State of the
Brandeis University Arts
The New
Brandeis Theater
Company
Creative
Encounters with
the Divine
Winter/Spring 2006
With the addition of the intimate Mildred S. Lee Gallery
in 1980 and the spacious Lois Foster Wing in 2000 came
new exhibition possibilities and vastly increased
attendance—now approaching 13,000 visitors a year.
During the past three years, I have especially enjoyed
getting to know The Rose’s devoted staff. Curator
Raphaela Platow has an original, daring sensibility that
Last year, Brandeis commissioned the brilliant Japanese
architect Shigeru Ban, who will partner with New York
firm Dean Maltz Architect, to design a new wing,
doubling our exhibition space and providing greater
public access to our distinguished collection. This is a
major undertaking and requires dynamic artistic
leadership of the first rank. I am pleased to say we have
found just such a visionary leader in The Rose’s new
Henry and Lois Foster Director, Michael Rush.
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Long committed to the exploration of new and
interdisciplinary art forms, Michael is a distinguished
administrator, educator, curator, and artist. After
receiving a doctorate in theology and psychology from
Harvard University, he first gained national attention as
an award-winning experimental theater and video artist.
More recently, Michael founded the Palm Beach Institute
of Contemporary Art, consistently praised in the New
York Times, Artforum, and Art in America for sponsoring
some of the most important exhibitions and programs
in the world. A highly regarded writer and scholar,
Michael has authored several books, including the first
comprehensive survey of the history and practice of
video art worldwide.
Michael is passionate about Brandeis’s mission and the
important role of the arts in our commitment to
academic excellence, social justice, and research into the
human condition. I am delighted to turn over the tending
of T
he Rose to this exceptional new leader in the Greater
Boston arts community. Through creative innovation and
artistic experimentation, Brandeis is fulfilling its claim to
prominence as a cultural and educational resource for
New England and the nation.
The bloom on this American beauty has only just
begun.
Marty Wyngaarden Krauss
and Michael Rush
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Our permanent collection has continued to grow over
the past forty-five years, as well. The overcrowded
vaults are home to works by Rembrandt, Rodin, and
Cézanne; Magritte, Chagall, and deKooning. In fact, one
might say The Rose has outgrown its garden.
The Brandeis Theater Company is the
production and performing ensemble
comprised of students, professional
guest artists, faculty, and staff of the
Department of Theater Arts. Through
progressive and challenging
programming, they create cutting-edge
theater promoting multiculturalism
alongside artistic achievement.
Productions are held in the Spingold
Theater Center. Tickets are $16–$20.
Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400
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I set about learning more of The Rose’s history. I
discovered that, even before the museum existed, a
bequest of nearly 200 paintings from Boston art patron
Louis Schapiro established a permanent collection for
the University. The Rose building, a gift of Edward and
Bertha Rose, was built in 1961 and Sam Hunter was
appointed its first director. Armed with $50,000, a keen
eye, and a bit of good luck, he traveled to New York,
where he acquired works by up-and-comers like
Rauschenberg, Warhol, Johns, Lichtenstein, Rivers, and
Kelly. At that time, even the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, didn’t own their artwork and Mr. Hunter’s
prescient acquisitions established T
he Rose’s identity
and commitment to collect and exhibit the significant
artists of our time.
has brought to New England many of today’s most
exciting international artists such as Dana Schutz, Oliver
Herring, Erwin Wurm, and Sarah Walker. I find that each
visit to The Rose surprises, challenges, provokes, and
delights me beyond my expectations and imagination.
Brandeis Theater Company
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One of the great pleasures of serving as provost of
Brandeis University has been the opportunity to
experience elements of university life that had not been
part of my primary focus as a faculty member. In the
years following my arrival at Brandeis in 1977, I visited
The Rose Art Museum frequently as an enthusiastic, but
casual, arts participant. With my appointment as provost
in 2003, I suddenly found myself in the position of
supervising one of the finest collections of modern and
contemporary art in New England.
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Tending The Rose:
An American Beauty
Best wishes,
Marty Wyngaarden Krauss
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
The Suicide—A Comedy
February 9–19
By Nikolai Erdman
Translation by David Powelstock
Directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky ’98
Laurie Theater at the Spingold Theater
Center
An unemployed man contemplates
suicide, but is besieged by
spokespeople of discontented groups,
from butchers to intellectuals, who
want to turn his suicide into a political
gesture on their behalf. This brilliant
Soviet-era satire is a modern classic of
the Russian theater.
Things Beyond Our Control
March 16–26
By Jesse Kellerman, M.F.A. ’03
Directed by Paul Melone
Laurie Theater at the Spingold Theater
Center
Lives intersect in strange and
unpredictable ways in this awardwinning contemporary drama. On a
rainy night, a man on a bike is struck
by a taxicab and so begins a startling
chain of events that transforms the
lives of seven strangers.
Creative Encounters
with the Divine
The Brandeis Theater Company’s production of
The Bacchae is an interdisciplinary
collaboration between artistic director and
chair of the Department of Theater Arts, Eric Hill,
and composer David Rakowski, professor of
music composition. Here they describe what
engaged their contemporary imaginations
about this classical tragedy.
What attracted you to The Bacchae?
Eric: The Bacchae has always been one of my
favorite plays. I have acted in it three times.
Euripides is my favorite playwright next to
Shakespeare. He constantly reminds his
audience to beware of the precarious
relationship of man to impossible gods and an
unpredictable universe. There is something
total in Euripides, and I love theater of the
extreme.
The Bacchae
April 27–May 7
By Euripides
Adapted and directed by
Eric Hill
Original music by
David Rakowski
Music performed by the
Lydian String Quartet with
Robert Schultz, percussion
Outdoors/Laurie Theater at the
Spingold Theater Center
When cultural conservatism
confronts the inevitability of
change, human affairs spin out
of control in this passionate,
primal play from the ancient
Greek theater.
