The Arts
Past Events
Drew Minter, conductor
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Eduardo Navega, conductor
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre presents three exciting performances of all-new ballet, contemporary, jazz, and modern dance works.
The Dalí Quartet is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin, Carlos Rubio, violin, Adriana Linares, viola, Jesús Morales, cello
This event is open to the public.
Tracing a path through the voices of nature, this program reflects on our search for peace, hope, and humanity. Christine Howlett, conductor, Susan Brown, piano, and Elizabeth Handman, viola.
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Christopher Rothko speaks about his father, artist Mark Rothko’s work and the family’s caretaking of his legacy on the occasion of a special opportunity to view two early Rothkos side-by-side at the Loeb Art Center this year.
Free and open to the public
The Film Department will be screening Nickel Boys and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.
James Osborn, conductor
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Join us for free drop-in family programs on select Sundays this fall. Each date will feature different hands-on art activities inspired by art on view. Activities can be modified for all ages, but are best suited for children 5 and up.
Christine Howlett, conductor
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Baye and Asa will perform their recent work Suck it Up. The program will also feature their dance film Second Seed. A Q&A session with the artists will immediately follow the performance.
Professor Rosalind Galt of King’s College, London will be giving a giving a Dean’s Lecture on “Imperfect Archives.”
Oct. 30: 8:00 p.m.
Oct. 31–Nov. 1: 7:00 p.m.
This year marks the 650th anniversary of Giovanni Boccaccio’s passing. We explore his legacy in a interdisciplinary panel of Vassar faculty, followed by a keynote speech by Grace Delmolino (University of California, Davis) titled: “Boccaccio and Consent.” No reservation required
Campus community only, please
Artist Lyle Ashton Harris will give a lecture which will explore the intersections between his practice in photography and collage, examining ideas of gender, sexuality, and belonging.
This event is open to the public.
A Screening of Jennifer Reeves’ The Gloria of Your Imagination followed by a Q&A with the director.
A new schedule for this concert will be announced at a later date.
Join us for free drop-in family programs on select Sundays. Each date will feature different hands-on art activities inspired by art on view. Activities can be modified for all ages, but are best suited for children 5 and up.
Eduardo Navega, conductor
This event is open to the public.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Elana Herzog is an installation artist and sculptor who uses material culture to consider aspects of ephemerality, entropy, pleasure, and pain, focusing on the global migration of culture and technology as seen through the lens of textiles. Herzog will give a talk on her work titled “Being Always in Relation.”
This event is open to the public.
A recital of works by Mozart, Chopin, Robert Schumann, György Ligeti, Unsuk Chin and Hans Abrahamsen evoking experiences of day and night. Performed by Thomas Sauer, piano, Adjunct Artist in Music.
This event is open to the public.
ALANA Fest is one of the Jeh Vincent Johnson ALANA Cultural Center’s core events, and it makes visible, celebrates, and builds community with students of color at Vassar.
This event is open to the public.
A recital of idiosyncratic songs by David Alpher, exploring his settings of uniquely American poetry from the Transcendentalists to the Beat Generation. Courtenay Budd, soprano, Sharon Harms, soprano, Robert Osborne, bass-baritone, and David Alpher, composer/piano.
This event is open to the public.
The Jeff “Siege” Siegel Quartet presents original compositions celebrating 21 years together, highlighted by four European tours, a tour of Africa, and performances throughout the northeastern U.S.
This event is open to the public.
With music of Schubert, Marais and Bartok-Arma, this concert celebrates the conjunction of theme and variation in printmaking and music. Susan Rotholz, flute, Anna Polonsky, piano.
This event is open to the public.
Come learn how to propagate plants from cuttings, and take home your very own in a custom painted pot! No plant experience necessary.
Monica Youn is an acclaimed poet and professor, a former constitutional lawyer, and a prominent literary leader.
No reservation required. Open to the public.
Join us for free drop-in family programs on select Sundays this fall. Each date will feature different hands-on art activities inspired by art on view. Activities can be modified for all ages, but are best suited for children 5 and up.
Join us in the Palmer Gallery for a conversation with artist Sean McCarthy about his exhibition Creature Feature, on view September 11–October 12, 2025.
This event is open to the general public.
Lauded by The New York Times as a pianist with “a huge, richly varied sound, a lively imagination and a firm sense of style,” pianist Soyeon Kate Lee presents a program featuring Schumann’s Carnaval and Kreisleriana.
This event is open to the public.
The “Sky Woman Women” project holds space for eighteen women storytellers from Mohawk, Seneca and Tuscarora tribal affiliations (enrolled, unenrolled, and not enrolled), telling and retelling a Haudenosaunee creation story to each other. A Q&A with the artist and featured storytellers follows the screening.
Free and open to the public
Join us at the Olmsted Greenhouse for a calm doodling session with Vassar's Counseling Center! No artistic skills necessary—we are just doodling for fun and to calm the mind. All ages welcome.
A leading practitioner of Iraqi maqam, Hamid Al-Saadi’s music combines classical poetry with a dizzyingly complex system of musical ornamentation, modulation and improvisation.
This event is open to the public.
Creature Feature is a survey of 20 years of Sean McCarthy’s work in drawing, painting, and comics, all featuring delicately drawn tragicomic monsters. McCarthy’s work is broadly allusive, engaging with literature, film, esoteric texts, and a wide range of art historical touchstones; it explores grotesque mysteries and uncomfortable psychological and emotional states in a language of expressive, exquisite draftsmanship.
This event is open to the general public.
Featuring over sixty works added to the Loeb Art Center’s collection between 2020–2025, Chronostasia explores various ways artworks can alter our perception of time. To mark the exhibition’s opening, artist Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) speaks with Vassar’s Molly McGlennen and curator Alyx Raz ’16 about his work.
Free and open to the public
Presented by members of the Music Department faculty. Thomas Sauer, piano, Iva Casian Lakos, cello, Ian Tyson, clarinet, Gail Archer, organ
This event is open to the public.
An art exhibition featuring the work of local artist Ivars Sprogis opens on August 7. A reception will be held on August 9 from 4–6 p.m. Sprogis favors the Realistic Impressionism style in his watercolor and oil paintings.
Brooklyn Museum curator Stephanie Sparling Williams shares insights into the process of creating Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art, a highly innovative reimagining of how contemporary audiences experience historic American art.
This event is open to the public.
Gabriela Mikova Johnson, soprano, Chris Cantu, tenor, Susan Brown, piano, Stephen Paul Johnson, narration
Artist Caleb Stein, Vassar Class of 2017, returns to Poughkeepsie to discuss his ongoing photographic engagement with the local landscape. Several photographs from his 2020 series, Down by the Hudson, featuring scenes from local watering holes, are on view at the Loeb this summer.
Music by Mozart, Wilson and Beethoven. Featuring Joseph Genualdi, violin, and Richard Wilson, piano
Brian Mann, piano, Lou Pappas, double bass, Craig Wuepper, drums, Iain Mann, violin & guitar, James Ruff, voice
The Hudson Valley's Bachfest Chorus & Orchestra returns to perform works by Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach. Christine Howlett, conductor. Open to the public—suggested donation: $30, and free to students and members of Vassar community with ID.
The Hudson Valley's Bachfest returns with works for organ and piano. Yalin Chi, piano, Ruthanne Schempf, piano, Sarah Johnson ’16, organ, Gail Archer, organ. Open to the public—suggested donation: $30, and free to students and members of Vassar community with ID.
Six studio art majors and correlates are presenting their culminating senior projects in an exhibition running until May 25.
Music by Schumann, Strauss, and Still. Isabel Crawford, horn
