The Spring 2016 Arts And Culture At Wellesley Calendar Previews A Rich Selection Of Events
In a community that enjoys Shakespeare and Mary Shelley as much as video games and comedy shows, you don’t have to look too far to find your own version of fun. The Spring 2016 Arts and Culture at Wellesley Calendar showcases a full schedule of events—all open to the public and most free of charge.
The season gets off a strong start with Wellesley Repertory Theatre’s (WRT) The House of Blue Leaves, running through January 31, the Jewett Art Center’s opening of its first exhibition on January 25, and the Albright Institute’s Public Dialogue, Addressing Global Inequity, on January 31, with panelists Madeleine Albright ’59, former U.S. Secretary of State; Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director of the World Bank Group; Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; and Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary General and UNDP Administrator. Heather Long ’04 of CNNMoney will moderate the panel.
Events that follow span a range of interests. Kabuki dance, Arabic calligraphic art, and Afro-Latin jazz provide insight to different cultures, and the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare is acknowledged in an exhibition and film series at the Davis, a WRT production of Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), and a weekend festival at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities. Other art and lecture topics include motherhood, incarceration, gender, and negritude.
Other highlights include:
The Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer, on view February 10–June 26, in which the Davis presents the first museum retrospective dedicated to a single video game developer. A maker of visually elegant and conceptually intricate games, Jason Rohrer is among the most widely heralded art game designers in the short but vibrant history of the field. This exhibition will feature 15 of his finished games alongside sketches, ephemera, and other related materials. In addition, six separate stations with laptops and four large, experiential build-outs will allow visitors to experience games featured.
Cinéphile Sundays: Exquisite Combinations. Beginning February 14, Cinema and Media Studies celebrates the 200th anniversary of the conception of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with a film series that explores intriguing connections to the author and her classic novel, beginning with a screening of The Bride of Frankenstein. In the second installment, the Alloy Orchestra will visit campus to play a live soundtrack to the Weimar-era silent masterpiece Metropolis. Additional Sunday screenings showcase a Japanese anime film, an acclaimed film set in post-civil war Spain, and a story that includes Ada Lovelace, the developer of the first computer algorithm.
Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet. Wu Man is widely recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and a leading ambassador of Chinese music. (The pipa is the ancient Chinese lute pictured on the Arts Calendar cover.) On April 3, she will join the Shanghai Quartet, one of the world’s foremost chamber music ensembles, who will also be at Wellesley for a mini-residency with the music department, for Music from Ancient and New China. The program will include a new multimedia work by the eminent Chinese composer Zhao Jiping in cooperation with his son Zhao Lin, as well as traditional Chinese folk songs and original solo pipa works by Wu Man.
The Arts and Culture at Wellesley Calendar is available in print from locations across campus. It can also be viewed online. Patrons are also advised to visit the Events pages of our website regularly for event updates. To receive future issues of the Calendar by mail, please join our mailing list. We look forward to seeing you at an event soon!