How did your collaboration come about?
Eric: I’m interested in exploring more
interdisciplinary work between the
departments of theater arts and music. Davy is
a great composer and colleague and has twice
been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, so he
was the natural place to start. His music is
difficult and uncompromising, like Euripides.
Dionysus, the god of wine,
theater, and revelry, returns to
his homeland of Thebes to
exact revenge on the city that
refused to believe he was a
son of Zeus. He brings with
him the Bacchae, a cult of
ecstatic followers who indulge
in drink, dance, and bloody
sacrifice. The women of
Thebes fall under their spell
and join in the orgiastic
rituals. King Pentheus,
Dionysus’ staunchest
opponent, becomes enraged,
resulting in a catastrophic
clash between the forces of
man and god.
Second Look Series
During the second week of
each production, engage in an
insightful post-play
conversation or presentation
with scholars or the creative
team behind the production.
For details, visit
www.brandeis.edu/theater.
Presented in
cooperation with the
classical studies and
music departments.
Made possible
through funding from
the Poses Foundation.
The Brandeis Theater
Company season is
made possible
through generous
support from the
Laurie Foundation.
David: When Eric asked if I’d be willing to
compose original music for the production, I
said sure. Then it occurred to me to write it for
the Lydian String Quartet so that this can be an
even greater collaboration between our
departments.
Eric Hill
David Rakowski
Is it different collaborating with a director and, in
essence, the playwright?
David: Absolutely. I’m not interested in writing
generic “scary music” or “flesh-ripping music”
or “don’t infuriate the gods music.” Such stuff
could be gotten a lot cheaper and faster off of
iTunes. I’m fascinated by Eric’s ideas about the
relationships between the characters and of the
characters to the overall themes because they
are very suggestive musically.
How will music be integrated into the production?
David: We anticipate it will underscore the
speaking and the movement of the chorus, at
times becoming more fevered as the chorus
takes a more participatory role. I also expect
that certain signature chords will be used to
identify or suggest specific characters. The
relationships of the characters, as Eric
describes them, are very musical ones, or at
least ones with conceptual analogs in music.
Eric: I’ll play Davy’s music in rehearsal for the
actors and attempt to fit what we are doing to
it—and fit it to what we are doing. I never know
until I get there what creative ideas might
happen in rehearsal.
Have you composed music for theater before?
How do you begin your creative process?
David: No, but I’ve done several pieces
specifically for dance. And other pieces of
mine, not originally intended for dance, have
been choreographed, and it always wows me
what other people think my music looks like.
Eric: Usually through the connection between
language and visual images. Sometimes music
helps to get things going and, at some point,
music is essential.
David: Often, I wake up before the alarm goes
off and I start thinking about what my specific
creative task is for the day or other things that I
have to write in the more distant future, and
something just happens. A shape with some
sort of character comes to me, an abstract thing
Continued
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that occupies a space between shape and
sound that has particular defining characteristics.
Sometimes things come to me in the shower.
It’s hard to describe; the shape may represent a
whole piece, a section, a phrase, or just a
gesture. The ideas bounce around in my
thoughts for a while, the shape gets manipulated
like silly putty, and when I start writing I plunk at
the piano and remove all the notes that don’t
work, leaving just the ones that do.
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Eric: I try to get other people involved quickly to
test my ideas in theory before I commit to
anything. Collaboration helps to define what I
don’t know and what I have to learn. This opens
up the ideas that have only come in the form of
impulses, notions, and images at first. After a
rigorous process of planning with designers
and others, the actors come in and everything
changes again.
god of wine and debauchery, but his rites are
sacred and speak of nature in purer, perhaps
harsher, terms. We attempt to put many things
between us and that absolute and merciless
nature of the god. In the contemporary era,
those things include technology and medicine.
These are illusions of security that reveal
themselves to be powerless in the face of
insurmountable obstacles. Nature is capable of
supplying such obstacles at a moment’s notice.
Will this production make use of your interest in the
Suzuki acting method?
Eric: When we talk about Suzuki, we have to
keep in mind that there are two separate
conversations here. Tadashi Suzuki is a
Japanese director who developed a physically
based method for training actors to serve
specific productions he had in mind. Some
people assume his work as a director and his
method of actor training are inextricably
connected, but they aren’t. The cornerstone of
his acting method is a belief that human beings
possess the ability to tap into the expressive
power of animal energy, and that theater, as a
context for this expression, is socially and
spiritually crucial in the present-day global
situation. I studied with Suzuki and have taught
his method and use it to develop my own
productions, but we are directors with different
artistic interpretations and cultural
perspectives. In The Bacchae, I’ll specifically
use the Suzuki method to make the actors
aware of how to physically “be” in a play about
the Dionysiac cult and possession.
Why did you choose to produce the play outdoors?
Eric: Because that’s where you find nature—
nature as in physical endurance of the elements
as well as unbridled, sexual romping in the
woods when you are talking in Dionysiac
terms. Dionysus is commonly known as the
Brandeis Concert
Season
Home to New
England’s acclaimed
Lydian String Quartet,
Slosberg Music
Center hosts more
than 50 professional
and student concerts
each year. To purchase
tickets, call Brandeis
Tickets at 781-7363400. For more
information, visit
www.brandeis.edu/
departments/music.
Lydian String Quartet
25th Anniversary Season
Celebrating twenty-five years
of musical excellence is the
Lydian String Quartet: Daniel
Stepner, Judith Eissenberg,
Mary Ruth Ray, and Joshua
Gordon. This spring, the
Lydians conclude their fiveyear series, “Vienna and the
String Quartet.” Concerts begin
at 8:00 pm and are preceded
by a free 7:00 pm lecture.
Tickets are $20 ($10 for
Brandeis community/senior
citizens).
