Summer Arts Initiative

Posted 09/04/02

Students on campus for the summer term sampled an expanded series of performances and workshops at the Hopkins Center as part of the Act Out! arts initiative sponsored by President James Wright.

The summer series allowed students to do hands-on work with artists known for their multidisciplinary or interactive approaches. Workshops in videography, hip-hop dance, experimental theater, and performance art involved students in the creative process, with many of the visiting artists integrating student creations into their final performances.

"With the workshops, the idea was to reach out to students who are not otherwise involved in the arts," says Kathleen Corrigan, an art history professor who headed the faculty committee.

The series began with performance artist Laurie Anderson in late June, followed by a workshop, performance, and lecture by Allan Kaprow, considered to be one of the forerunners of performance art. A two-day workshop led by experimental filmmaker Peter Rose gave students an opportunity to make their own videos. Hip-hop phenom Clyde Evans taught a series of dance workshops that culminated in a performance by the participants in early August. Closing out the summer program will be an experimental theater workshop with Lisa D'Amour, which will result in a performance installation.

Faculty from art history, theater, music, studio art, and film and television studies helped plan the program, with input from other offices around campus as well.

The arts initiative also helped sponsor other nonperformance-related activities. The 1973 PBS documentary An American Family was shown over the course of several weeks during the summer, and a group of storytellers from China visited in early July.

Planning for next year's summer arts initiative, tentatively themed Arts and the Environment, is already underway.