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Before spring break, Lucia Gagliardone ’20 put up posters for her Senior Studio performance, “Like Water.” The first dance major at Bowdoin, she wanted the performance to serve as the culmination of her years-long study at Bowdoin, as in any other department.
Dancing outdoors and sharing snapshots of quarantined family life, faculty from the Department of Theater and Dance relayed an exuberant and spirited message to the Bowdoin community last week. With 2,500 views and counting, professors starred in a video cover of The Temptations’ 1960s Motown hit “Can’t Get Next To You,” taking a humorous—albeit important—stance on the social distancing measures prompted by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
As two of the departments most dramatically affected by the transition to remote learning, the Department of Theater and Dance and the Department of Visual Arts have had to substantially restructure courses previously dependent on live performance and in-person collaboration.
Frank Mauceri, senior lecturer in music and coach of Bowdoin’s jazz combos, loves to play music with students. His other, more unconventional combo-partner, however, is his computer. Mauceri merges music with computer science, using machine learning and machine listening to improvise and play songs.
A throne perches atop an eight-foot high platform, an illuminated golden hoop descends from the ceiling and thick lengths of rope frame the stage. This sleek depiction of a castle interior sets the scene for an often-overlooked Shakespearean war drama.
When you walk into the Boyd Gallery on the second floor of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), you encounter “Fast Fashion/Slow Art”—an exhibition that scrutinizes the contemporary garment industry through videos, installations and collaborations with contemporary artists and filmmakers.
How can singing be used as a form of power? The answer, for the singers and instrumentalists in the Women’s Cabaret, is to reclaim women’s identities from historically misogynistic songs, through a process of optimistic reappropriation and celebration of female identity.
There are few, if any, modern folk singers whose discographies and impact on popular music can rival that of Buffy Sainte-Marie. Although she is not as much of a household name as other folk legends such as Bob Dylan or Neil Young, the mark that she has left on the world is arguably just as significant.
Visual Arts major Tala Glass ’20 held up a watermelon-sized model of the final project she had in mind for her advanced studio class. It’s a wood frame structure of a room she intends to make life-size, so that viewers can walk in or around it.
Using artwork to depict the transatlantic slave trade can both resurface trauma and make vivid the resistance of culture and sprituality. Portland-based artist Daniel Minter grapples with both of these realities, using physical forms and patterns of West African motifs as a means to connect the past and present.
In 2006, the midst of the 2000s mainstream pop-punk acts, The Friday Night Boys formed with Bowdoin junior Robert Reider ’07 as its bassist. Fourteen years later—after two albums, three EPs and multiple tours with names such as Boys Like Girls, All Time Low, We The Kings and Cute is What We Aim For—Reider is back at Bowdoin as the assistant director of annual giving at the College.
Rarely does the process of embalming incite romance, but in the Wish Theatre this past Saturday, love bloomed amidst dead bodies and shaving cream. Or, at least, it did for the duration of “Over My Dead Body,” written by Dylan Sloan ’22, Johnny Liesman ‘22 and Elizabeth Gracey ’22, which debuted this past Saturday at Bowdoin’s annual one-act play festival.
The line between a good show and a great show is largely undefinable. How can you quantify fun? M.A.K.U. Soundsystem, a genre-blending band whose music draws from a broad swath of influences spanning from cumbia to psychedelic rock, played a set at Ladd House on Saturday evening.
On Tuesday night, local musicians and music lovers gathered at Frontier to hear a medley of songs and vocals in the cozy theatre tucked into the old mill at the end of Maine Street. Michael Gilroy opened Frontier in Fort Andross in 2006, with a mission to “connect the world through food, arts and culture.” The business strives to do this through its restaurant, coffee bar, event spaces and theater, used for a variety of community gatherings.
On Wednesday evening, Harrison King McCann Professor of English Marylin Reizbaum discussed her latest book—one that took her 10 years to complete. “Unfit: Jewish Degeneration in Modernism” examines the manifestations of degeneration theory in Jewish artwork.
Tiken Jah Fakoly, born Doumbia Moussa, is an internationally renowned Ivorian reggae singer from Odienné, a town in the northwestern region of the Ivory Coast. Heavily inspired by Alpha Blondy, another Ivorian reggae star from the 1980s, Fakoly began his musical career at the age of 18, secretly composing songs that he hid from his strict Muslim family.