Saturday, January 28
Mozart:
Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 428
Zemlinsky:
Quartet No. 3 (1924)
Brahms:
Quintet in G Major, Op. 111
with guest Roger Tapping, viola
Saturday, March 11
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)
Schubert:
String Quintet in C Major
with guests Mark Berger, viola, and Andrew Mark, cello
What is the tragedy’s essential conflict?
David: Man’s relationship to nature and to the
divine.
Eric: That extends to the conflict between
conservatism and transformation in the face of
an unpredictable universe. Those who change
with the universe are in harmony with the
natural order. Conservative social structures
that refuse to give way to the mysterious,
natural order of mutability are destroyed, along
with those who cling to those structures.
Have you ever personally had an encounter with
Dionysus?
David: When I was an undergraduate, I used to encounter him every weekend.
Eric: And I studied with him for ten years in Japan.
Lydian Wednesdays
February 1, March 1, and April 5
The Lydians give free noon
concerts in the Rapaporte
Treasure Hall of Brandeis’s
Goldfarb Library. Visit the
monthly Arts at Brandeis
Calendar at www.brandeis.edu/
arts for more information.
New Music Brandeis
Brandeis has always been home
to distinguished composers, from
Irving Fine and Leonard Bernstein
to Martin Boykan, Eric Chasalow,
and David Rakowski. Each
semester, gifted young
composers premiere their new
compositions with guest
musicians—an extraordinary
opportunity to hear the sound of
the twenty-first century.
Free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 4, 8:00 pm
New music by Peter Bayne,
Nathaniel Eschler, Derek Jacoby,
Joseph Johnson, and Justin Rust.
Performers include the Radnofsky
Saxophone Quartet.
Saturday, March 18, 8:00 pm
New music by John Aylward,
Mark Berger, Maxwell Dulaney,
Derek Jacoby, Jeremy Sagala, and
Jonathan Yoken. Performers
include the New York New Music
Ensemble.
Saturday, April 1, 8:00 pm
New music by Maxwell Dulaney,
Ashley Floyd, Jeff Roberts,
Jeremy Spindler, and Royden Tull.
Performers include guitarist
William Anderson.
MusicUnitesUS
World Music Concert and
Intercultural Residency
MusicUnitesUS invites you
to experience the diverse
history and culture of a people
through the universal
language of music.
For more information, visit
www.brandeis.edu/
MusicUnitesUS.
Brandeis Department of
Music Ensembles
Nueva Canción: A Tradition
of Protest and Memorial
Featuring Sol y Canto
Communicating the
importance of cultural
memory and the power of art
as a tool of resistance, this
intercultural residency
considers ideas of political
and personal freedom. It
includes performances, open
classes, lectures, an exhibit of
rare arpilleras, and a film
series.
Arpillera Exhibition:
Threads of Hope
February 6–28
Women’s Studies Research
Center
These are the tapestries
created by ordinary Chilean
women who defied the
military dictatorship of the
1970s by embroidering their
sorrow on scraps of cloth and
using their needles and thread
as one of the boldest means of
popular protest in Latin
America.
Tuesday, February 14, 1:30 pm
Gallery Talk and Reception
with Marjorie Agosín
Music as Political Action:
Oppression and Liberation
Friday, February 10, 3:30 pm
Shapiro Campus Center Atrium
Presentations and discussion,
followed at 5:00 pm by an
informal concert set by Sol y
Canto.
Sol y Canto
Saturday, February 11, 8:00 pm
Slosberg Recital Hall
Named for sun and song, Sol
y Canto takes you on an
impassioned journey of Afro,
Latin, and Caribbean music.
Rich vocal harmonies, soaring
Spanish guitar, and pulsing
Latin rhythms capture the
spirit and the struggles of
Latin American culture. This
concert highlights songs of
protest from the Nueva
Canción tradition. Tickets are
$20 ($10 for Brandeis
community/senior citizens).
Brandeis Tickets: 781-736-3400.
Made possible through
funding from the Poses
Foundation.
Pre-concert lecture at 7:00 pm
at T
he Rose Art Museum
features poet and human
rights activist Marjorie Agosín.
Film Series
Chile: History of Memory and
Silence
Pollack Auditorium
Sponsored by the Latin
American Studies Program
In Women’s Hands
Tuesday, February 7, 4:30 pm
An inspirational documentary
examining the lives of Chilean
women who united to create
better living conditions for
their families during the
Pinochet years. With filmmaker
Juan Mandelbaum.
Threads of Hope
Tuesday, February 14, 4:30 pm
Donald Sutherland narrates
this award-winning film about
sisters, mothers, and wives of
Pinochet’s “disappeared” who,
armed only with scraps of
cloth, created tapestries
depicting the true horrors of
the regime.
Machuca
Tuesday, February 28, 4:30 pm
The 1973 Chilean political coup
is witnessed through the eyes
of two young friends—
Gonzalo, a child of privilege,
and Pedro, who lives in
poverty—in this sensitive
coming-of-age story.
The Brandeis Department of
Music’s student ensembles
span a wide array of musical
styles—from Renaissance to
contemporary jazz. Tickets are
$10 ($5 for the Brandeis
community/students/senior
citizens) unless otherwise
noted. Brandeis Tickets:
781-736-3400
The Brandeis-Wellesley
Orchestra: Catch a Rising Star
Sunday, March 5, 3:00 pm
Featuring the winners of the
2006 Concerto Competitions.
Program to include Prokofiev’s
Second Violin Concerto,
Beethoven’s Third Piano
Concerto, and Stravinsky’s
Firebird Suite.
Neal Hampton, conductor
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Sunday, April 2, 3:00 pm
Program includes thrilling
symphonic works by Sousa,
Holst, and Ticheli.
Thomas A. Souza, conductor
Brandeis Early Music
Ensemble: April in Paris
Saturday, April 8, 8:00 pm
Songs and dance from
Renaissance France.
