September 5, 2002
Contact:
Sarah Ray
802-443-5794
sray@middlebury.edu
Posted: September 5, 2002
MIDDLEBURY, VT
- A lecture by three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Edward
Albee is just one highlight of “Art Matters: Visions for the Arts in the
21st Century,” an event on Sept. 19-21 which will mark the
beginning of the Middlebury College Center for the Arts’ (CFA) 10th
anniversary celebration. “Art Matters” is also the 2002 Middlebury College
Nicholas R. Clifford Symposium, an annual forum devoted this year to the
arts in honor of the CFA’s founding 10 years ago. All events are free
and open to the public and all, except Albee’s talk and a film screening,
will take place in the CFA on South Main Street (Route 30).
Edward
Albee will begin the event when he delivers the keynote address, “The
Playwright vs. The Theatre,” on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 8 p.m. in Mead
Chapel. John M. McCardell, Jr., Middlebury College president, and Mel
Gussow, New York Times drama critic, Albee biographer, and member of the
Middlebury College class of 1955, will provide introductory remarks before
the talk.
Following Albee’s lecture,
two full days of performances, interdisciplinary panels, discussions,
workshops and exhibits are scheduled, including “24 Hours of Art,” a nonstop,
round-the-clock arts bonanza featuring a gospel concert, dance performance
and many other events in and around the CFA.
The first of four panels,
“Creativity and the Brain,” convenes on Friday, Sept. 20, at 10 a.m. in
the dance theatre. Musician Stephen Nachmanovitch, a lecturer on creativity
and author of “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art,” will join Middlebury
College faculty members-David Napier of the sociology and anthropology
department, and David Parfitt and Tom Root of the biology department-on
the panel, which will be moderated by Andrea Olsen, Middlebury College
professor of dance.
At 1 p.m. on Sept. 20, student
theatre majors will offer a reading of Albee’s play, “Three Tall Women,”
in the Seeler Studio Theatre. Following the reading, Gussow will moderate
a discussion with the playwright.
To
jump-start her panel, “Science, Culture, and Art,” Su Lian Tan,
associate professor of music, has created an array of live, looped, scratched
and DJ sounds, including the music of rapper Damian Washington, a Middlebury
senior. The musical performance will begin the event and then continue
off and on at various intervals throughout the panel discussion, conducted
by members of the Middlebury College faculty. John Elder, professor of
English and environmental studies; Jennifer Post, assistant professor
of music and faculty curator of the ethnomusicology archives; and Rich
Wolfson, professor of physics, will explore the relationship between technology
and art. Their topics will include the production and transmission of
cultural property, especially music; the creation and understanding of
art generated by advances in science; and the concept of science as art.
This event begins Sept. 20 at 4:15 p.m. in the Concert Hall.
“24 Hours of Art” gears
up later that day at 5 p.m., when student, faculty, alumni and guest artists
converge on the CFA in a round-the-clock series of performances, participatory
events, workshops, exhibits, readings and installations. Curated by Peter
Schmitz and Amy Chavasse of the Middlebury College dance program faculty,
“24 Hours of Art” celebrates art- making in every conceivable medium,
in unexpected locations, and at unconventional times. It promises to be
a forum for exploration and risk-taking, a chance for artists and audiences
to experiment with orthodoxy and innovation, and an opportunity to highlight
many dramatic spaces in the CFA. A full schedule of events will be available
at the start of the symposium.
Schmitz
and Dancers reunite with Middlebury College alumni Katherine Ferrier,
Lisa Gonzales, Paul Matteson and Pamela Vail for a concert of choreography
and performance as part of “24 Hours of Art,” at 8 p.m. in the Dance Theatre.
In 2000, this group and the Dance Company of Middlebury created “Felt
Presence of an Absence,” which they performed on campus and on tour. Material
from that project will reappear in this evening’s collaborative work.
Solo and small-group pieces, choreographed and performed by each dancer,
complete the concert.