“A party for the people.” That is what the Latin band MAKU Soundsystem promises its audiences. This Saturday night, the New York-based band will be bringing that party to Ladd House in a performance organized by WBOR in collaboration with the Latin American Student Association (LASO).
“Pasado y Presente: Twentieth-Century Photographs of a Changing Mexico” is the first Latin America-focused exhibition featured at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) in the past 15 years. The collection of photographs, curated by Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Carolyn Wolfenzon Niego’s intermediate Spanish class, opened on January 7 and will be on display through March.
At first glance, the lower floor of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) looks like any other art exhibition: paintings, drawings, statues and other various forms of artwork are scattered throughout, set against yellow walls and accompanied by plaques detailing each piece’s history and artistry.
Through the exhibit “Colorful Arctic: Donald B. MacMillan’s Lantern Slides,” the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum showcases its collection of MacMillan’s hand-tinted glass slides. Lining the museum’s entrance are large photographs of snowy landscapes, rare portraiture of Northwest Inuits and behind the scenes photos of MacMillan’s adventures—among them, a near-shipwreck so dramatic that it seems like a painting upon first glance.
Promising dazzling choreography and powerful theatrical pieces, the theater and dance department will bring the fall semester to a close with an array of student works. These culminating performances will be showcased in the December Dance Concert and performances of directing class projects over the next week.
The Foundationalist sets its sights beyond the Bowdoin Bubble. The editorial magazine accepts submissions from undergraduates across the country, regardless of genre, length or theme. Aleksia Silverman ’19 and Sydney To ’19 founded The Foundationalist in the spring of 2018.
“What are you?” For many members of the Multiracial Student Union (MRSU), this question is a frequent probe into their racial or ethnic makeup. In a portrait series project debuting today in the Lamarche Gallery, members of MRSU answer this question in their own terms.
“Representation.” “Identity.” “Pride.” The walls of the Blue Gallery tell a complicated story of solidarity and individuality—photographs of 15 Bowdoin students encircle the room, printed in color and black-and-white, pasted on red backgrounds. Quotes, taken from interviews with the students pictured, are printed in varying styles and colors directly on the photos, highlighting the diversity of individual experiences with Asian and Asian American identities.
A hand reached up to ring one of the bells strung from the ceiling of Gulf of Maine Books, quieting the electric murmur of the gathered town. “Alright, folks, keep it down. We’ve got the fire department right on the corner, you know,” Gary Lawless, owner of Gulf of Maine Books, said to the crowd crammed amongst the bookshelves.
Literature, Peruvian art and dance: an unlikely combination unlike most artists typically hosted at Bowdoin. On Tuesday night, Vannia Ibarguen brought these disciplines together in her performance “Retablo Peruano” in Kresge Auditorium. “Retablo Peruano” translates roughly to “Peruvian altarpiece.” A retablo is a sculptural work created by indigenous Peruvian artists, depicting scenes of daily life or exceptional historical events.
With help from Visiting Artist Claudia Fieo P’21, and inspiration from the collections at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, printmaking students created an artist’s book. The Visual Arts department, Bowdoin Libraries, and the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum came together to celebrate the book’s completion at a launch on Wednesday.
What do a pajama-wearing character, two latex gloves and a stuffed rabbit add up to? Theater-goers will find out tonight and Saturday, as they leave Wish Theater and enter the alternate world of The Baltimore Waltz.
Before the age of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, before tens of thousands of movies were available for our viewing pleasure at the tapping of a couple of keys and even before the first Blockbuster opened its doors, the Eveningstar Cinema shone brightly in the Tontine Mall of Maine Street, delivering small-studio indie movies to Brunswick’s most discerning fans.
As the temperature plummets and finals season approaches, the end of the fall season heralds the Bowdoin Entertainment Board (E-board)’s annual Fall Concert. This year, Bowdoin will be welcoming Nigerian-born, Chicago-raised artist Tobi Lou, a hip-hop rapper and singer.
Them Airs, a band from New Haven County, Connecticut, played a set in Brunswick this week unlike any show I have attended during my time at Bowdoin. No combination of adjectives can properly summarize the band’s style—if one had the arduous task of assigning Them Airs a genre, a mix between art punk, shoegaze and math rock would be the best way of describing them.
Joshua Johnson, one of the first professional African-American artists, spent the majority of his career painting portraits of white families in Baltimore, Maryland. He is only known to have painted two portraits of African-American men, which have been separately owned since the 19th century.
