Voice! » Center for the Arts

Rolling Stone’s 2007 Artists to Watch

atinkle — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:45:46 +0000

Every time I post, it seems like I’m pumping up Wesleyan’s arts scenes. But now I have confirmation from that original organ of US youth culture–yes, that’s right, Rolling Stone Magazine. Of their “10 Artists to Watch in 2008,” not one but TWO of said artists were graduates of Wesleyan’s music program. MGMT (say “Management”) graduated in 2005. Andrew’s senior project was a musical-theatrical battle of God Vs. The MGMT, where the latter used a 10 foot tall iPod as a weapon. Now they’re signed to Columbia.

I know significantly less about Santogold, but she graduated from Wes before my time, and according to the big RS,Bjork is a big fan of her work.

A parent asked me at an info session last week, “Do people have success in the arts after they graduate?” Does Rolling Stone count as success?

When the Famous Grace the Wesleyan campus

eeinhorn — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:44:08 +0000

While Wesleyan Professors are some of the best there are (Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics Gary Yohe, for example, recently won the Nobel Prize for his work with Al Gore on Global Warming ), it is sometimes nice to bring a new perspective to campus. Fortunately, Wesleyan has AWESOME lectures with top notch academics, entertainers, creators, and authors that are some of the best in the world.

A small sampling of some of the best speakers to come to campus in the past four years:

Music and Art:

Dar Williams ‘89 – a folk singer-songwriter

Patti Smith – singer-songwriter, poet, musician, who was one of the women most influential in the birth of punk rock.

Sol LeWitt - minimalist and conceptual artist specializing in wall drawings with exhibitions in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art.

Amiri Baraka - author and poet, former Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

Books and Literature:

Art Spiegelman - comics artist, editor, and Pulitzer-Prize winner for his best selling graphic memoir, Maus.

Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket ‘92 – author, screenwriter, and musician. Best known for his children’s series A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has played accordion with The Magnetic Fields.

Eric Schlosser - author best known for Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness.

Journalism and Politics:

Ralph Nader - consumer advocate and presidential candidate.

Seymour Hersh – Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist and author.

Amy Goodman – progressive broadcast journalist and host of the radio program “Democracy Now!”

Madeline Albright - former United States Secretary of State.

Film and Television:

Joss Whedon ‘87 – Academy-Award nominated writer and director famous for his show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Alexander Payne – Academy- Award winning director and screenwriter best known for Election.

Michael Bay ‘86 – director and producer best known for The Rock, Transformers, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor.

Paul Weitz ‘88 – director and screenwriter best known for American Pie, American Dreamz, and In Good Company.

Jonathan Demme – Academy- Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Silence of the Lambs, Stop Making Sense, and Philadelphia.

Martin Scorsese – Academy-Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed.

and… finally… gracing our campus this coming Thursday …

Robin Williams – Academy-Award winning actor and comedian best known for Mork and Mindy, The Birdcage, Patch Adams, Jack, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, and Dead Poet’s Society.

Enjoy!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

The Wesleyan Film Series

eeinhorn — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:01:43 +0000

Ever wonder what happens when film studies majors are allowed free range of film screenings for an entire University Campus? Sad you were born too late to see classics like Lawrence of Arabia and Casablanca on the big screen? Well, wonder and fret no more. At Wesleyan, we offer you the finest of film viewing experiences. Here, in our own newly built Goldsmith Family Cinema we have the WESLEYAN FILM SERIES!

Screening movies from Wednesday – Saturday night, the film series offers students an affordable and fun venue for seeing both contemporary and historic films. In your four years at Wesleyan you will never see the same movie twice, which means that over 350 movies will be screened during your time here. With the ability to show films in all different formats ( from digital to 70mm), watching a film at Wesleyan is a unique and different experience.

Going to the film series is not like going to your local cinema. Audience members often shout at the screen ( such as during Bob Saget’s rendition of the dirtiest joke in showbiz during “The Aristocrats”), dance along ( as was the case with the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense” and the Disney musical “Newsies”) , and laugh in one big wave ( constantly during films like “Knocked Up” and “40-Year Old Virgin). More politically oriented movies often spur passionate conversations that can both be heard in the lobby after the film and throughout the next week. The once a semester midnight screening is always a blast and one of the most popular features.

So, if you consider yourself a film buff or just enjoy a casual flick with friends every now and then, the film series will inevitably have something for everyone. And, if you don’t see it when you get here, you can always request it from the completely student run film series board.

Enjoy!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

Ronald K. Brown and First Year Matters

pshill — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:30:50 +0000

After Adam’s post about the arts scene at Wesleyan, I wanted to let you know quickly about an exciting event from this past weekend. For the past two years, Wesleyan has put together a “common reading” for first year students that allows them to come to campus with a shared work to discuss. At many other schools, this might be a novel or an essay, but at Wesleyan it’s a dance. After the great success of Bill T. Jones’s visit last year with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Center for the Arts (CFA) commissioned a new piece of choreography from Ronald K. Brown for his Evidence Dance Company. The dance was based on the photographs of Charles “Teenie” Harris, which evoke the spirit of mid-twentieth century black urban America. On September 7, Brown attended the opening reception of a show of Charles “Teenie” Harris’s work at the Zilkha Gallery in the CFA. The following Thursday, Brown gave a lecture on his new piece, “One Shot,” and its connections with Harris’s photographs. The lecture, part of Wesleyan’s First-Year Matters Program, was geared especially for first-year students, who attended in groups from their dorms. The lecture and the discussion that followed provided an opportunity to think about the connections between dance and photography, in addition to connecting the dance to students’ lives using photographs they had brought from home. The culminating event in this week-long residency was the premiere of Brown’s piece at the CFA Theater. The dance blended elements of African, modern, ballet and hip-hop styles, incorporating Harris’s photographs with the movement and various musical styles.

This is just one example of the kind of events that Wesleyan brings through the CFA every semester, and the kind of involvement those visiting artists have with the community. For more listings, check out the CFA’s events page.

Peter Hill ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Arts Scene at Wesleyan

atinkle — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:27:29 +0000

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