Voice!

Wesleyan has an absolutely amazing, cutting-edge arts scene. Many students get involved through the arts departments, which are housed in the beautiful Center for the Arts. The CFA is my favorite part of campus, a beautiful and unique complex of minimalist, limestone buildings from the 1970s. The architect designed the compelx so as to cut down as few trees as possible, and uses almost exlusively straight, rectilinear lines. All the departments are fabulous and deserve their own blog entry, but I wanted to highlight instead the wealth, diversity, and innovation in art-making that is spearheaded by students alone. Two examples you can find here in the blogosphere are our arts publications and our music scene of student bands.

Ostranenie is an alternative arts magazine edited and published by a board of students. They accept poetry and any sort of 2-D works you can imagine. Rather than reading me gush about the quality of the work in here, just open up the pdf they have available of their first issue. Wesleyan also has several other arts magazines, ranging from more traditional literary magazines to the radio station’s music-centered WESU magazine. The diversity of Wesleyan’s alternative publications speaks to the wide range of artistic approaches found here, to say nothing of the impressive initiative and independence required to get these beautiful publications out. And if you’re not satisfied that any of the current outlets gels with your own artistic vision, you can always start a new one! Both WESU Magazine and Ostranenie were both just started last year, but I predict a bright future for both of them.

Wesleyan has also historically been a home for independent music, in and out of the Music Department. Perhaps music professors like Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton, both leading lights in the world of avant-garde music, serve as inspiration to students, who adapt the department’s spirit of experimentation to their own music. Among the lauded, succesful pop and rock musicians who went to Wes in the 1980s and 90s include the Dresden Dolls, Adam and his Package and Dar Williams. Recent Wesleyan grads and current students follow in their footsteps, making fiercely independent and consistently interesting tunes. Here’s a recent grad’s blog, where you can find an entire mix containing exclusively Wesleyan bands from the last couple of years. One band of 2005 graduates, MGMT (say “Management) have recently been signed to Columbia records, and their album Oracular Spectacular is getting rave reviews.

Wesleyan bands typically play shows in the Westco Cafe, at Eclectic and the other societies’ houses, and at the school’s many outdoor concert festivals. Then, after school is over, many of them move to Brooklyn, San Francisco and other arts meccas, while staying in touch with their wide networks of Wesleyan contacts in the arts and entertainment industries.

Wait, did you say “many outdoor concert festivals”???

Yes, throughout the sunny seasons, it seems there is practically a concert festival every weekend. Each of the various dorms usually put on a Saturday afternoon of free food, wild decorations, outdoor activities, and a mix of campus bands and outside bands brought in from New York or elsewhere. As soon as the next one happens (that should be Duke Day, an autumn tradition dating back to the 1970s put on by the WestCo community inspired by characters from the comic strip “Doonesbury”), I’ll be sure to post some pictures.

Adam Tinkle ‘08
Senior Interviewer