While differences in language may create communication barriers in everyday life, poetry has an ability to serve as a unifying force. In Thursday’s Multilingual Poetry Night, students’ performances attested to literature’s transcension of language, reciting poems in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Japanese and Korean.
Deena Engel, clinical professor in the department of computer science at New York University, and Glenn Wharton, professor of art history and conservation of material culture at the University of California Los Angeles, addressed questions of preserving art, artistic media and artistic integrity in a digitizing world in their talk on Monday titled “The Artist Archives Initiative: The Digital Future of Preserving Artistic Practices.” The two visitors are co-directors of the David Wojnarowicz Knowledge Base—an online database of the works and life of the late artist.
The Bowdoin dance group Reaction is entering its third year in operation and continues to be a fun space for students to learn, appreciate and practice K-pop performance. Group leader, Bethany Berhanu ’20, has danced in Reaction since its founding in 2017.
At the Bedford Park Boulevard-Lehman College subway station in the Bronx, a stunning glass mosaic mural covers the entire mezzanine wall. Entitled “Community Garden,” it depicts large, colorful fruit, insects, flowers and animals. For this work, Andrea Dezsö was awarded the best American Public Art Prize in 2007.
Rather than depicting sweeping hillscapes in ornate frames, Mariah Reading ’16 uses trash as her canvas in the pop-up exhibit “Landscapes, Not Landfills,” which opened on Wednesday in the Edwards Center for Art and Dance. Reading’s art contributes to a growing genre of “eco art” that promotes sustainable art practices and nature preservation.
Hoping to share his own mental health story and help destigmatize these issues in the public eye, Bowdoin alumnus Zach Burton ’14 ventured into the world of theater and debuted his first play, “The Manic Monologues,” in May.
Produced, edited and filmed by Marcus Ribeiro ’23 John “Galush” Galusha ’20, of the Bowdoin Meddiebempsters, dominates the beatboxing scene on campus. In addition to double majoring in music and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, he has competed in multiple beatboxing championships nationwide.
Through the mechanized movement of light, projections and objects, artist and University of Massachusetts at Amherst Assistant Professor of Art Robin Mandel creates dynamic sculptures that explore the power of repetition. In a talk last Wednesday, “In Rotation: From Motion to Meaning,” Mandel explained how his videographic portrayals of contrasting objects can help viewers to better embrace opposing ideas.
Filling a dimly lit room in The Edwards Center for Art and Dance with shining images of wood veneer and brightly toned paintings, 11 Bowdoin students presented their summer artwork in a series of Pecha Kucha presentations on Wednesday night.
In 1860, Bowdoin Medical School alumnus Henry Byron Haskell facilitated the shipment of five Assyrian reliefs from the site of Nimrud, in modern-day Iraq, to Brunswick, Maine. These large stone pieces from the Northwest Palace of King Ashurnasirpal II, built in 879 BCE, traveled on camelback and steamship to arrive where they are now.
With a shimmering silver and gold beaded curtain framing the stage, audience members of all ages will be transported back in time to the glitz of Broadway in the roaring 20’s. The vehicle is the music of composer extraordinaire Cole Porter, performed by the students in the Musical Theater Performance class instructed by Professor of Theater Davis Robinson.
A living testament to the rise of a city and its natural remnants, the Los Angeles River was a one-of-a-kind subject for professor of art Michael Kolster. In his new book “L.A. River,” Kolster captures the river through a 19th century lens, questioning conventional notions of time and technical progress.
Artist and educator Bruce Herman has made a great individual mark on the art world with striking paintings and immersive multimedia projects, but at his talk at Bowdoin last Monday his focus was the collaboration that has shaped his career.
Over a century after its emergence, modern art is more relevant than ever. The movement often thought of in a strictly historical context is apparently less removed from our contemporary world than it appears. In a presentation entitled “The Transnational Framework of Modernism’s Many Emergences, 1900-1950,” author and collector Laurette McCarthy and former Executive Editor of MIT Press Roger Conover ’72 discussed the history and impact of the exhibition, which was curated by the museum’s co-director, Anne Goodyear.
Produced, edited and filmed by Alexandra Lin ’23 Sophomore Emma Dewey used to think dancing was about perfect posture and technique. For her, improvisation used to take place in her bedroom only. Now, in her fourth dance class in three semesters and as a leader of the Bowdoin Modern Dance Collective, she’s begun exploring dance that makes her feel good—and lots of other feelings, too.
