From Dreamland to Dystopia, With Jolts of Joy
Spring 2023 arts events announced
The start of a new semester brings a fresh calendar of public arts events. This spring, Dickinson has a bounty of thoughtful creative work on tap.
The college celebrates talented students and faculty through the spring Dance Theatre Group concert, senior art & art-history exhibitions, faculty recitals and a return to campus for music alumnus George Bowerman ’12, who’ll perform solo piano works by Handel, Beethoven and Brahms.
The Carlisle Project (Feb. 18) shines a light on the fraught history of Indigenous peoples in Carlisle. This new song cycle by Ronee Penoi (music/lyrics) and Annalisa Dias (lyrics) uses song, satire and ceremony to tell the story of generational trauma inflicted through the Carlisle Indian School and also explores what it means to be Native American today.
Native Americans, immigrants and refugees living in Idaho are the focus of an exhibition co-curated, and including works by, Visiting Lecturer in Art & Art History Andy Bale, in concert with faculty from the University of Delaware and Boise State University. Arrivals: What’s Left Behind, What Lies Ahead (April 6 to May 5) records and disseminates their stories through video, audio and large-format black-and-white photographs.
Craving more joy in your life? For the first time, the Dickinson College Choir and Orchestra join forces this spring to perform Beethoven’s famous Symphony No. 9, “Ode to Joy.” The program will also feature cellist Amelia Harper ’25, winner of the annual student concerto competition, and Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei and Jonathan Dove's "Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars," featuring Dickinson’s new faculty member in organ, Hannah Koby.
Dickinson is a dreamland March 31 to April 2, during a residency with the inventive family singing group The HawtPlates. The Bronx-based artists (Justin Hicks, Jade Hicks and Kenita Miller-Hicks) will collaborate with students on a new electro-acoustic work that uses found sound, electronics, vocals and choreography to evoke a “Dream Feed” that takes cues from dream sequences from avant-garde cinema and from the Afro-surrealism.
Not in love with the modern world? You are not alone. Nine contemporary artists exhibit works on this theme. The exhibition includes work by Lolo Gem, Faith Icecold, Wayson Jones, Grace Lee Lawrence, Giulia Livi, Jenny Reed, Kate Sable, David Ubias and You Wu. A dystopian America—where every viewer is implicated as a potential character in the story—is the subject of recent work by Mark Thomas Gibson, who comes to Dickinson to deliver the 2023 Jane L. and Robert H. Weiner Lecture in the Arts. Gibson is an artist and professor, Pew Fellow (Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia) and 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship awardee from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
The 24th poet laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, visits campus Feb. 15-16 to serve a residency through the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program. Limón, who was named Dickinson's 2023 Stellfox Scholar last fall, will give a public reading, attend the Stellfox ceremony and book signing and meet with classes and small groups of students.
Discover more inspiring and provoking art events through the Calendar of Arts.
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Published January 23, 2023