Ian Baucom, Higher Education Leader, Enterprising Administrator, and Prolific Scholar, Named President of Middlebury.
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Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest

Art vs. the Apocalypse

Humanity faces a universal question, how do we confront and navigate the environmental catastrophe that threatens our existence? The arts have always built awareness of the most pressing social issues and provided a forum for reflection, and inspiration for action. Where are the arts now? 

These questions and more are centered in the multidisciplinary and embodied modes of Art vs. the Apocalypse. In coordination with the Theatre Department’s performance of Somewhere, a new eco-drama by Marisela Treviño Orta, guest artists, faculty, and students will engage in fishbowl conversations, arts events, and art making to illuminate and inspire our work as creative global citizens. How can we envision and co-create a healthier and more sustainable relationship with our planet? 


Co-sponsored by Theatre, the Council on the Arts, the Climate Action Capacity Project, and the Department of Biology

Past events

  • Emily St. John Mandel in Conversation

    Acclaimed author Emily St. John Mandel will bring her work and perspectives to Middlebury College in this special reading, Q&A and book signing. 

     

    This event is in-person and open to the public.

    Can’t make it? A recording will be available February 16-March 1, 2024 at https://vimeo.com/911642948

    Password: EmilyMidd2024

     

    Wright Theatre

    Open to the Public

  • Image of a woman on stage

    Art vs. the Apocalypse presents "The N Word: Nature, Revisited"

    Join Dr. Carolyn Finney, Artist-in-Residence, Environmental Affairs, for a unique presentation that brings her life in conversation with historic figures and contemporary issues. Central Park birder Christian Cooper. George Floyd. The removal of Confederate Statues. Renaming of institutions. Reparations. Systemic Racism. Finney asks, what’s environment got to do with it? How do we meet this moment? Drawing from her book, Black Faces, White Spaces, her relationships “in the field” and her lived experience, Dr.

    Axinn Center 232

    Open to the Public

  • Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao (artist) standing in front of a painting

    Art vs. the Apocalypse Arts Workshop

    Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao, Nigeria’s art ambassador to the United Nations, visual artist, filmmaker, architect and author will lead a visual art (painting) workshop as part of the Art vs the Apocalypse event. Alao’s paintings center redemption, peace and love, and lately reflect a long-standing fascination with fireflies. Materials provided. Open to Middlebury College students.

    Please Register Here

    Mahaney Arts Center 221

    Closed to the Public

  • poster for symposium

    Art vs. the Apocalypse: Fishbowl Symposium

    Join us for a dynamic conversation with guest speakers and community members about how art can reflect, engage, and resist apocalyptic ideas and futures.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

  • Image of a man in front of a horizon

    Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series

    “Empire of My Fireflies” by Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao, First-Place Winner of the United Nations International Art Competition and Nigeria’s Arts Ambassador to the United Nations and United States.

    Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103

    Open to the Public

  • Yellow sky with clouds. A barn. 2 people on bikes and 3 people standing in tall grass.

    Somewhere

    A play by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit.
    Almost all the insects are gone, but Cassandra and her brother Alexander are tracking the world’s last monarch butterflies heading to the west coast instead of south. Their path intersects with an Oregon truffle farm where a small group of people are hunkering down to wait out the apocalypse. Will their encounter provoke the collapse of humanity or a new beginning?

    Performances: April 6th – 8th, 7:30 pm each evening and 2 pm on Saturday.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

    $15/10/8/5

  • Yellow sky with clouds. A barn. 2 people on bikes and 3 people standing in tall grass.

    Somewhere

    A play by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit.
    Almost all the insects are gone, but Cassandra and her brother Alexander are tracking the world’s last monarch butterflies heading to the west coast instead of south. Their path intersects with an Oregon truffle farm where a small group of people are hunkering down to wait out the apocalypse. Will their encounter provoke the collapse of humanity or a new beginning?

    Performances: April 6th – 8th, 7:30 pm each evening and 2 pm on Saturday.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

    $15/10/8/5

  • headshot photo of the artist

    Art vs. the Apocalypse Movement Workshop "Embodying Stories"

    This movement workshop led by Theresa May combines embodied practice with questions about how our bodies serve as sources for creativity. The body has knowledge; the body contains memory; the body is a source of stories. How is your body a gateway to creativity, imagination, memory, and freedom of expression? How are imagination, voice, emotion and physicality connected? How can you be present and empowered in and through your body? How is language embodied? What might it mean to have a physical “practice” that opens your heart and creative imagination?

    Mahaney Arts Center 232

    Closed to the Public

  • Somewhere Reception

    Enjoy light snacks and dessert following the evening’s performance of Somewhere and post-play discussion.

    Also sponsored by the Climate Action Capacity Project.

    Mahaney Arts Center Upper Lobby

    Open to the Public

  • Yellow sky with clouds. A barn. 2 people on bikes and 3 people standing in tall grass.

    Somewhere: Post-Play Discussion

    Meet members of the “Somewhere” cast and crew, and special guests including playwright Marisela Treviño Orta and Dr. Theresa May, to talk about the show, its themes and questions.

    Sponsored by the Theatre Department, the Climate Action Capacity Program, and the Middlebury Performing Arts Council.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

  • Yellow sky with clouds. A barn. 2 people on bikes and 3 people standing in tall grass.

    Somewhere

    A play by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit.
    Almost all the insects are gone, but Cassandra and her brother Alexander are tracking the world’s last monarch butterflies heading to the west coast instead of south. Their path intersects with an Oregon truffle farm where a small group of people are hunkering down to wait out the apocalypse. Will their encounter provoke the collapse of humanity or a new beginning?

    Performances: April 6th – 8th, 7:30 pm each evening and 2 pm on Saturday.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

    $15/10/8/5

  • Yellow sky with clouds. A barn. 2 people on bikes and 3 people standing in tall grass.

    Somewhere

    A play by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit.
    Almost all the insects are gone, but Cassandra and her brother Alexander are tracking the world’s last monarch butterflies heading to the west coast instead of south. Their path intersects with an Oregon truffle farm where a small group of people are hunkering down to wait out the apocalypse. Will their encounter provoke the collapse of humanity or a new beginning?

    Performances: April 6th – 8th, 7:30 pm each evening and 2 pm on Saturday.

    Mahaney Arts Center Seeler Studio Theatre

    Open to the Public

    $15/10/8/5

  • Image of a woman

    The Scott A. Margolin ’99 Lecture in Environmental Affairs

    The 2023 Scott A. Margolin ‘99 Lecture in Environmental Affairs presents Elizabeth Rush, author of The Quickening: On Motherhood and Antarctica in the Twenty First Century and Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

    On Rising Together: Collective and creative responses to the climate crisis

    Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

    Open to the Public

  • Image of a woman wearing a pink shirt

    Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series

    “Climate Theatre: Stories of Kinship, Community, and Climate Justice” by Theresa May, Faculty of Theatre, Environment and Indigenous Studies at the University of Oregon, and Artistic Director of the EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights Festival.

    Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103

    Open to the Public

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Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest

531 College Street
Middlebury, VT 05753

(802) 443-2536