Division of Creative Arts news & updates | January 2023

Photo: Spring Awakening, November 2023, presented by the Department of Theater Arts

Dear Colleagues,

Happy 2023! Let me extend a warm welcome to the Spring semester and share with you the latest news and events from the Division of the Creative Arts. As the new Head of the Division, I invite you to discover the inspiration for your projects and extracurricular life, by exploring the many different ways that Fine Arts, Music, Theater Arts, and CAST are changing the way we see and experience the world around us.

Many of you already know me, but please allow a brief self-introduction. I have been on the faculty at Brandeis since 2000, researching and teaching Asian art history with a particular focus on transnationalism. My scholarship revolves around Sino-Japanese, Indo-Japanese, Taiwanese, and Asian-French connections in modern art. In my spare time, I enjoy playing the piano and designing jewelry based on my own calligraphy. I would love to know more about your passions too. Please feel free to drop by my office, which is located on the second floor of the Mandel Center for the Humanities.

Don't forget: Faculty and staff in the Division of Creative Arts, as well as senior administration in the School of Arts and Sciences, receive free admission to ticketed performances. Bring your 2022-23 arts pass to Brandeis Tickets in the Shapiro Campus Center or Usdan Game Room or at the venue box office to pick your two free tickets. If you did not receive your pass last semester, please contact your department administrator or Ingrid Schorr. I hope to see you at many of these events.

With all best wishes,

Aida Yuen Wong

Head of the Division of Creative Arts

Nathan Cummings and Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Chair in Fine Arts, and Professor of Fine Arts and East Asian Studies

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Don't be a stranger! Send us your faculty, staff, student or alumni news using the links on the left. As space allows, we will share announcements on social media and send news items to Brandeis magazine and other outlets.

A Broad Playlist, With Chinese Influences | Brandeis Magazine

The penny dropped for violinist Julia Glenn when she was a high school senior on a performance tour of China with her youth orchestra.

Tableaux for a Troubled World | Brandeis Magazine

Assistant professor Sheida Soleimani’s photo collages ask us to consider the suffering of oppressed people — and our part in it.

IN BRIEF

To Speak Upon the Ashes: On Peter Sacks' 'Resistance' (featuring the Rose Art Museum)

Library announces 2022 music commissions from Koussevitzky Foundation (featuring Eric Chasalow)

Finding her sound through the viola da gamba (featuring Sarah Mead)

Reclaiming cultures through dance (featuring Toni Shapiro-Phim)

From Kabuki theaters and Shinto shrines, Mitsu Salmon brings butoh to Brandeis

Iranian Artists Bring a Public Art Show About the Protest Movement to New York City (featuring Sheida Soleimani)

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Alicia Hyland, after 18 years in the department of Theater Arts, has a new role as assistant dean for faculty affairs in the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Deborah Rosenstein, who has served as concert program manager in the Department of Music since 2013, is the new senior academic administrator in Theater Arts.
On leave in spring 2023: Karen Desmond, Peter Kalb (FA), Tom King (CAST), Charles McClendon (FA) and Joe Wardwell (FA).
Jonathan Unglaub will serve as co-chair of Fine Arts beginning in spring 2023.
Eric Chasalow is interim chair of Music for spring 2023.

March 13 – 18 | MusicUnitesUS Presents Jomion & the Uklos

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Use your Division of Creative Arts pass for two free tickets to plays and concerts! For more events, visit brandeis.edu/events.

February 9-July 2 | Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love

Rose Art Museum, Lois Foster Wing

Opening reception: Wednesday, March 15, time TBA

The first solo presentation of work by photographer Lyle Ashton Harris in New England in more than two decades explores his critical examination of identity and self-portraiture while tracing central themes and formal approaches in his work of the past 35 years.

March 10-12 | Five Doors, One Room

Spingold Theater Center Mainstage

An original dance piece, performed by Brandeis students and guest artists, created and directed by Susan Dibble, professor emeritus of Theater Arts.

March 13 – 18 | MusicUnitesUS Presents Jomion & the Uklos

Campuswide

Artists in residence Jomion & the Uklos create furious rhythms and mystical harmonies at the crossroads of Benin’s traditional Vodoun (voodoo) rhythms, Caribbean styles and jazz.

Saturday, March 25 | Lydian String Quartet

8 pm, Slosberg Music Center (preconcert talk at 7 pm)

Brandeis’ resident quartet performs Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat major, Benjamin Britten's String Quartet No. 3, and the world premiere of LSQ Commission Prizewinner Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon's Duende.

March 22 – April 16 | Post-Baccalaureate Exhibition

Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center

Opening reception: Wednesday, March 22, 5:30-7 pm

April 21-30 | Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts

April 26-May 21 | Class of 2023 Honors Exhibition

Kniznick Gallery, Women's Studies Research Center

May 3-21 | Class of 2023 Senior Studio Exhibition

Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater Center

Opening reception: Wednesday, May 3, 5:30-7 pm

MUSEUM MEMBERSHIPS

For the academic year 2022-23, students, faculty and staff in the Division of Creative Arts have free admission to three world-class art museums: the ICA Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and (new this year) the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. For more information, please visit the Arts Engagement website.

FACULTY FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Need support at any stage of the grant lifecycle? Contact Judy Appel, grant administrator for the School of Arts and Sciences.

Theodore and Jane Norman Awards for Faculty Scholarship: Applications due March 6.
The Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation Applications for course development, community engaged pedagogy and research grants due May 26.

Grants from the Center for Learning and Teaching

STUDENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship: Applications due January 31.
Fisher Explorer Grant for seniors pursuing projects in Fine Arts, Music, or Theater Arts: Applications due February 5.
Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund Applications for summer funding due March 9.
Remis Summer Study Grants in Fine Art and Music due April 30.

Grants with rolling deadlines

Undergraduate Research and Collaborations Office

JOB OPENINGS

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC: Public programs and engagement manager

2022-23 Creative Arts UDRs

CAST: Meli Jackson	Fine Arts: Pilar Duvivier, Aria Smith (Studio Art); Lauren Podhorzer, Angela Sun (Art History); Jennifer Podhorzer (Architectural Studies)
Music: Grace DeRoche, Davina Goodman	Theater Arts: Laya Fridman, Jubin Roh, Kieran Whitney
Lead UDR	Angela Sun

Learn more about the UDRs

Division of Creative Arts Website