A gospel concert by Janice
Harrison-Aikens, mezzo soprano with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble and
solo performer with the Newark, N.J., Community Concert Choir, is another
feature of “24 Hours of Art.” The concert is hosted by singer and Middlebury
College Twilight Artist-in-Residence François Clemmons, who says of Harrison-Aikens:
“Her firm faith and superior talent make her one of the East Coast’s most
sought-after, up-and-coming gospel specialists. I like best that she
is able to touch her audiences very deeply with her simple,
spiritually connected approach
to many of the standards like ‘Walk in Jerusalem’ and ‘His Eye
Is On The Sparrow.’ ” The Middlebury College Choir will join Harrison-Aikens,
Clemmons and accompanist Dick Forman in the Concert Hall at 9:30 p.m.
A late night cafe will be
in full swing at Rehearsals Cafe, located on the first-floor lobby, following
the concerts. A visit here will offer an opportunity to catch additional
performances by participants in “24 Hours of Art.”
“The Arts and the Transformation
of American Consciousness” is the topic of a Saturday, Sept. 21, panel
at 10 a.m. in the Dance Theatre. The panel includes dance scholar and
performer Brenda Dixon-Gottschild, Temple University professor of dance
emerita; Daniel Belgrad, University of South Florida associate professor
of humanities and American studies; Kirsten A. Hoving, Middlebury College
professor of history of art and architecture; and Clemmons. Penny Campbell,
lecturer in dance at Middlebury, will serve as moderator.
At 1:30 p.m. on Saturday,
Stephen Prince, professor of film studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University and author of “A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood under
the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989,” will speak on “American Cinema
at the Turn of the Century.” A discussion will follow with a panel
of Middlebury faculty, including Leger Grindon, professor of film/video;
John Bertolini, professor of English and film; and Stephen Donadio, professor
of American literature and civilization. The events will take place in
the Dance Theatre.
As “24 Hours of Art” wraps
up at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Gussow will return to lead the symposium’s summation.
A discussion of ideas and issues raised throughout the symposium will
take place in the Dance Theatre. Panelists will sign copies of their recent
books immediately afterward. Books by panelists will be on sale throughout
the symposium at the information desk on the second floor.
The final event of the weekend
is a screening of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” shown in conjunction
with the Hirschfield Film/Video Series, at 8 p.m. in Dana Auditorium in
Sunderland Language Center on College Street (Route 125). This thrilling
nightmare movie starts when Betty, immediately after arriving in Los Angeles,
discovers a mysterious, confused woman in her apartment with a purse full
of money.
All events are free and
open to the public, and all will take place in the CFA on South Main Street
(Route 30), except Albee’s lecture and a film screening. Continental breakfasts
and buffet luncheons will be available for panelists and audience members
each day at no charge. For updated symposium information, visit www.middlebury.edu/clifford_symposium
or contact the Middlebury College Box Office at 802-443-6433.
Events Calendar Listings
“Art Matters: Visions for
the Arts in the 21st Century”
2002 Nicholas R. Clifford
Symposium
Thursday, Sept. 19-Saturday,
Sept. 21
Thursday, Sept. 19
8 p.m.
Lecture: “The Playwright
vs. The Theatre” by Edward Albee, three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American
playwright. John M. McCardell, Jr., Middlebury College president, and
Mel Gussow, New York Times drama critic, Albee biographer, and member
of the Middlebury College class of 1955, will provide introductory remarks
before the talk.
Middlebury College Mead
Chapel, Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125)
Friday, Sept. 20
10 a.m.
Panel discussion:
“Creativity and the Brain” with musician Stephen Nachmanovitch, a lecturer
on creativity and author of “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art,”
and Middlebury College faculty members David Napier of the sociology and
anthropology department, and David Parfitt and Tom Root of the biology
department. Moderated by Andrea Olsen, Middlebury College professor of
dance.
Dance Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
1 p.m.
Reading of Edward Albee’s
play “Three Tall Women” followed by discussion with the playwright and
New York Times drama critic: Middlebury College student theatre majors
will offer a reading of Edward Albee’s play “Three Tall Women.” Following
the reading, Mel Gussow, New York Times drama critic, Albee biographer,
and member of the Middlebury College class of 1955, will moderate a discussion
with the playwright.