Sarah Mead, director
University Chorus and
Chamber Choir: Exodus
Sunday, April 9, 3:00 pm
Program includes James
Weldon Johnson’s “Let My
People Go” and Handel’s
“Israel in Egypt.”
James Olesen, conductor
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Sunday, April 9, 7:00 pm
Jazz grooves, classics, and
new compositions.
Bob Nieske, director
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra
and the Marcus Roberts Trio:
American Classics
Sunday, April 30, 7:00 pm
Spingold Theater Center
Program includes Bernstein’s
“Overture to Candide” and a
unique interpretation of
Gershwin’s Concerto in F.
Neal Hampton, conductor
Made possible by the Poses
Foundation and the generosity
of Liz and Mony Rueven, P’09,
and Arthur and Ellen Gang, P’06
Improvisation Ensemble
Monday, May 1, 8:00 pm
Spontaneous jazz meets new
music.
Tom Hall, director
Free and open to the public
Chamber Music Ensemble
Tuesday, May 2, 7:00 pm
Classical masterpieces and
hidden treasures.
Judith Eissenberg, director
Free and open to the public
Unlike the region’s conservatories, the
majority of talented students in the
BWO are pursuing majors in fields
other than music. “Participation in the
arts nourishes us spiritually and
Roland Guerin, Marcus Roberts,
and Jason Marsalis
Pianist and composer Marcus Roberts
has explored almost every aspect of
jazz piano—gospel, ragtime, stride,
swing, pop, and bebop—and through
this range of influences has developed
an original style of his own. He taught
himself to play the piano after losing
his eyesight at the age of five and knew
by the time he was ten that performing
jazz was his calling. “Everybody has
issues and struggles,” Roberts explains.
“You can transcend them, if you are a
certain type of individual. That was the
reason for me getting into jazz. The
idea that adversity can be turned
around and that playing the blues is
how you heal the blues.”
By age twenty-one, Roberts was a
member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet
with whom he toured for the next six
years. He signed his first recording
contract in 1988 and enjoys the
distinction of being the only jazz artist
to have his first three recordings reach
number one on Billboard’s traditional
jazz chart.
Hampton recalls: “I met Marcus three
years ago when he was the soloist in
Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” that I
conducted for the Tallahassee
Symphony. He has a virtuosic
command of every jazz style that is
thrilling. Perhaps because of my
background as a jazz pianist and
interest in jazz history—which I’ve
taught at Brandeis—I felt an immediate
rapport with him. We began talking
about the possibility of working
together again, so this concert is a
dream come true.”
Uniting these innovative jazz
interpreters with the classically based
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra offers
audiences a rare opportunity to
experience both the intimacy and
grandeur associated with each
ensemble. Their concert celebrates a
musical partnership that bridges two
esteemed New England institutions,
classical and jazz music, and a
perceived distinction between high
culture and popular culture. According
to Roberts: “I want to convince the
public that great music is not above
them, it’s about them.”
50 Foot Queenie, 2003
By Dana Schutz
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The BWO offers three concerts a year
on each campus. Their programs have
included works by Brahms, Dvorak,
Mozart, Haydn, Elgar, Tchaikovsky, and
Copland. In the spring of 2004, the
orchestra gave a stunning, sold-out
concert of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony featuring more than 200
performers including the Lydian String
Quartet, professional guest soloists,
and the combined choruses of
Brandeis, Wellesley, UMass–
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his spring, they
once again break new musical ground
as they collaborate with three of
America’s finest young jazz artists.
The Marcus Roberts Trio was founded
in 1993 when Roberts developed an
interest in the legacy of great jazz trios
led by Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner,
and Ahmad Jamal. Roberts first
recruited seventeen-year-old drummer
Jason Marsalis to join him. The
youngest son of pianist Ellis Marsalis
and brother of Wynton and Branford,
Marsalis was another child prodigy
who has been playing drums since the
age of three. In 1995, bassist,
composer, and arranger Roland Guerin
completed the trio, and their unique
interpretive style was born. Their most
recent recording, “Cole After Midnight,”
a collection of arrangements honoring
Nat “King” Cole and Cole Porter, was
named one of the ten best jazz CDs of
the year by the New York Times.
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The BWO was founded in 2002 under
the direction of Neal Hampton, who
serves on the faculty at both
institutions. “I had been conducting the
orchestra at Brandeis for about five
years when I was invited to conduct
the Wellesley College Orchestra,” he
explains. “When I brought the two
ensembles together for a Mahler
concert, it became clear that we could
provide a much richer experience for
the students if we combined the talents
and resources of both schools.”
emotionally and is crucial to a liberal
arts education,” says Hampton. “I
program important works from the
eighteenth century through the present
time that I feel the students will find
exciting and challenging. I think it’s
vital to give musicians the experience
of working with living composers.”
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This year’s Leonard Bernstein Festival
of the Creative Arts culminates in a
concert of music by Bernstein and
Gershwin performed by one of the
finest student ensembles in New
England, the Brandeis-Wellesley
Orchestra (BWO). They are joined for
the gala event by the renowned
Marcus Roberts Trio.
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Brandeis, Wellesley, Bernstein…
and All That Jazz
The Rose Art
Museum
Home to one of New
England’s finest
collections of modern
and contemporary art,
The Rose offers
exhibitions of
innovative
international,
national, and regional
artists, and works
from its 8,000-piece
permanent collection.
Admission is $3; free
to the Brandeis
community and to
members. Open
Tuesday–Sunday,
12:00–5:00 pm. For
more information,
visit www.brandeis.
edu/rose or call
781-736-3434.