After a year or two of playing in student bands, Musicians Danny Little ’22 and Nick Cattaneo ’21 came into this year with a vision. They wanted to establish a new model that would allow musicians to rotate in and out of bands based on availability, while ensuring that a core group remains.
Light and dark hues contrast with sharp yet soft strokes on the walls, filling Lamarche Gallery with emotions. Words and paintings are two of the media which young local artists use to channel their inner creativity in the Telling Room x ArtVan exhibit, which opened in the Lamarche Gallery today.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) welcomed distinguished alumni back to campus for a discussion on Wednesday in conjunction with its exhibit, “Art Purposes: Object Lessons for the Liberal Arts.” The three alumni, all prominent figures in the field of art, shared how their time at Bowdoin shaped their careers and set them on a path of artistic discovery.
Theater productions without dialogue, props or scene changes may seem unthinkable, but miming is a traditional art with a new look in the 21st century. Tonight, three mimes from Broken Box Mime Theater (BKBX) will arrive on campus to present students with an up-close insight into this complex and underrepresented form of storytelling.
From September 24 to October 13, Abigail Killeen, associate professor of theater and chair of the Department of Theater and Dance, will star in a production of “The Clean House” at the Portland Stage Company, directed by Cait Robinson ’08.
Throughout the vast array of her life’s work, Visiting Artist Claudia Fieo P’21 has focused on the idea of respect—be it to the forces of nature, women overlooked by society or the process of creating itself.
After traveling between the same four buildings across one main quad for the first two weeks of school, it’s easy to forget that there’s a town beyond Bowdoin. Brunswick is home to over 20,000 residents who live, work and, sometimes, make art here.
In 1909, Robert Peary, Class of 1877, led his famous expedition to the North Pole. But many do not realize that it was, in fact, an African-American man, Peary’s companion Matthew Alexander Henson, and not Peary himself, who first stood on the pole.
With pews so full that students spilled over onto the floor, the current members of Bowdoin’s a cappella groups performed their best, hoping to attract their futures. Supporters, friends and a cappella hopefuls packed into the Bowdoin Chapel last Friday night for the annual recruitment concert, where each of Bowdoin’s six groups performed two songs.
For some, “art” refers to old paintings in heavy frames hanging in a museum. For others, art is a means of expression. For Bowdoin’s new Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs Elizabeth Humphrey ’14, art is personal.
From Brunswick to San Francisco, Bowdoin students bring their summer internship experiences back to campus. This past summer, funding was awarded to 97 students to pursue internships in numerous fields such as marine science, healthcare, education, nonprofit and social services.
A guitar, harmonica and foot drum—somehow Willie Thrasher plays all three at once to produce lively and multilayered folk melodies. Last Wednesday, donning a cowboy hat and Rolling Stones T-shirt, Canadian Inuit musician Willie Thrasher performed in Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill for an audience of students and Brunswick locals.
Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), the contemporary exhibit “Art Purposes: Object Lessons for the Liberal Arts” is all about fresh perspectives and the unfinished business of creation. The exhibition displays notable works from the Museum’s permanent collection.
This summer Joachim Homann, the curator of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), left the College to join the staff of Harvard Art Museums as the Maida and George Abrams Curator of Drawings. He was the head curator of the BCMA from 2010 until his departure.
Before this summer, Alana Morrison ’20 was known to the Bowdoin community as a singer; she released her first EP “Oh Boy” last fall and has performed around campus several times. This summer, however, Morrison had her network-television debut on the U.S.
Summer and music go hand in hand like nothing else. Inevitably, when the temperature peaks above 85 degrees Farenheit and all your clothing starts to stick to your chest, people look to the glorious medium of music as salvation from the heat.
Before Sarah Bay-Cheng, chair and professor of theater and dance, leaves Bowdoin to become the dean of the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University in Toronto, she’s making herself available for lunch dates and coffee chats.
Ever wondered what being an international student at Bowdoin entails? Shining light on the international student experience, “The I-20s: an International Student Exhibit” opened Wednesday night in David Saul Smith Union’s Lamarche Gallery as part of International Week programming.
From monumental murals in neon colors to life castings molded out of earth and clay, this year’s senior art show dazzles the eye and excites the mind. On Wednesday night, the exhibition titled “Changeover” transformed the Edwards Center for Art and Dance into an active ground of artistic vision and reflection.
On my first visit to New York’s Museum of Modern Art, I wore a baseball cap. While my curly hair protested vehemently as I forced its tendrils under the crown, I received louder complaints from museum security guards regarding my fashion decision.
