provides an opportunity for interested instrumentalists and vocalists to prepare and perform works for small ensembles.
Tom Zajac, Director April 22 (Wed) | 8:00 PM Jewett Auditorium
GUILD OF CARILLONNEURS
This ambitious program includes music by well-known but mostly rarely heard women composers from across the centuries.
The Wellesley College Guild of Carillonneurs carries on the tradition of bell-ringing in Galen Stone Tower, which has continued since the carillon was first installed in 1931. Concerts may be enjoyed from any favorite spot on campus. Open Towers include a chance to view the carillon during the performance.
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra Spring Concert Neal Hampton, Conductor April 25 (Sat) | 8:00 PM Houghton Chapel
Cari-Radio Open Tower
The concert will feature winners of the 2014 concerto competition.
February 21 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
This program is generously supported by the Dr. and Mrs. Arthur George Griffin Memorial Fund, the Ella A. Sweet Fund, and the Hsi Keng Peng Music Department Fund.
Spring Concert March 14 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
Wellesley: A History April 4 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
Chamber Music Society Marathon David Russell and Jenny Tang, Directors
Community Time Open Tower
April 26 (Sun) | 12:00 PM–4:00 PM
April 15 (Wed) | 12:30 PM
Anderson Forum, Lulu Chow Wang Center
Enjoy some or all of an informal afternoon of chamber music in a comfortable setting.
Change Ringing Open Tower May 2 (Sat) | 2:00 PM
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A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke, China, 2013).
CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES The Cinema and Media Studies program aims to bring film lovers together into a communal viewing experience, sharing the beauty of 35mm films on the big screen of Wellesley’s Collins Cinema. In these days when people too often watch film in the isolation of their homes in front of their computers, we offer the opportunity to come together, in the dark and in the light, to view film on the big screen, to hear from major film theorists, and to meet filmmakers.
CINÉPHILE SUNDAYS: FILTHY LUCRE
All films are shown in Collins Cinema and are free and open to the public. This program is generously supported by the Rebecca Bacharach Treves Fund, with additional funding from the Wellesley Art Department and Economics Department.
Filthy lucre, dirty money…this spring, we turn to a suite of films that explore our many orientations to money: greed, lust, power and impotence, the temptations of gambling, global economies and personal struggles, and stock market manipulations from 1909 to 2009. In films ranging from the magnificent 1928 French silent film L’Argent to the entangling 2011 Margin Call, from China to Senegal and Mali to the United States, we invite you to join our growing band of cinephiles for a series of brilliant films by major world filmmakers, all on the big screen.
A Corner in Wheat and Margin Call D.W. Griffith, US, 1909, 14m (A Corner in Wheat) and J.C. Chandor, US, 2011, 107m (Margin Call) February 8 | 3:00 PM
A Corner in Wheat is a 1909 short film that tells of a greedy tycoon who tries to corner the world market on wheat, destroying the lives of the people who can no longer afford to buy bread. (archive.org)
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L’Argent (Marcel L’Herbier, France, 1928)
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor, United States, 2011)
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali, 2006)
Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. (margincallmovie.com)
delicacy, Sembène Ousmane, the Senegalese writer and director, has set out a portrait of the complex and conflicting mesh of traditions, aspirations, and frustrations of a culture knocked askew by colonialism and distorting itself anew while climbing out. (nytimes.com)
L’Argent (Money)
Bamako
Marcel L’Herbier, France, 1928, 165m
Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali, 2006, 112m
February 22 | 3:00 PM
April 12 | 5:00 PM
A spectacular and controversial adaptation of an 1891 novel by Émile Zola with an updated recognition of the 1920s’ global fascination with the stock markets. L’Herbier replaced Zola’s African railway development speculation with a South American air route set up to discover untapped oil reserves. (silentfilm.org)
Two trials are unfolding within the walls of a neighborhood compound. One is a figurative trial—that of a husband, wife, and daughter pulled in different directions by the challenges and lures of modernization. The other trial is literal—an outdoor proceeding in which ermine-clad judges hear individual witnesses give evidence in support of an antiglobalization complaint. (dianemarieamann.com)
A Touch of Sin Jia Zhangke, China, 2013, 133m May 3 | 5:00 PM
A brilliant exploration of violence and corruption in contemporary China, A Touch of Sin was inspired by the shocking (and true) events that forced the world’s fastest growing economy into a period of self-examination. The film focuses on four characters, each living in different provinces, who are driven to violent ends. (atouchofsin.com)
L’Argent (Marcel L’Herbier, France, 1928)
Xala (The Curse) Sembène Ousmane, Senegal, 1975, 123m March 8 | 5:00 PM
All events are free and open to the public. www.wellesley.edu/CAMS facebook.com/wellesleyCAMS | 781.283.3873
Described as Animal Farm applied to African independence, this film is part fable and part satire, but more: With the greatest finesse and
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VISITING WELLESLEY
the campus is a historic landmark that showcases the work of distinguished architects, including Ralph Adams Cram, Paul Rudolph, and Rafael Moneo.
Just 12 miles from Boston, Wellesley’s rich and diverse arts scene feels worlds away. Nearby neighbors and Bostonians alike will discover that Wellesley is a wonderful untapped resource for cultural and intellectual pursuits.
Podcast tours are available at the Davis Museum—check out Landscape and Architecture and walk with Professor John Rhodes as he presents highlights of the campus. You’ll see Wellesley’s Alumnae Valley, honored in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum for returning a parking lot to native wetland. Pause on the shores of Lake Waban to take in the elaborate topiary on the far shore. And don’t miss the Botanical Gardens, featuring specimens from around the world and its own butterfly garden.
Attending an event at Wellesley is as stress-free as it is affecting. Parking is free and readily accessible, our performance spaces are intimate and inviting, and the nearby town of Wellesley offers a variety of fine restaurants. Or join students and faculty on campus for a lively meal at the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, affectionately called the Lulu. The Wellesley College Club is another option for lunch or dinner.
Leave inspired.
Take in the celebrated landscape and architecture.
Even if you visit us for just an afternoon or an evening, you’ll find Wellesley will leave you feeling renewed and enriched.
Combine your visit to Wellesley with a stroll through the grounds and see if you don’t feel as inspired by our surroundings as our guest artists do. Designed in consultation with landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.,
For directions to campus, please visit: www.wellesley.edu/about/visit
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ABOUT WELLESLEY
The world’s preeminent college for women, Wellesley College is known for its intellectual rigor, its belief in the enduring importance of service, and its cultivation of an inclusive, pragmatic approach to leadership.
Preparing women for this role is perhaps Wellesley’s unique strength. From the moment they step onto the campus, our students are cultivating not only their minds, but also an aspirational drive and sense of responsibility. They know they are carrying forward a very special legacy, one in which purposeful leadership is a way of life, regardless of the life they choose—and one in which they are committed to taking their place at the table, to getting things done, to making a difference.
We take great pride in what we produce here: women who know how to succeed in every arena, public and personal, while keeping their values intact; women who bring world-changing vision and an inimitable sense of purpose to even the smallest endeavor; women who understand that effective leadership means tempering the exercise of power with the commitment to serve. And as the sense of what it means to be an effective leader evolves, the crucial role that women are playing in making the world a better place is becoming increasingly apparent.
Your gift to Wellesley helps maintain the excellence of our arts programming and keeps our events free of charge. www.wellesley.edu/give | 800.358.3543
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Be part of the vibrant arts and culture scene at Wellesley this spring!
106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481
WELLESLEY COLLEGE