MODfest 2022
ALL patrons must wear a mask indoors, for the duration of the event.
The Vassar College Music Department, in collaboration with the College’s Creative Arts Across Disciplines, is thrilled to celebrate the 20th season of MODfest, Vassar College’s annual exploration of the arts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Following last year’s successful virtual festival, we are excited to present a dynamic collection of both in-person and online events in 2022. This year’s theme, “Kaleidoscope,” captures our desire to collect, reflect, overlap, and illuminate a rich spectrum of perspectives much in the way a traditional kaleidoscope does: its contents shift, bouncing light off mirrors, blending distinct components into an infinity of patterns that is unique with each viewing.
Program Cover Image: “Negesti” (Moves) 2019 Harlem, NYC by Ruben Natal-San Miguel. Mural backdrop by Geraluz.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information about ticketed events, please email: boxoffice@vassar.edu or call (845) 437-5599.
People with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370.
MODfest Program Booklet (PDF)
Past Events
A celebration of the American Impressions exhibition at the Loeb Art Center that will include conversations between curators and faculty members as well as music and poetry performed by Vassar students. Registration required.
This event will be live streamed
A projection kaleidoscope and soundscape presented by Rick Jones/The Vassar Light Collective
Featuring premieres of “Drastic Measures” and “Bagatelle for Solo Harpsichord” by Richard Wilson and music of Susan Botti and Jonathan Chenette. Performed by the Decoda Ensemble, Claire Chenette and Joel Evans, oboes, Anna Elashvili, violin, Marija Ilić, harpsichord, and Thomas Sauer, piano. Free tickets must be reserved.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
A performance of works selected from the current repertory by faculty, students, and guest choreographers, including a special appearance by the Battery Dance Company. Tickets are free but must be reserved.
A pop-up exhibition, located in the glass walkway of the Loeb Art Center, organized by PHOCUS, Vassar’s photography club.
A voice recital featuring award-winning duo Jacquelyn Matava ’09, mezzo-soprano, and pianist Samuel Gaskin. Registration required.
During this webinar event, students and faculty from the Drama and Music Departments’ upcoming production of Sunday in the Park with George will share their creative process of interpreting this iconic show. Registration required.
Zoom webinar
Join members of the Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble as they share their experience and strategies regarding the intersection of the arts and social justice. Registration required.
Join this exciting professional ensemble in a presentation of solo and vocal choral music that celebrates artistic excellence and racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. Registration required.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
MODfest 2022 kicks off with this exhibition of photographs by Ruben Natal-San Miguel
A Palmer Gallery exhibition by Ruben Natal-San Miguel
A Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center exhibition of prints, rare books, and photographs from Vassar College collections.
The COVID-19 pandemic is preventing Vassar from staging MODfest, its annual celebration of the arts, in person, but the show will go on as “Radical Imagination,” a series of virtual events available online.
Canceled Events
[CANCELED] MODfest 2022: Instagram Live with WAMC’s Sarah LaDuke
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, and the Munsee- Delaware Nation in Ontario. This acknowledgment, however, is insufficient without our reckoning with the reality that every member of the Vassar community since 1861 has benefited from these Native peoples’ displacement, and it is hollow without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled—and that still perpetuate—injustice against Indigenous Americans. To that end, we commit to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; to expand opportunities at Vassar for Native students, as well as Native faculty and other employees; and to collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.