The Arts
Past Events
Chinese Student Community, South Asian Student Association, and Vassar Office of International Services present the celebration of cultural diversity through dance performances.
Vassar Alliance for Ukraine invites everyone to a vigil to commemorate 2 years since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and 10 years since the start of Russian occupation of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk. Photo Exhibition and Discussion postponed until February 28.
A modern retelling of Georg Buchner’s classic play Woyzeck. Performances Feb. 22, 23, 24. Reservations required.
Campus community only, please.
An exhibition by Kütral Vargas Huaiquimilla. Performance and opening reception February 22.
This exhibit is the first career retrospective of independent photographer and Vassar alum Rollie McKenna. Following the reception, we will be joined by eminent Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and Princeton professor and photography historian Monica Bravo for a conversation about photography as a creative and professional practice.
James Osborn, conductor.
Drew Minter and John Carden, baritones, and David Alpher and Bryan Reeder, pianists, perform a program of standards and duets—some seasonal, some universal.
Love and torment in the music of Monteverdi, Rossi, Mazzocchi, Caccini, and others. This performance features superstar soprano Amanda Forsythe ’98!
Greenwell is the author of two books of fiction and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. No reservations are required. Free and open to the public.
MODfest 2024
Weaving a poetic vocabulary of acrobatic movement and storytelling, this award-winning intimate play tells the tale of one woman, lost between the uncharted waters of her grief and the shores of her joyful memories following the disappearance of her soulmate.
MODfest 2024
Vassar’s brilliant music faculty perform the music of Rogerson, Richard Wilson, and Stravinsky’s iconic L’Histoire du Soldat. Scored for seven instrumentalists and narrator, L’Histoire is the story of a soldier named Joseph who meets the Devil in disguise.
Kate Hymes, Ulster County Poet Laureate, will lead a poetry writing workshop. Please RSVP.
MODfest 2024
Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre performs works selected from the current repertory by faculty, students, and guest choreographers, including a special appearance by Baye and Asa Dance Company. This is a free but ticketed event; however, reservations for general seating are required and are available online.
In celebration of the first day of Black History Month, the Jeh Vincent Johnson ALANA Cultural Center welcomes all to join us in gathering at the Garden to Celebrate Black Lives on the morning of the BHM Kickoff. Please RSVP to confirm you attendance.
The Jeh Vincent Johnson ALANA Cultural Center welcomes all to join a special evening celebration to kick off Black History Month. Please RSVP to confirm you attendance.
MODfest 2024
Join Batya Levine and their musical ensemble for an evening of harmony, rhythm, and heart-opening communal song. Through their kavanah (intention) and songful weaving, Batya invites everyone to raise their voices in this participatory concert—rooted in traditional Jewish texts and sounds, contemporary melodies, and the transcendent power of nigun—wordless spiritual song.
Artist Fred Tomaselli is known around the world for intricate, engulfing images of earthly and cosmic realms made by suspending collage and painted imagery as well as an array of real-world materials in thick layers of clear, epoxy resin.
MODfest 2024
A concert and conversation with the creators and performers of Shanghai Sonatas—a new musical theater work, based on first-person accounts, which tells the true story of daily life for musicians from Europe during World War II who used their optimism, humor, and musical talents to survive, forging friendships with their Chinese neighbors who helped save their lives. Moderated by Associate Professor and Chair of Music Justin Patch.
MODfest 2024
Music in this film is used to subtly define and separate the two identities of the main character, and throughout the film there is a strong recurring theme of boundaries between one thing and another, and the strange intersections between them. With introduction by Assistant Professor of Music Táhirih Motazedian.
MODfest 2024
Inspired by playwright Solomon Hess’s lifelong immersion in the world of lacrosse and recent experience training and competing internationally with the U.S. Junior Indoor Team, The Game tells the story of two friends’ complicated relationship with the sport of lacrosse and with each other.
MODfest 2024
Challenging the separation between performers and spectators, Reciprocal Visions re-situates who is viewing whom in the dance performance space. Dancers, as forms of embodied art, are themselves responsive to their environment in ways similar to how audiences react to the performance.
MODfest 2024
Join us for a conversation with the newest president of Toussaint L’Ouverture College, the only HBCU in the Northeast, founded 150 years ago in Poughkeepsie. Once a failed initiative and footnote in the long history of educational inequities experienced by young Black men and women, Toussaint L’Ouverture College has come to life in the mind of artist Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, who will moderate this speculative discussion.
Do you know someone who has been meaning to visit the Loeb but hasn’t made it happen yet? Or someone who thinks art isn’t for them, and you’d like to convince them otherwise? Please join us for a new tradition, Bring a Friend Day, and enjoy a day full of activities—together. The day’s offerings include art-making, engaging mini-tours, light refreshments, and a pop-up installation of art made by students from Poughkeepsie City Schools through the Saturday Morning Lights program.
The “Paracas Textile” is a pre-Columbian weaving held in the Brooklyn Museum. Each painting corresponds to one figure depicted in the artifact’s border, including warriors, shamans, flora, and fauna from the Paracas culture.
Open Auditions for students of any major interested in participating in the Drama Department productions of Skin by Naomi Iizuka and Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George.
Students only, please.
A special dance performance presenting works by VRDT, Battery Dance, and original works created for Dancing to Connect, a collaboration between Vassar and Poughkeepsie High School students.
Campus community only, please.
This student-produced exhibition features field research conducted by Art History and Earth Science students in Iceland this semester. Light refreshments will be provided.
Annual Advent service with readings, choral anthems, congregational carols and candle lighting ceremony.
James Osborn, director
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
A 20–30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Cafe.
Eduardo Navega, director
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
British artist Tilla Crowne is Vassar’s Sitomer Artist in Residence this month. Her work concentrates on drawing and installation, exploring themes of identity, memory, and the body.
Drew Minter, conductor.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Featuring Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Faculty Member Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin
Eduardo Navega, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Embark on an immersive journey through the captivating realm of traditional Chinese music. Everyone is welcome and no reservation is needed.
Composers Jonathan Chenette and Harold Meltzer lament one building’s violent destruction (Chenette) and reflect another’s fantastical construction (Meltzer).
Three programs of new choreography by guest choreographers Janice Rosario and Shannon Gillen, a repertory work by legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins, as well as faculty and student works. A free but ticketed event.
A 20–30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Cafe.
Join us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 160 years of the collection, and the official launch of our new collection catalogue Making & Meaning.
James Osborn, conductor.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Christine Howlett, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
A 20–30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Cafe.
Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several bestselling books, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Free and open to the public.
Transdisciplinary artist Maravilla grounds his practice in activism and healing.
A poetry reading and conversation on women, home, exile, and identity featuring poet-scholar and activist Saba Hamzah.
Presentation on the history of classical Arabic scripts like Thuluth and Naskh. Students will have a chance to practice Arabic letter art with reed pens during the workshop.
Join a free fun-filled afternoon of art for all ages, exploring the current exhibitions Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection and Interwoven Histories: Prints by the Gee's Bend Quilting Collective.
Christine Howlett, Conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Duo recital by two artists who have appeared together for decades. Peter Wiley, cello, and Anna Polonsky, piano. Free and open to the public.
A 20–30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Cafe.