Andrew Chatfield

Donald Berman ’84 tried not to be musician, but couldn't help himself. “I think that's the only reason to do it,” Berman said of becoming a musician. “It's because you can’t not do it.” Berman studied Music at Wesleyan, and has gone on to work as a pianist, teacher, and scholar, adding over 200 commissioned musical works to the contemporary canon. Nearly 40 years after he finished his undergraduate studies, Berman will return to campus on April 5 at 8 p.m. to perform a solo piano program. In the concert, Berman will pair two works by composer Charles Ives in…

Loren Yuehan Wang ’25 is one of four student-curators whose projects about the history of student artistic practice at Wesleyan, “SUM OF ITS PARTS,” are on display in the Class of 1928 Vitrines, located on the first floor of the Library through April 21. And Wang’s mixed media artwork is on display in the exhibition "Exploding and Netting: A Somatic Archive of Transpacific Movement" in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center through May 25. “These two feel quite connected,” Wang said of their work in the two archives. “It’s a new possibility for the future.”…

Wesleyan University will open a new art venue in the center of campus, built to highlight the Davison Art Collection, on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Two exhibitions will showcase works from the collection for the first time in over four years. The Pruzan Art Center, located at 238 Church Street in Middletown, between Wesleyan’s Olin Memorial Library and the Frank Center for Public Affairs, will be open Monday through Friday from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 4:30 p.m “We have been waiting for this moment for a long…

The 50th-anniversary exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, “Always Being Relation: 50 Years of the Gallery at the CFA”, which will feature the works of more than 30 artists, will be on display at the Center for the Arts (CFA) from January 30 through March 3. With this exhibition, Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee ’00, and Exhibitions Manager Rosemary Lennox have pushed the boundaries of the usual “alumni” show format, putting in dialogue work by artists who studied at Wesleyan University with artists who have exhibited their work in the gallery since its opening in the…

Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts (CFA) continues the celebration of its 50th birthday with a spring semester, featuring an anniversary exhibition and live performances by alumni, plus staged readings and workshops on campus. Director Joshua Lubin-Levy ’06 said that he and his staff are spending time rethinking the legacy of artists who have touched the spaces since the buildings opened in the fall of 1973, the impacts they’ve had, and how it all might guide the choices they will make for the CFA. “From an alumni exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery that rethinks the very concept…

Wesleyan University faculty and alumni are making art across the region over the next several months. Here is a small sampling of offerings: Assistant Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen’s first museum solo exhibition is on display at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston now through January 28, 2024. Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater Edwin Sánchez’s one-act play, Still Nuts About Him, is based on Clara from The Nutcracker, and is part of the eleventh annual evening of theater Christmas on the Rocks at TheaterWorks Hartford. Sanchez also collaborated with playwright Jacques Lamarre on the latest addition to the…

Four prototype mosaics sit on display in storefront windows along Main Street’s Downtown Business District this fall. The quartet are a sample of what Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art and Art Studio Technician Kate Ten Eyck will install in the pedestrian tunnel connecting downtown Middletown to the Connecticut River as part of a new public art project. The ongoing multi-year mural installation project, called “Mosaics on Main/TunnelVision," will showcase 200 million years of local history. Ten Eyck’s mosaic depicts the dinosaur Anchisaurus, one of the few fossilized skeletons found in the region, in Manchester and East Windsor. Ten Eyck held…

Artist Renée Green ’81 spoke with Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee ’00 during Wesleyan’s Homecoming + Family Weekend in October. Chaffee is the curator of the exhibition “No Title: Relays and Relations, Works by Renée Green and Sol LeWitt,” on display in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery through Sunday, December 3. As a student at Wesleyan, Green was exposed to LeWitt’s methodologies, ethos, and ways of relating to other artists. She participated in a course taught by Professor of Art History Emeritus John Paoletti that focused on LeWitt’s art collection in collaboration with the Wadsworth Atheneum, which…

Assistant Professor of Dance Iddi Saaka is teaching the fundamentals, history, and cultural importance of African drumming and dance to a group of adults over the age of 55 at the New Britain Public Library this fall. His group gathers in the downstairs Stanley Works Community Room for 90-minutes on Thursday afternoons. Over the course of eight weeks, the library class is learning two Ghanaian recreational dances, “Kpatsa” and “Kpanlogo.” Saaka previously taught “Kpatsa” to Wesleyan’s Class of 2027 during their new student orientation “Common Moment” on Andrus Field the day after they arrived on campus at the end of…

Brooklyn-based composer and dhol (double-headed drum) player Sunny Jain will fine tune a new piece of work during his year-long artist residency at Wesleyan. Jain is developing the latest iteration of his first music theater project “Love Force.” He started working on the storytelling piece in 2020, and previously presented portions as part of a commission from the music venue Joe's Pub, a program of The Public Theater in New York, delivering the narration as well as drumming. The idea of the show “Love Force” is embedded in rhythm and improvisation and includes immersive elements. Jain is trying to figure…

Wesleyan’s Music Department continued its tradition of performing in unexpected spaces this month, with musicians showing up in library and museum venues on campus. “Instrument—Body,” a series of four performances in surprising locations presented in conjunction with the seminar of the same name and curated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Ethan Philbrick, kicked off with bassist Brandon Lopez and musician and multimedia artist Cecilia Lopez MA '16 on synthesizers in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History in the Exley Science Center in the afternoon on October 20. Professor of Music Paula Matthusen presented the third iterations…

Wesleyan’s annual Navaratri Festival celebrated the diversity of Indian music and dance from October 5 through October 8, 2023. "Over its 47 years, our festival continues to widen representation, to expand the classical canon of Indian arts and who is allowed to perform it, and to rigorously engage with South Asian culture through a creative lens," said Fiona Coffey, Associate Director for Programming and Performing Arts. Coffey mentioned Wesleyan’s new major as part of the Global South Asian Studies program, which offers students opportunities to explore the cultures connected to the region through a diverse set of disciplines. ”We're incredibly excited…

Berman ’84 to premiere new work for piano at Wesleyan on April 5

Art Comes to Life through Student Partnership with the Center for the Arts

New Pruzan Art Center to Showcase Two Exhibitions from Davison Art Collection

CFA Exhibit Celebrates 50 Years of History

Center for the Arts Continues 50th Birthday Celebration

Upcoming Faculty and Alumni Performances and Exhibitions

Wesleyan Professor to Create Mosaics on Main

Zilkha Gallery Exhibit: “No Title: Relays and Relations, Works by Renée Green and Sol LeWitt”

Professor Teaches African Drumming and Dance to Local Community

Sunny Jain to Create New Music Theater Project During Wesleyan Residency

Music in Unexpected Spaces

Wesleyan Celebrates 47th Annual Navaratri Festival