The Arts
Past Events
This annual Advent service at the Vassar College Chapel features readings, choral anthems, and congregational carols, culminating in a candle lighting ceremony. Vassar College Choir, Chamber Singers and Treble Chorus, and Cappella Festiva Chamber Choir will perform.
Music by Bernstein, Auerbach, Prokofiev, and Kovács.
Join us for our 20-30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program. Eduardo Navega, director.
James Osborn, director
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Drew Minter, conductor
Eduardo Navega, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
These are the first performances by VRDT for the 2024/25 season. Each evening features jazz, ballet, modern and contemporary choreography by faculty and students. The world premiere of guest choreographer Darrell Grand Moultrie will also be showcased during this performance. Reservations required.
Join us for our 20-30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program. Eduardo Navega, director
The Ghost Sonata (1907) by seminal Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849–1912), translation by Evert Sprinchorn, follows a young man’s increasing realization of the world’s wickedness. Open to the public. Reservations are required.
Artist and MacArthur Fellow Nicole Eisenman will discuss her work.
The Film Department and Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies presents a screening of some of Peggy Ahwesh’s short films, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Carl Elsaesser.
Campus community only, please.
Mae M. Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at Columbia University, is a U.S. legal and political historian interested in the histories of immigration, citizenship, nationalism, and the Chinese diaspora. This event is open to the public.
Eduardo Navega, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Join us for our 20-30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program. Eduardo Navega, director
Whitehead has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Open to the public, no reservations required.
James Osborn, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Susan Bialek, conductor
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
An Agnes Rindge Claflin Lecture by New Yorker magazine staff writer and critic Hilton Als.
Join us for our 20-30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program. Eduardo Navega, director.
Laments and farewells in Gaelic and Scots from the 16th–18th century Scottish Highland repertoire for voice and harp, composed, collected or inspired by women. James Ruff, Tenor & Early Gaelic Harp.
A different take on the music for harpsichord, with guitar and violin. The program includes music by Bach, Martinû, Milhaud, Wilson, and others. Marija Ilić, harpsichord, Roberto Granados, guitar, Anna Elashvili, violin.
A harp, viola, and flute program of works by primarily modern and contemporary composers inspired by the natural world. The Walden Trio: Chelsea Lane, harp, Ginevra Petrucci, flute, Maren Rothfritz, viola.
A play and a senior Drama project.
Campus guests only, please.
Reservations required: please contact boxoffice@vassar.edu.
Palmer Gallery exhibit. Artist’s Reception: Nov. 1, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) is an acclaimed multidisciplinary artist whose work has long advocated for recognition of historic and ongoing forms of oppression of Indigenous peoples in the US and globally.
Join alum Jonathan Silberberg, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer, for an engaging discussion about the challenges and rewards of a career in documentary filmmaking and how the field is rapidly transforming today.
Artist and publisher Drew Leventhal will present on his photographic work, including his publishing practice and research into emerging theories of visual ethnography. Q&A to follow.
Matthew Hunter, Professor of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, will give a lecture on his new study.
Novuyo Tshuma will give a lecture and read excerpts from her novel Digging Stars.
The eVoco Voice Collective is an award-winning collection of singers of the highest musical, technical, and expressive abilities whose shared mission is to invite listeners into the extraordinary experience of singing, together. They are passionate advocates for excellence in the choral & vocal art. David Fryling, conductor.
Explore technology’s impact on reproductive rights in this conversation with Kiana Tipton from Chat with Charley and Aisha Becker-Burrowes from FEMINIST. This event is organized in conjunction with the Loeb’s current exhibition, Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency.
An Agnes Rindge Claflin Lecture by Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in painting and graphics of Northern Europe.
The Film Department will be hosting a screening of Yance Ford’s new film Power, which traces the accumulation of money, the consolidation of political power, and the nearly unrestricted bipartisan support that has created the institution of policing as we know it. Followed by a Q&A with the director moderated by Professor Mia Mask.
New York City-based artist Paul Pfeiffer has been working in video, photography, installation, and sculpture since the late 1990s. Known for his innovative and sculptural manipulation of digital media, Pfeiffer recasts the visual language of mass media spectacle to examine how images shape our awareness of ourselves and the world.
This film chronicles the arc of a family across history, geography and tragedy—from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City.
A recital of music in, or in opposition to, the key of C. Thomas Sauer, piano.
Eduardo Navega, conductor.
This is an in-person event that will also be streamed live
Visual artist Mimi Czajka Graminski and poet Sarah Stern create a magnetic pull between their two art forms in this Palmer Gallery exhibit. Artists’ Reception: Oct. 10, 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Hutchinson, the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities at Cornell University, is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other awrads. Free and open to the public.
This exhibition of contemporary art explores the psychological, physical, and emotional realities encountered by women and people assigned female at birth in the years leading up to, during, and after fertility. Artists Krista Franklin and Joanne Leonard will be in conversation with exhibition curators Karen Irvine and Kristin Taylor.
Join the Office of Student Growth & Engagement, the Engaged Pluralism program, and the Office of Community Engaged Learning-Vassar Votes, for a film screening of The Young Vote.
A reading of a play by Foster Schrader ’25, recipient of the Marilyn Swartz Seven ’69 Annual Playwriting Award, Spring ’24. A reception will follow.
Campus guests only, please. Reservations required.
Celebrate the arts and artists of Poughkeepsie, NY this September! Visit over 30 local artists, makers, and creators at galleries, artist studios, and creative spaces. Learn more at poughkeepsieopenstudios.org.
This special sale, sponsored by the Haiti Project, will showcase over 200 original and affordable paintings while raising funds for education programs in rural Haiti.
A lecture by Seth Whidden, Professor of French Literature and Fellow of The Queen’s College of the University of Oxford.
Campus community only, please.
Dr. Shapiro will be speaking about his new book, The Playbook, which documents the history of the Federal Theater Project (1935–1939). The project was helmed by Vassar’s own Hallie Flanagan, under whose stewardship the Vassar Drama Department was first established.
Campus community only, please. Reservations required.
This year’s Dr. Maurice Sitomer Lecture, presented by the Jewish Studies Program, will be a concert given by Victoria Hanna, a Jerusalem-based international voice artist.
Valid form of ID required.
Original works for trio and American Songbook featuring longtime trio partners Nick Hetko, piano, Rich Syracuse, double bass, and Jeff “Siege” Siegel, drums.
Part of a three-day conference (Sept. 13–15) devoted to Hudson Valley landscape, the program at Vassar will include a panel moderated by President Bradley, a lecture by Professor of Art Yvonne Elet, lunch on the Olmsted-designed Chapel lawn, and more!
Registration Required
With compelling cinematography and commentary, this documentary presents the biography of a man whose parks and preservation are an essential part of American life. Movie snacks included!