Center for the Arts

In the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery sits an old Volkswagen Brasília, surrounded by a sampling of artwork in all different mediums. This the Center for the Arts' latest exhibition, Stereoscopic Vision, which fuses photography, sculpture, and video from different bodies of work by Brazilian-born artist, Clarissa Tossin. Stereoscopic Vision highlights the dualities between natural and manufactured; two and three-dimensions; co-dependent economies; intention and actuality; and the United States and Brazil. For Tossin, who is based in Los Angeles, this is her first solo exhibition in the northeast. Tossin considers herself a multimedia artist. “I work with installation, video,…

The National Endowment for the Arts approved more than $30 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement are Art Works grants of $30,000 for Wesleyan's Center for the Arts' Breaking Ground Dance Series and $25,000 to support Wesleyan University Press in the publication and promotion of books of poetry. The Art Works category focuses on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts. The…

Sarah Curran, who is currently associate director of the Stanford Arts Institute, has been selected to lead Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts beginning on Feb. 20, 2017. Curran succeeds Pamela Tatge, who left the university after 16 years to serve as executive director of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Laura Paul has served as Interim Director of the Center for the Arts since February. “We are excited to welcome Sarah Curran to Wesleyan,” said President Michael Roth. “Sarah is a collaborative leader, and I know that our faculty and students look forward to working with her to curate programming that elevates and integrates the arts…

Navaratri, one of India’s major festival celebrations, is a time to see family and friends, enjoy music and dance, and seek blessings for new endeavors. Wesleyan’s 40th annual festival, held Oct. 28-Oct. 30, celebrated traditional Indian music and dance. The Navaratri Festival is presented by the Center for the Arts and the Music Department, with leadership support from the Madhu Reddy Endowed Fund for Indian Music and Dance at Wesleyan University, and additional support from the Jon B. Higgins Memorial Fund, the Raga Club of Connecticut, Haveli Indian Restaurant, and individual patrons. Pictured is the Navaratri Festival: B. Balasubrahmaniyan performance,…

On Nov. 1, Professor of Art David Schorr’s Flying Carpets—New Paintings by David Schorr opened at Wesleyan’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery with a standing-room-only reception and gallery talk by the artist. This solo exhibition and the site-specific installation, Flying Carpets, revisits Schorr’s childhood days spent playing on his grandmother's Persian rugs. A few days earlier, on Oct. 29, Schorr had previewed this opening in an WESeminar for Family Weekend. In his remarks, Schorr shared the artists’ process through which the series came to be. “One of the questions my students ask is, 'Where do ideas come from?'” he began.…

Flying Carpets: New Paintings by David Schorr, a solo exhibition and site-specific installation by Professor of Art and Chair of the Art and Art History Department David Schorr, will be on view in the Main Gallery at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery from Oct. 27 through Dec. 11. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Gallery admission is free. In this latest body of work, Schorr revisits childhood days spent playing on his grandmother’s Persian rugs. Vibrantly colored taxis and race cars drive over paisley designs, while model planes soar midst coffee cans and mailing…

The Wesleyan Center for the Arts was featured in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH), the main U.S. peer-reviewed scholarly journal for architectural history, in an article written by Joseph Siry, the Kenan Professor of the Humanities, professor of art history. The article, titled "Roche and Dinkeloo’s Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University: Classical, Vernacular, and Modernist Architecture in the 1960s," detailed the extensive history and creative motives behind the impressive 11-building complex. From 1962, under the presidency of Victor Butterfield (in office 1943–67), Wesleyan’s trustees committed the college to develop into a small university, and in 1964 they…

The Center for the Arts hosted the Common Moment Sept. 2 on Andrus Field. As one of the culminating experiences of New Student Orientation, the Common Moment brought the Class of 2020 together as they experienced cultures and dance from around the world. Prometheus, Wesleyan's fire-spinning group, also performed during the Common Moment. Photos of the event are below and in this Wesleyan Center for the Arts photo gallery. (Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography) (more…)

Inspired by Fete de la Musique, also known as World Music Day, the fifth annual MASH highlighted Wesleyan's student music scene on Sept. 9. The 5 1/2 hour concert, sponsored by the Center for the Arts, featured 22 bands performing at four different venues on campus including Olin Library, the North College Lawn, Center for the Arts and Foss Hill. Musical acts included Slavei, Hari, Slender James, Birchbark, Fortune Plays Sax, Anna Savage, Sneaky Boy, MEG, Dinomanic, Yer Trash, the good lonely, Mom, Rui Barbosa, BOSSY, Lo-Qi, McCleary McCleary, Going Up North for the Weekend, Slouch, The Highlanders, Jal & Locus, Chef and El Niño. Each band performed for about 20 minutes.

The Theater Department presented “Wes Out-Loud: Stories of Place” April 28 on campus. "Wes Out-Loud: Stories of Place" is a site-specific auditory journey conceived and created for the Wesleyan campus through a collaboration between theater students and Assistant Professor of Theater Marcela Oteíza. "Wes Out-Loud" invited the audience to experience Wesleyan as a scenographic space by inserting new narratives into everyday sites. The juxtaposition of place and stories presented the richness and diversity of the students on campus and promoted inclusiveness. Audience members wore wireless headsets to listen to the recorded stories of place created for each site. The performance,…

On April 16, the Friends of the Davison Art Center presented "The Big Draw: Middletown," the fifth annual community celebration of drawing with workshops designed for all skill levels, from beginning drawers to accomplished artists. The event took place at four locations across the campus including the Davison Art Center; the Center for the Arts; Fayerweather Beckham Hall; and the Usdan University Center. "The Big Draw" included eight workshops facilitated by faculty and students from Wesleyan's Art Studio Program in the Department of Art and Art History. Activities included developing narrative through drawing, drawing with inked feet to music, drawing from…

An exhibition titled "Passion and Power: German Prints in the Age of Dürer" is on display in the Davison Art Center through March 3. The show opened Feb. 4. (more…)

New Center for the Arts Exhibition Explores Duality

NEA Supports Center for the Arts, Wesleyan U. Press

Center for the Arts Announces New Director

Wesleyan’s Navaratri Festival Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Schorr’s Flying Carpets Exhibition Explores Childhood Memories, Creative Process

Schorr’s Flying Carpets Paintings on Display Oct. 27-Dec. 11

Siry Details the History of Center for the Arts in Architectural History Journal

Class of 2020 Experiences Different Cultures, Dance Styles at Common Moment

Student Music Scene Celebrated at The MASH

“Wes Out-Loud” Theater Performance Takes Audience on Site-Specific Auditory Journey

Free Drawing Workshops Offered at 5th Annual Big Draw

13 Students Curate German Prints Exhibit at Davison Art Center