The Arts
Past Events
Art and Decolonization in Africa during the Independence Era, 1956–1982: This talk by a MoMA curator foregrounds artists’ response to the advent of a new African reality characterized by the transition from colonial modernity to an aspirational decolonized subjectivity.
A 20–30-minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Café.
Puppet show followed by a talkback. After the event, members of Bread and Puppet will serve their famous sourdough rye bread with aioli! Books, posters, and cheap art will be for sale in the lobby. Reserve free tickets.
Natalie Frank offers an overview of her work from her undergraduate studies to portrait paintings that are currently under development in the studio (2005-2024).
Celebrate Pride Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with the author of Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. A reception will follow with food from a local Chinese-run restaurant.
Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise”
“Les Chemins de l’Amour”: a love story told through the songs of Francis Poulenc, Vincenzo Bellini, Erik Satie, and Aaron Copland.
Vassar College Choir concert with a pre-concert talk by Professor of Music Kathryn Libin.
This is an in-person event—the concert 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 Café.
The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre will premiere a new full-company work by Bessie Award-winning choreographer Soleymane Badolo, plus an exciting new dance by Hip-Hop Instructor Julian Llanos, and more! There is a waiting list for tickets. Please arrive at Keynon Hall at 6:30 p.m. to join the list and we will do our best to accommodate.
Visiting Ribicoff Professor Sean Sawyer will give a lecture on Olana, the masterwork of Frederic Church (1826-1900), America’s most famous artist of the mid-19th century.
A piano recital featuring works by Schumann, Debussy, a complete Mozart piano concerto with the Hudson Valley String Quartet, and more.
An afternoon featuring works by Louis Ganne, Gabriel Fauré, and Katherine Hoover.
Featuring the premiere of Katerina Gimon’s My Own Design and music of Susan Brumfield, Florence Price, Felix Mendelssohn, and others. Christine Howlett, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Students from Vassar’s Music Department perform songs of transformation and becoming, drawn from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and contemporary pop.
Playwrights Liz Duffy Adams and Madeleine George will discuss “Women Rewriting the Canon: Adaptation as Intervention in Contemporary Playwriting” with Drama faculty members. Short performances will precede the discussion.
Exhibition curators Jessica D. Brier and Mary-Kay Lombino, joined by Loeb Director T. Barton Thurber and Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Luísa Valle, will lead an exhibition tour focusing on highlights from McKenna’s prolific career.
A lecture by author Andrea Timár, Associate Professor at the Department of English Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
Campus community only, please.
A 20–30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program in a relaxed atmosphere outside the Bridge Café.
A senior project in drama directed by Kendall Wienecke ’24. Performances March 28, 29, 30. In The Martel Theater. Open to the Public, reservations required.
This event helps fund a medical clinic that serves 3000+ residents from 50 villages in the mountains of northwest Haiti. Open to the public, tickets required.
Vassar alum Ross Benjamin ’03 will discuss his Guggenheim scholarship-funded work: An essential new translation of Kafka’s complete, uncensored diaries.
Contemporary Bulgarian organ music, influenced by irregular rhythms of folk traditions and non-Western musical scales.
A springtime celebration of love, joy, community, and personal growth featuring classical and modern vocal music in German, Italian, English, French, and Chinese.
Immerse yourself in the dynamic journey of movement as Battery Dance unveils two new pieces crafted during their transformative three-week residency at Vassar College in March 2024.
In this two-part lecture, Mindy Seu will present a performative reading of the Cyberfeminism Index followed by Celine Wong Katzman’s introduction to building intersectional feminist, archival, and curatorial frameworks in the contemporary art world.
Sponsored by Vassar’s Department of Education in cooperation with the Office of Campus Activities, this exhibit offers children from local schools the chance to be recognized as artists.
A multidisciplinary faculty panel (including Film, Media Studies, Neuroscience & Behavior, and Psychological Science) will be hosting a special screening of the short film See Memory followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, Viviane Silvera.
Exhibit opening and discussion with Ukrainian photographer Iva Sidash.
Johns Hopkins English and History Professor Lawrence Jackson, author of the memoir Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland Baltimore, will deliver a lecture on the competing narrative strategies that have shaped his memoir writing and other developments in Black literary history.
Featuring student winners of the soloist competition.
Eduardo Navega, conductor
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.
An exhibition by Kütral Vargas Huaiquimilla. Performance and opening reception February 22.
A modern retelling of Georg Buchner’s classic play Woyzeck. Performances Feb. 22, 23, 24. Reservations required.
Campus community only, please.
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.
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.
Kate Hymes, Ulster County Poet Laureate, will lead a poetry writing workshop. Please RSVP.
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.