Winter 2006 Exhibitions
Opening Reception: January 18,
6:00 pm
Dana Schutz:
Paintings 2002–2005
January 19–April 9
Lois Foster Wing
Witty, horrific, and intriguing,
this young artist’s ecstatically
imaginative paintings have
quickly established her as one
of the leading talents of our
time. “My paintings are
loosely based on metanarratives,” says Schutz. “The
pictures float in and out of
pictorial genres. Still lifes
become personified, portraits
become events, and
landscapes become
constructions. I embrace the
area between which the
subject is composed and
decomposing, formed and
formless, inanimate and alive.”
Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002–
2005 is partly funded by the
The Ruth Ann and Nathan
Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence
Award and The Rose
Membership Program.
“Post” and After: Contemporary
Art from the Brandeis University
Collection
September 15, 2005–
April 9, 2006
The Rose Building
An investigation into the
afterlife of the once all-defining
concept of postmodernism
through highlights from our
permanent collection.
Oliver Herring: On the Cusp
January 19–March 4
Mildred S. Lee Gallery
This politically charged
installation unveils Herring’s
most recent series of
astonishing and enigmatic
photo-sculptures. The artist
painstakingly photographs his
models from all possible angles
over long periods of time, then
cuts and pastes these
photographs onto life-size
sculptural forms to create
astonishing three-dimensional
portraits.
Leon, 2005
By Oliver Herring
The Rose Events
Meet the Artist:
Oliver Herring
Thursday, January 19, 7:00 pm
New York-based artist Oliver
Herring will discuss his
creative process and his work
in sculpture, photography, and
video. RSVP required to
molinard@brandeis.edu or
781-736-3438.
Inside the Vault:
A Tour for New Members
Thursday, January 26, 7:00 pm
New members are invited for a
special vault tour of The Rose’s
extraordinary permanent
collection.
Meet the Director:
Michael Rush
Saturday, February 4, 2:00 pm
The Rose’s new Henry and Lois
Foster Director, Michael Rush,
offers a personal tour of the
exhibitions.
Spring/Summer 2006
Exhibitions
Song, Memory, and
Transformation
Saturday, February 11, 7:00 pm
A lecture on the new folk-song
movement in Latin America by
poet and human rights activist
Marjorie Agosin prior to the
Sol y Canto concert in
Slosberg Music Center. The
museum will be open from
12:00–8:00 pm.
Food for Thought Luncheon
Wednesday, February 22,
11:00 am
A gallery talk on Dana Schutz’s
paintings, followed by lunch at
The Rose. Free to arts
members at Patron level or
above; $12 for all other
members; $15 for nonmembers. RSVP by February 15
to mlouca@brandeis.edu or
781-736-3432.
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Saturday, March 4, 2:00 pm
Insight into the exhibitions
from Rose curator Raphaela
Platow.
Meet the Artist:
Dana Schutz
Wednesday, March 15,
7:00 pm
Ms. Schutz discusses her
creative process and invites
you into the world of her
paintings. RSVP required to
molinard@brandeis.edu or
781-736-3438.
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Saturday, April 1, 2:00 pm
Take a closer look at the art
on display with Stéphanie
Molinard, director of
education.
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, April 26, 6:00 pm
Sarah Walker: Paintings
April 27–July 30
Mildred S. Lee Gallery
In her first solo exhibition,
Boston painter Sarah Walker
encapsulates numerous
spatial systems based on
patterns and diagrams found
within the sciences,
technology, nature, and
architecture, as well as the
virtual spaces of the Internet
and the mind. “How does the
mind consolidate an image
that combines both the
physical and the virtual?” asks
Walker. “How does it manage
to have the visual terms of
both the inner and outer
landscapes coexist
simultaneously? I aim to build
a new set of terms for thinking
and being.”
I Love My Time. I Don’t Like
My Time: Recent Works by
Erwin Wurm
April 27–July 30
Lois Foster Wing, The Rose
Building Austrian-born Erwin Wurm has
gained an international
reputation for his darkly
comical vision that challenges
traditional notions of sculpture,
photography, performance art,
and drawing. His popular “One
Minute Sculptures” invite
audiences to participate in the
creation of temporary
sculpture by using their own
bodies. The centerpiece of the
exhibition is “Fat House,” an
impossibly voluptuous edifice
made to stand as a life-sized
house.
Men’s Retreat, 2005
By Dana Schutz
Symposium on Sources of
Creativity
Thursday, April 27, 2:30 pm
Sponsored by the Women’s
Studies Research Center;
moderated by Rosie
Rosenzweig.
Meet the Artist:
Erwin Wurm
Thursday, April 27, 7:00 pm
RSVP required to molinard@
brandeis.edu or 781-736-3438.
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Saturday, May 6, 2:00 pm
Discover more about artist
Sarah Walker.
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Saturday, June 3, 2:00 pm
Insight into the work of artist
Erwin Wurm.
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Saturday, July 1, 2:00 pm
Take a closer look with
Stéphanie Molinard, director
of education.
Morpho Archipelago, 2004
By Sarah Walker
Fat House, 2003
By Erwin Wurm
Transforming the History of Art
Department of Fine Arts
Exhibitions
Experience the talents of a
gifted new generation of
studio artists. Exhibitions are
held in the Dreitzer Gallery at
the Spingold Theater Center,
and are free and open to the
public.
Collaboration
March 2–17
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, March 1, 6:00 pm
Multimedia work from
intermediate studio classes.
Future Dimensions:
The Sculpture Show
March 23–April 7
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, March 22, 6:00 pm
Traditional forms meet new
media to explore current and
future dimensions of
sculpture.
The Post-Baccalaureate
Exhibition
April 27–May 7
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, April 26, 6:00 pm
The accomplished postbaccalaureate studio artists
exhibit painting, sculpture,
drawing, and printmaking to
launch the Leonard Bernstein
Festival of the Creative Arts.
This year brings the
publication of three
pioneering new books
by art history faculty
in the Department of
Fine Arts.
