Highlights from the Fall 2015 Arts and Culture at Wellesley Calendar

Immersion in the arts is an integral part of the liberal arts experience that Wellesley provides. To expand upon opportunities to explore the arts and humanities in the classroom, each semester the College invites highly esteemed professional artists, performers, writers, and speakers to campus. We are pleased to share these programs with friends and guests from the broader community.

The Arts and Culture at Wellesley Calendar, available on campus, by mail, and online, provides an overview of the season’s events. Highlights from the Fall 2015 edition include the following:

Bunny Harvey: Four Decades

Bunny Harvey has spent significant time over the past 40 years in an art studio—in her own studio, creating paintings that have been shown in museums and galleries across the country, and at Wellesley, where she has shared her insight and talent with students. The two endeavors will meet when her large body of work is exhibited together for the first time at the Davis Museum. Harvey, the Elizabeth Christy Kopf Professor of Art at Wellesley, will also participate in several programs related to the exhibition, including a workshop for K-12 educators, a gallery talk, and a symposium/celebration honoring her work.

Actors From The London Stage: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In celebration of its 10th anniversary performance at Wellesley and its 40th year as a company, Actors From The London Stage will perform the Shakespeare favorite A Midsummer Night’s Dream October 8-10 in Alumnae Hall. The classically trained actors who comprise the professional company play many parts: Not only does a cast of only five actors perform every role in the individual plays they present, they also serve as educators in their interactions with students off-stage.

Distinguished Thinkers at the Newhouse Center: Salman Rushdie

Although many people recognize Sir Salman Rushdie for his controversial book The Satanic Verses, literati are just as likely to reference him for one of his other 11 novels or the dozens of top literary awards his work has received. Perhaps most notable is his masterwork, Midnight’s Children, which not only won the prestigious Booker Prize, but is the only novel ever awarded Best of the Booker. His writing has been translated into more than 40 languages, and his stories have inspired an opera, a feature film, and the U2 song The Ground Beneath Her Feet, for which Rushdie himself wrote the lyrics based on his book of the same name. The Newhouse Center will host a conversation with Rushdie at Alumnae Hall on November 12.

…and more!

The Concert Series’ extensive lineup includes residencies and performances with internationally acclaimed Latin Jazz musician Rebeca Mauleón, and with the British chamber music ensemble the Orlando Consort, which will perform a live soundtrack to the classic 1928 silent French film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. Cinema and Media Arts presents films that examine different aspects of the Cuban revolution and Cuban culture in the season’s Cinéphile Sundays series, Cuba Si. Throughout the semester, culture and current events will be explored through lectures and panels; one highlight is the introduction of a new series of talks on issues in public education, with an inaugural lecture by its namesake, Diane Silvers Ravitch ’60.

For these and other events, the most current information can always be found at wellesley.edu/events. Unless noted in the event description, all events presented on our site are free and open to the public, and ample complimentary parking is available.