Seeler Studio Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
4:15 p.m.
Panel discussion and
musical performance: “Science, Culture, and Art” with Middlebury faculty
Su Lian Tan, associate professor of music; John Elder, professor of English
and environmental studies; Jennifer Post, assistant professor of music
and faculty curator of the ethnomusicology archives; and Rich Wolfson,
professor of physics. The panel will be preceded and interspersed throughout
by an array of live and recorded music.
Concert Hall, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
5 p.m.
“24 Hours of Art:”
Middlebury College student, faculty, alumni and guest artists converge
on the Center for the Arts in a round-the-clock series of performances,
participatory events, workshops, exhibits, readings and installations.
Curated by Peter Schmitz and Amy Chavasse of the Middlebury College dance
program faculty. A full schedule of events will be available at the start
of the symposium.
Middlebury College Center
for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
8 p.m.
Dance performance: Schmitz
and Dancers reunite with Middlebury College alumni dancers Katherine Ferrier,
Lisa Gonzales, Paul Matteson and Pamela Vail. Peter Schmitz, Middlebury
College visiting assistant professor in dance, joined in 2000 with this
group and the Dance Company of Middlebury to create “Felt Presence of
an Absence,” which they performed on campus and on tour. Material from
that project will reappear in this collaborative work. Solo and small-group
pieces will be included. “24 Hours of Art” event.
Dance Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
9:30 p.m.
Gospel concert: Janice
Harrison-Aikens, mezzo soprano with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble and
solo performer with the Newark, N.J., Community Concert Choir, will be
joined by the Middlebury College Choir, singer and Middlebury College
Twilight Artist-in-Residence François Clemmons and accompanist Dick Forman.
“24 Hours of Art” event.
Concert Hall, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
Saturday, Sept. 21
10 a.m.
Panel discussion:
“The Arts and the Transformation of American Consciousness” is the topic
of a panel that includes dance scholar and performer Brenda Dixon-Gottschild,
Temple University professor of dance emerita; Daniel Belgrad, University
of South Florida associate professor of humanities and American studies;
and François Clemmons, Twilight Artist-in-Residence, and Kirsten A. Hoving,
professor of history of art and architecture, both of Middlebury College.
Penny Campbell, lecturer in dance at Middlebury, will serve as moderator.
Dance Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
1:30 p.m.
Lecture and panel discussion:
Stephen Prince, professor of film studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University and author of “A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood under
the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989,” will speak on “American Cinema
at the Turn of the Century.” A discussion will follow with a panel
of Middlebury faculty, including Leger Grindon, professor of film/video;
John Bertolini, professor of English and film; and Stephen Donadio, professor
of American literature and civilization.
Dance Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
5 p.m.
Summation and discussion
of symposium “Art Matters: Visions for the Arts in the 21st Century:”
Led by Mel Gussow-New York Times drama critic and member of the Middlebury
College class of 1955-symposium participants will discuss ideas and issues
raised throughout the symposium. Panelists will sign copies of their recent
books immediately afterward.
Dance Theatre, Middlebury
College Center for the Arts, South Main Street (Route 30)
8 p.m.
Movie screening: David
Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” shown in conjunction with the Hirschfield
Film/Video Series. This thrilling nightmare movie starts when Betty, immediately
after arriving in Los Angeles, discovers a mysterious, confused woman
in her apartment with a purse full of money.
Dana Auditorium, Sunderland
Language Center, Middlebury College, College Street (Route 125)
All symposium events, except
Albee’s lecture and a film screening, will take place in the College’s
Center for the Arts on South Main Street (Route 30). All events are free
and open to the public. Continental breakfasts and buffet luncheons will
be available for panelists and audience members each day at no charge.
For updated symposium information, visit www.middlebury.edu/clifford_symposium,
or contact the Middlebury College Box Office at 802-443-6433.