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Join the Arts at Brandeis E-List for the inside scoop on plays, concerts, and fine arts at Brandeis, as well as free and discount tickets to arts events in Greater Boston.
The Brandeis arts magazine, State of the Arts, provides a complete schedule of events. To be added to the magazine’s mailing list, email arts@brandeis.edu
Arts@Brandeis Calendar
September and October 2008
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
August 26 - September 30
Icons of the Civil Rights Movement
Goldfarb Library, Level 3
Massachusetts artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy created this portrait series to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his contemporaries – some well known, others less so; some black, some white -- who struggled in the Civil Rights movement. For the Brandeis exhibition, she painted an additional portrait of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Herschel, an influential theologian who was active in the movement. Heschel wrote that his march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. with Martin Luther King was "both protest and prayer.”
Sponsored by the Intercultural Center and MLK Scholars and Friends. For more information, visit brandeis.libguides.
Wednesday, September 3
Artist Talk: Icons of the Civil Rights Movement
Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library
4:00 p.m.
Celebrate the exhibition and meet the artist, Pamela Chatterton-Purdy, at an informal talk. At 3:00 p.m., learn about Brandeis's own civil rights movement history by taking a walking tour of the campus Freedom Trail, led by the student group Martin Luther King Scholars and Friends.
Friday, September 5
Freedom Trail: Economic and Cultural Pilgrimage
Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center
Artist and Cultural Production graduate student Katie Hargrave has produced a series of photographs and a video podcast investigating the history of one of Boston's foremost tourist attractions, the Freedom Trail. The trail has been redirected, added to, and changed over its fifty-year history. The exhibition explores what it means to physically rewrite history, and how heritage tourism affects the understanding of history.
Monday, September 8
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
Chapels Field
8:00 p.m.
Enjoy a special outdoor screening of the classic 1927 docudrama, filmed in Thailand by the directors of the original King Kong (1933), that chronicles the lives of a family struggling to survive on the perimeter of an unforgiving jungle. Presented by the Film Studies Program. Live accompaniment by Boston's famed three-man Alloy Orchestra (with Mission of Burma's Roger Miller). Rain location: Wasserman Cinematheque.
Thursday, September 18
Interpreting the Civil Rights Movement: Challenges and Opportunities of RepresentationGoldfarb Library, Rapaporte Treasure Hall
4:00 p.m.
A panel discussion of ideas raised by the Icons of the Civil Rights Movement exhibition. What does it mean to be an icon? Does icon status remove the person from being human, flaws and all? With chaplain Walter Cuenin, Rob Henrich (History), Ellen Smith (Hornstein Program), and Ibrahim Sundiata (African and Afro-American Studies), moderated by Mark Auslander (Anthropology). Preceded by a 3:00 p.m. walking tour of the Brandeis Freedom Trail, led by the student group Martin Luther King Scholars and Friends.
Tuesday, September 23
Colin Channer Poetry Reading
Goldfarb Library, Rapaporte Treasure Hall
5:00 p.m.
Colin Channer, best-selling author of Waiting in Vain, reads from his latest book, Lover's Rock, followed by Q&A, reception, and signing. Channer is the editor of the groundbreaking anthology Balloons: Hit Fiction from Jamaica's Calabash Writer's Workshop. He is also the author of two novels, two novellas, and a collection of stories. Waiting in Vain was a Critic's Choice selection of the Washington Post, which described it as "a clear redefinition of the Caribbean novel."
Thursday, September 25
Fall Exhibitions Opening Celebration
Rose Art Museum
6:00 p.m.
Celebrate the three new exhibitions at the Rose, home to New England's finest modern and contemporary art (see exhibition descripions below).
September 25 - December 14
Invisible Rays: The Surrealism Effect
Project for a New American Century
Drawing on Film
Rose Art Museum
The surrealist preoccupation with dream states, the unconscious, and the blending of objects and ideas from different disciplines and cultures has had a profound influence on artistic practices. Drawing from the Rose’s extraordinary collection of modern and contemporary art, Invisible Rays includes work by Surrealists Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau, and artists influenced by Surrealists such as Jackson Pollock, Elizabeth Murray, and Fred Tomaselli.
Project for a New American Century showcases new acquisitions, including work by Matthew Antezzo, Roy Arden, Joanne Greenbaum, David Reed, Beat Streuli, Jim Hyde, and Jessica Stockholder.
Drawing on Film surveys the practice of “direct film” -- the process of drawing, scratching, or otherwise manipulating film stock to create images without a camera. The series presents works from the late 1930s to the present.
Saturday, October 4
Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Music Center
8 p.m.
Audiences around the world have enjoyed the Lydian String Quartet, professors of the practice at Brandeis. Tonight they continue their "Around the World in a String Quartet" series with Charles Ives' Quartet No. 1 "From the Salvation Army"; "Leyendas—An Andean Walkabout," by Peruvian composer Gabriela Lena Frank; and Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74. Pre-performance lecture at 7 p.m. Tickets $10-$25, available online or by calling 781-736-3400.
Ongoing
Through September 25
Dress • Redress
Women’s Studies Research Center
The exhibition Dress • Redress brings together eight contemporary artists who – critically, ambivalently, or monumentally – address the relationship between clothing and identity. Via subthemes as varied as religion, memory, gender roles, popular media, and environmental awareness, each artist challenges us to rethink clothing’s significance. Meet the artists in a short video, and read the Boston Globe article about the exhibition. For related events, including a panel discussion, visit the WSRC website.
The Art Behind the Portrait
Goldfarb Library
Inspired by the library's collection of photographer Carl Van Vechten's African American portraits, this display highlights African American luminaries such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Harry Belafonte, and Billie Holiday. Display created by Gail Goldspiel ’09 and produced by Lisa Zeidenberg, arts and culture librarian. Creative Arts, Farber Library, Level 2.
Brandeis in Lights: Legends of Stage, Screen, and Song
Goldfarb Library
This exhibit highlights notable aspects of Brandeis's early music and theater programs; it also showcases the personal collections of important figures in theater, film, and musical composition. Come for a glimpse of the artistic impresarios associated with Brandeis ... and for a close look at Oscar. The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Goldfarb Library, Level 2