The Origins of Medieval
Architecture
By Charles B. McClendon
Associate Professor of
Medieval Art and Architecture
This book is the first devoted
to the important innovations
in architecture that took place
in western Europe between
the death of Emperor
Justinian in 565 C.E. and the
tenth century. During the
period of transition from late
antiquity to the Middle Ages,
the Early Christian basilica
was transformed in both form
and function. Dr. McClendon
draws on rich documentary
evidence and archaeological
data to show that the
buildings of these three
centuries, studied in isolation
but rarely together, set
substantial precedents for the
future of medieval architecture.
The Senior Show: Art of
the Class of 2006
May 9–May 22
Opening Reception:
Monday, May 8, 6:00 pm
A celebration of the
graduating class of
exceptional studio artists in a
multimedia exhibition.
Charles B. McClendon
(top), Aida Yuen Wong
(middle), Jonathan
Unglaub
Dr. McClendon: “I became
increasingly frustrated by the
state of scholarship on the
architecture of early medieval
Europe. Although there are a
wealth of specialized studies,
most exhibit a rather narrow,
nationalistic focus. I felt that
the innovations of the period
were being overlooked and set
out to write the book I always
wanted to read on the topic.
Completing the volume
involved years of study and
travel, and I am particularly
proud that the vast majority of
the 210 photographs and
drawings are my own. The text
is intended both as an
introduction to anyone
interested in medieval
architecture and as a guide to
more specialized literature for
those pursuing further
investigations.”
Parting the Mists:
Discovering Japan and the
Rise of National-Style
Painting in Modern China
By Aida Yuen Wong
Assistant Professor of
Asian Art
Poussin and the Poetics of
Painting: Pictorial
Narrative and the Legacy
of Tasso
By Jonathan Unglaub
Assistant Professor of
Renaissance and Baroque Art
The first book in English
devoted to Sino-Japanese
dialogues in modern art,
Parting the Mists explores the
sensitive phenomenon of
Japanism in the practice and
theory of Chinese painting.
Dr. Wong provides a
methodologically agile study
that sheds light on multiple
spheres: stylistic and
iconographic innovations,
history writing, art theory,
patronage and the market,
geopolitics, the creation of
artists’ societies, and
exhibitions. She provides a
nuanced reading of Chinese
views about Japan and the
two countries’ convergent,
and often colliding, courses of
nationalism.
This book offers new insight
into the relationship between
painting and literary culture in
the seventeenth century,
specifically between Nicolas
Poussin, the founder of French
Classicism, and Torquato Tasso,
the preeminent poet of the
Renaissance. Tasso’s poetic
discourses were the most
important source for Poussin’s
theory of painting. The poet’s
ideas on imitation, novelty,
and plot structure guided
Poussin’s goal to reconcile
narrative duration and
pictorial unity, culminating in
his painting “Israelites
Gathering Manna.” This
interplay of poetic and
painterly imagery also
animates Poussin’s
masterpieces, “Echo and
Narcissus” and “The Realm of
Flora.”
Dr. Wong: “We are living in a
world where national
boundaries are constantly
being crossed, while the sense
of nationhood as a constitutive
aspect of cultural production
shows ever greater strength. I
wanted to explore a period in
Asian history when border
crossing generated a
particularly tension-filled, yet
productive, environment for
artists. The period in question,
1910–1930, has not received
much scholarly attention,
partly due to the ambiguity of
nationalist attitudes among
Chinese and Japanese
painters and the inherent
difficulty in dealing with their
stylistic eclecticism.”
Dr. Unglaub: “While
researching in the Vatican
library as a Fulbright fellow, I
uncovered a number of poems
with classical themes whose
vivid imagery offered striking
parallels to paintings by
Poussin. I became fascinated
with how Poussin, the supreme
storyteller in the history of art,
transformed not only narrative
content but properly poetic
forms, such as metaphor, into
visual terms. In his paintings
of Tasso’s epic verse, Poussin
cultivated pictorial means to
refashion the poet’s
metaphors of desire.”
Arts Research at Brandeis
International Center for
Ethics, Justice and Public Life
Creative Approaches to
Coexistence and Reconciliation
is an action/research initiative
of the Slifka Program in
Intercommunal Coexistence. It
explores ways in which the
arts and cultural traditions can
bridge differences and mediate
conflicts.
The Art of Building Peace:
Lecture/Conversation
Series
Explore how visual arts,
theater, and cultural work
contribute to coexistence and
reconciliation. Hosted by
Cynthia Cohen, director of
coexistence research at
Brandeis. Events are free and
open to the public and include:
Wen-ti Tsen
Weave and Warp: Considering
Community Memories and Art
Wednesday, February 1
Wen-ti Tsen is a visual artist
who will discuss creativity and
the moral imagination in
relation to two public art
installations—one realized and
one imagined—each
addressing contested memory
in the legacy of violence.
Leonard Bernstein Festival
of the Creative Arts at Brandeis
Women’s Studies Research
Center
Catherine Filloux
Wandering Souls: Ritual and
Theatre in the Cambodian
Context
Wednesday, March 8
Conversation with this awardwinning playwright will follow
a reading of her Photographs
of S-21 and a slide
presentation of Notes on the
Pchum Ben, a working paper
by Brandeis International
Fellow Ly Daravuth.
Lisa Schirch
Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws:
Designing Peacebuilding
Rituals
Wednesday, April 5
Lisa Schirch, associate
professor of peacebuilding at
Eastern Mennonite University,
will tell stories about her work
in conflict regions around the
world.
For a complete schedule and
details, visit www.brandeis.
edu/programs/Slifka/events/
index.html.
Creative Resources for
Coexistence and
Reconciliation:
A Virtual Resource Center
(VRC)
This pioneering online
resource offers a forum to
share information and create
partnerships within a global
network of artists,
peacebuilders, scholars,
students, educators, and
policymakers. The VRC
includes working papers and
portfolios of the Brandeis
International Fellows, a group
of artists working in Australia,
Burundi, Cambodia, Sri Lanka,
and South Africa. For more
information, please visit
www.brandeis.edu/go/
CreateCoexistence.
