News and Events
Current
April events at Vassar benefit the people of Haiti: the ninth annual Art Sale & Auction, April 9-11, and a benefit concert, April 24, 2010.
This April two special events at Vassar College will benefit the people of Haiti. The ninth annual Haitian Art Sale and Auction will take place from April 9 to 11, with a preview exhibition April 4 to 7. A benefit concert, “Harmony and Hope: A Musical Bridge to Haiti,” to support the rebuilding of the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince, will be held on April 24, 2010.
Twenty-fifth annual Iyoya exhibit at Vassar celebrates local children’s art, March 21 - 27, 2010.
More than 200 works of art by local nursery, elementary, and intermediate school students will be on display in “A Celebration of Children’s Art," on view from Sunday, March 21 through Saturday, March 27. Vassar College’s 25th annual John Iyoya Children’s Art Show will be shown in the James W. Palmer III Gallery on the first floor of Vassar's historic Main Building, with a public reception on March 21 beginning at 2:00pm. The gallery will be open Monday through Saturday from 11:00am to 6:00pm. All events are free and open to the public.
The Powerhouse Theater Training Program is now accepting applications for 2010 summer season.
The Powerhouse Theater Training Program is now accepting applications for actors, designers, directors, and writers for the 2010 summer season.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar celebrates third anniversary of Late Night at the Lehman Loeb, February 11, 2010.
In celebration of the third anniversary of the highly successful and popular “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” program, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center will offer a special evening centered around "reasons why I love the Lehman Loeb," on Thursday, February 11, from 5:00 to 9:00pm. The Art Center will provide disposable cameras and visitors are encouraged to take pictures of what they love most about the Art Center. The pictures will then be assembled and shared on the Art Center Facebook® page the following day. In addition, there will be performances by six Vassar student a cappella groups in the galleries, as well as birthday cake and refreshments in the atrium.
Spring 2010 concert series will feature 28 programs by renowned performers, 2/12 - 5/22
The Vassar Department of Music will present 28 concerts during the spring 2010 semester (2/12 – 5/22), in addition to the 30 events scheduled for Vassar’s celebration of the contemporary arts, Modfest (1/21 – 2/7). The concert series will feature world-renowned musicians from Vassar’s music faculty; Vassar vocal, instrumental, and orchestral ensembles; as well as acclaimed guest performers including the Daedalus Quartet (2/20) and organist Renee Anne Louprette (3/26).
Site-specific installation, "Harry Roseman: Hole in the Wall," on view at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, January 29 - May 18, 2010.
Harry Roseman: Hole in the Wall, is the inaugural installation of a new program of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, curated by Mary-Kay Lombino, The Emily Hargroves Fisher '57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator and Assistant Director for Strategic Planning at the Art Center. Noted artist Roseman, professor and chair of the Art Department at Vassar College, will begin installing Harry Roseman: Hole in the Wall in mid-December once classes are over and during Winter Break (December 10 – January 19). Visitors to the Art Center will be able to view the work-in-progress during this time. The official opening celebration will be on Friday, January 29. Harry Roseman: Hole in the Wall will be on view to the public through May 18, 2010.
Faustian bargains between humanity and carbon in the next Art Center exhibition, "At the Heart of Progress: Coal, Iron, and Steam since 1750 – Industrial Imagery from the John P. Eckblad Collection," January 22 through March 21, 2010.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College will present a special exhibition, At the Heart of Progress: Coal, Iron, and Steam since 1750 – Industrial Imagery from the John P. Eckblad Collection, on view from Friday, January 22 through Sunday, March 21, 2010. The exhibition will feature a selection of 76 works—including prints and posters, as well as a children’s toy—from the collection of Dr. John P. Eckblad of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Paris, France, who has one of the most extensive private collections of prints and posters associated with industry and labor.
"Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn," an exhibition of letters, artwork, manuscripts, books, and articles, on view January 20 through May 23, 2010.
Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn, an exhibition of letters, artwork, manuscripts, books and articles relating to the works of Mark Twain, will be on view at the Vassar College Libraries from January 20 through May 23, 2010. This exhibition commemorates two anniversaries: the 125th anniversary of the publication of Twain's Huckleberry Finn and the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. The exhibition, presented by the Vassar College Libraries, also marks 25 years since the previous display of the Mark Twain collection from the The Catherine Pelton Durrell '25 Archives and Special Collections Library at Vassar.
Roof repairs will require temporary closure of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, beginning in May 2010 .
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College's museum designed by Cesar Pelli and opened in 1993, will close for roof repairs after May 18, 2010, with a re-opening expected in January 2011.
Archive
- "this the range and recent," group show of recent work by four Vassar students, on view 2/24-3/4
- Artist Josephine Halvorson will discuss her paintings and practice, 3/2
- Dramatic reading by stage, film, and television actress Frances Sternhagen '51, 3/1
- Charles Darwin's 201st birthday celebrated with series of events, 2/12 - 4/22
- Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre presents the 28th annual gala performances at the Bardavon, 2/27-28
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.
Drama Department Experimental Theater
Presenting several public performances each semester in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film and the Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater, the Experimental Theater is a place to explore theories learned in the classroom and to experiment with theatrical forms. In the tradition of pioneering stage director Hallie Flanagan, students are encouraged to experience and experiment with all aspects of the theater. Flanagan, who accepted a position to teach drama at Vassar in 1925, founded the Experimental Theater following her visit to the theaters of Europe in 1926 on a Guggenheim Fellowship. (http://drama.vassar.edu).