Research, art, and activism
converge at the Women’s
Studies Research Center
(WSRC), home to the Kniznick
Gallery—the only exhibition
space in New England devoted
to women’s art. Exhibitions are
linked to the research
conducted by the WSRC’s
sixty-five scholars and artists.
Free and open to the public
weekdays from 9:00 am to
5:00 pm. For more
information, call 781-736-8100
or visit www.brandeis.edu/
centers/wsrc.
Vital Voices:
Women’s Visions
February 7–March 31
Opening Reception: Tuesday,
February 7, 5:30 pm
A multimedia juried exhibition
that explores questions about
the lives of women. How are
women affected by the social
constructions of gender?
Curated by Wendy Tarlow
Kaplan and Raphaela Platow,
and presented in conjunction
with the Boston conference for
the Women’s Caucus for Art.
An Evening with Madame F
Sunday, March 19, 3:00 pm
Slosberg Music Center
WSRC visiting scholar Claudia
Stevens combines her
experiences as a pianist,
singer, actor, and daughter of
Holocaust survivors in this
powerful solo performance.
Adopting the persona of an
elderly musician who
performed at Auschwitz,
Stevens uses music and
firsthand accounts to depict
the ethical dilemma of those
who survived through music
performance. Free and open to
the public.
The Festival of the Creative
Arts at Brandeis was founded
in 1952 by the great American
composer and Brandeis
faculty member Leonard
Bernstein. In 2005, the festival
was renamed in his honor. It
is dedicated to his belief that
“the art of an era is a reflection
of the society in which it is
produced, and through
creative endeavors the
thoughts and expression
which characterize each
generation are revealed and
transformed.”
From April 26 to 30, Brandeis
celebrates the creativity of our
students, faculty, alumni, and
professional guest artists
through concerts, plays, and
art exhibitions across campus.
Highlights include:
Wednesday, April 26
Festival Opening Ceremony
Opening of spring exhibitions
at The Rose Art Museum and
by post-baccalaureate studio
artists.
Thursday, April 27
Symposium on Sources of
Creativity
The Big Dig of 1506:
Commemorating the 500th
Anniversary of the
Groundbreaking of Saint
Peter’s in the Vatican
Meet the Artist: Irwin Wurm at
The Rose Art Museum
Friday, April 28
The Bacchae
Symposium and opening
night performance
Saturday, April 29
Top Score Concert
Boris’ Kitchen Sketch Comedy
Festival
Sunday, April 30
Performing Arts Festival
Throughout the afternoon,
more than 200 actors, singers,
dancers, and musicians will
perform in locations across
the Brandeis campus.
The festival concludes with an
evening concert by the
Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra
and the Marcus Roberts Trio.
For a complete schedule, visit
www.brandeis.edu/arts/
festival.
Membership to the Arts at Brandeis
The Arts at Brandeis Membership
Consider joining the Arts at Brandeis
Program supports and sustains the
community. A complete list of arts
creative excellence of Brandeis
members and donors will be listed in
University’s arts programs and events,
the fall 2006 issue of State of the Arts.
including The Rose Art Museum, the
Your membership contribution is taxBrandeis Theater Company, and the
deductible.
Brandeis Concert Season. Ticket sales
cannot cover the increasing cost of
Arts Associates
performances and exhibitions. As a
Gifts of $125–$249
member, you can help bring Brandeis
Value of Benefits ($85)
arts events to more than 30,000 people • Rose membership: complimentary
annually, many of whom are
admission, invitations to opening
experiencing the arts for the first time.
events, reduced admission to member
Members are active participants in the
events
artistic life of Brandeis‚ with special
• Four complimentary tickets to the
benefits that give them unique insight
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
and access. For more information
Concert Season (subject to availability)
about membership, contact Moira
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
Louca at 781-736-3434.
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
Corporate membership demonstrates
your company’s regional commitment
to education, community, and the arts.
Businesses can increase brand
visibility while providing enjoyable
cultural benefits for their employees
and clients. For more information,
contact Jodee Siegel at 781-736-4049.
Friends of the Arts
Gifts of $250–$499
Value of Benefits ($115)
• Rose membership (see previous) plus
free admission to the Looking Circle
Series
• Six complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
Patrons of the Arts
Gifts of $500–$999
Value of Benefits ($170)
• Rose membership (see previous) plus
free admission to the Food for Thought
luncheons
• Eight complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
Benefactors Circle
Gifts of $1,000–$2,499
Value of Benefits ($230)
• Rose membership (see previous)
• Twelve complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
Lois and Henry Foster (top); Sandra
and Gerald Fineberg
Arts at Brandeis Calendar Highlights, Winter/Spring 2006
Angels Circle
Gifts of $2,500–$4,999
Value of Benefits ($230)
• Rose membership (see previous)
• Twelve complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
• An invitation to attend rehearsal or
enjoy a private Rose tour and reception
upon request
Directors Circle
Gifts of $5,000 and Up
Value of Benefits ($230)
• Rose membership (see previous)
• Twelve complimentary tickets to the
Brandeis Theater Company or Brandeis
Concert Season (subject to availability)
• Acknowledgment in the appropriate
program or lobby, and in State of the Arts
• Invitations of special
interest which may include
a private backstage or
vault tour; or dinner with an
artist, musicians, or actor.
Please send your contribution, payable
to Brandeis University, to: Brandeis University
Arts Membership, MS 126
P.O. Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
Barbara, Malcolm, and Robin Sherman
The Arts at Brandeis would like to
thank Malcolm L. Sherman for his
leadership in developing the Arts at
Brandeis Membership Program.
Ticket Information
Programs, artists, and dates are
subject to change. For updates
and additional arts events, visit
www.brandeis.edu/arts. For
directions to Brandeis University,
call 718-736-4660 or visit www.
brandeis.edu.
Tickets for the Brandeis Theater
Company and the Brandeis Concert
Season may be purchased in
advance through Brandeis Tickets,
781-736-3400, or in person at the
box office, Monday–Friday,
10:00 am–4:00 pm. Advance
reservations recommended. Any
person requiring special or
wheelchair accommodations
should contact the box office at
781-736-3400.
Admission to The Rose Art
Museum is $3; free to the Brandeis
community, and to members of The
Rose. The Rose is open Tuesday–
Sunday, noon–5:00 pm. For more
information or to become a
member, visit www.brandeis.edu/
rose or call 781-736-3434.
The Women’s Studies Research
Center is open to the public
Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm.
There is no charge for admission.
Visit www.brandeis.edu/centers/
wsrc or call 781-736-8120 for more
information.
Jan 19-Apr 9
Ongoing
Dana Schutz: Paintings; and “Post” and After
Rose Art Museum
Jan 19-Mar 4
Ongoing
Oliver Herring: On the Cusp
Rose Art Museum
January 19
Thursday
7:00 pm
Meet the Artist: Oliver Herring
Rose Art Museum
January 26
Thursday
7:00 pm
Inside the Vault: A Tour for New Members
Rose Art Museum
January 28
Saturday
8:00 pm
Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Center
February 1
Wednesday
Noon
Lydian Wednesday
Rapaporte Hall
February 4
Saturday
8:00 pm
New Music Brandeis Slosberg Center
February 4
Saturday
2:00 pm
Meet the Director: Michael Rush
Rose Art Museum
February 7
Tuesday
4:30 pm
In Women’s Hands
Pollack
Feb 7-Mar 31
Ongoing
Vital Voices: Women’s Visions
WSRC
February 9-19
Ongoing
The Suicide
Laurie Theater
February 11
Saturday
7:00 pm
Song, Memory and Transformation
Rose Art Museum
February 11
Saturday
8:00 pm
Sol y Canto
Slosberg Center
February 14
Tuesday
4:30 pm
Threads of Hope
Pollack
February 22
Wednesday
11:00 am
Food for Thought Luncheon
Rose Art Museum
February 28
Tuesday
4:30 pm
Machuca
Pollack
March 1-17
Ongoing
Collaboration
Dreitzer Gallery
March 1
Wednesday
Noon
Lydian Wednesday
Rapaporte Hall
March 4
Saturday
2:00 pm
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Rose Art Museum
March 5
Sunday
3:00 pm
Brandeis Wellesley Orchestra: Catch a Rising Star
Slosberg Center
March 11
Saturday
8:00 pm
Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Center
March 15
Wednesday
7:00 pm
Meet the Artist: Dana Schutz
Rose Art Museum
March 16-26
Ongoing
Things Beyond Our Control
Laurie Theater
March 18
Saturday
8:00 pm
New Music Brandeis Slosberg Center
March 19
Sunday
3:00 pm
An Evening with Madame F
Slosberg Center
Mar 22-Apr 7
Ongoing
Future Dimensions: The Sculpture Show
Dreitzer Gallery
April 1
Saturday
2:00 pm
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Rose Art Museum
April 1
Saturday
8:00 pm
New Music Brandeis Slosberg Center
April 2
Sunday
3:00 pm
Brandeis Wind Ensemble
Slosberg Center
April 4
Saturday
2:00 pm
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Rose Art Museum
April 5
Wednesday
Noon
Lydian Wednesday
Rapaporte Hall
April 8
Saturday
8:00 pm
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble
Slosberg Center
April 9
Sunday
3:00 pm
University Chorus and Choir Concert
Slosberg Center
April 9
Sunday
7:00 pm
Brandeis Jazz Ensemble
Slosberg Center
April 26-30
Wed-Sun
Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts
April 26-May 7
Ongoing
The Post-Baccalaureate Exhibition
Dreitzer Gallery
April 26-July 30 Ongoing
Erwin Wurm and Sarah Walker
Rose Art Museum
April 27
Thursday
2:30 pm
Source of Creativity Panel Discussion
Rose Art Museum
State of the Arts
Volume 2, Number 2
April 27
Thursday
5:00 pm
The Big Dig of 1506
Pollack
April 27
Thursday
7:00 pm
Meet the Artist: Irwin Wurm
Rose Art Museum
Brandeis University
Jehuda Reinharz, Ph.D. ’72, President
Marty Wyngaarden Krauss, Provost
April 27-May 7
Ongoing
The Bacchae
Outdoors
April 29
Saturday
8:00 pm
Boris’ Kitchen
Shapiro Theater
April 30
Sunday
1:00-5:00
Performance Festival
Various
Produced by the Office of the Arts
Scott Edmiston, Director
Shane Hudson, Program Coordinator
Published by the Office of Communications
Lorna Miles Whalen, Senior Vice President
Charles Dunham, Design Director
Mike Lovett, University Photographer
Lisa M. Goodman, Publications Editor April 30
Sunday
7:00 pm
Brandeis Wellesley Orchestra: The Marcus Roberts Trio Spingold Center
May 1
Monday
8:00 pm
Improvisation Ensemble Slosberg Center
May 2
Tuesday
7:00 pm
Chamber Music Ensemble
Slosberg Center
May 6
Saturday
2:00 pm
Inside View: Gallery Talk
Rose Art Museum
May 8-22
Ongoing
The Senior Show: Art of the Class of 2006
Dreitzer Gallery
Brandeis University
Office of the Arts
MS 051
P.O. Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
The Arts at Brandeis are made
possible by the generous support of
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
Consulting Engineers
Nonprofit Organization
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Paid
Boston, MA
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