In the midst of frantic Bowdoin spring, a visitor to the Blue Gallery in David Saul Smith Union may be prompted to pause and reflect on the nature of relationships this week. “Focusing on Dating Violence,” currently on display in the gallery, is a photography exhibit created as the capstone project of the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education’s (OGVPE) Leadership Institute, a training program led by Lisa Peterson, associate director of Gender Violence Prevention and Education.
What were the first dance classes offered at Bowdoin? The answer, according to Professor of Dance Emerita June Vail, included technique, repertoire, choreography and a senior seminar that took place in Coles Tower. Though her name may not be familiar, Vail remains the unsung heroine behind the founding of Bowdoin’s dance program.
Of all the songs that aim to blend genres that normally never go together, none have done it quite like Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road.” It starts like any other bro-country hit, with acoustic guitar twang, drab pop chords and a cringeworthy whistle at the girl that [insert bro] is about to serenade.
“Titanic Rising” by Weyes Blood should not have surprised me. Weyes Blood is a well established musician within the indie scene, and “Titanic Rising” is her fourth album. Artists in 2019 seem to come out of thin air, having been lurking in some corner of Soundcloud or Bandcamp, waiting for their big break into the general consciousness of those who have r/indieheads or Pitchfork as favorites on their internet browser.
When Benjamin Rachlin ’08 was studying English at Bowdoin, he wanted to be a rich short-story writer despite the paradox. But when he returned on Tuesday, it was to discuss a work of nonfiction, Rachlin’s first book, titled “Ghost of the Innocent Man: A True Story of Trial and Redemption.” The book follows the true tale of a man who lived a life unimaginable to most Bowdoin students and delves into the ugly and overlooked cracks of America’s criminal justice system.
Even before the show begins, shouts from the audience and screams of “Curtain!” set the stage for the vivacious and fast-paced production “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.” Tonight and Saturday, an intimate cast will take the audience through a whirlwind of 30 plays—a series of emotional, hilarious and thought-provoking storylines—in just 60 minutes.
With May 1 approaching quickly, College Confidential has blown up with mothers of high school seniors who are desperately searching for the ultimate answer to the Colby vs. Bates vs. Bowdoin (CBB) debate. These moms converse as if they’re trading secrets, whispering about the diameters of the campus pond (Bowdoin’s can be found between Moulton and Hyde when it rains) and the width of their tour guides’ smiles.
Niles Singer ’21 is a visual arts and francophone studies double major from Reading, Massachusetts. He is the Head of Photography for Avant-Garb Magazine and serves as a darkroom teaching assistant for photography courses. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The concert formerly known as Ivies (if we’re calling it Bowchella) has been announced. An email sent out to the entire student body—with the subject heading on the email as “No Bamba”—announced the lineup, with Lion Babe playing Thursday, April 25, and Jamila Woods and Mick Jenkins playing Saturday, April 27.
As contemporary interests drift away from physical books in favor of online media, people are beginning to doubt the power of literature. Yet, Wednesday night in the Beam Classroom, Dr. Alaa Al Aswany, world-renowned author and Egyptian reformer, reclaimed the agency of the written word in his lecture titled “Power of Literature.” Currently a visiting professor in Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth College, Al Aswany is best known for his 2002 work, “The Yacoubian Building,” which offers a poignant dissection of modern Egyptian society under the facade of fiction.
Walking into Reed House basement on Thursday night, you might have been pleasantly surprised—gone are the toppled red solo cups and sticky beer pong table. The space has been scrubbed anew, with colored lights and works of art adorning the walls.
The theater is dark, and nobody is on the stage. The lights are off and the room is quiet until a voice breaks the silence. Assistant Professor of Dance Aretha Aoki’s voice is broadcast throughout Wish Theater, but she remains off stage.
Bowdoin students need look no further than Coles Tower or the VAC fishbowl to see examples of Bauhaus architecture. This year, Bauhaus’ hundredth anniversary will bring this legacy to the fore on Bowdoin’s campus. Founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany by architect Walter Gropius, the revolutionary modernist art school proclaimed its aim “to create a new building of the future that will unite every discipline … as a clear symbol of the new belief to come.” What followed was a movement that forever changed definitions of art, design and architecture, stretching across the world and across the century.
What sounds and rhythms come to mind when one thinks of the Arctic? The latest exhibition at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, “A Resounding Beat: Music in the Inuit World,” which opened Tuesday, offers a taste of Inuit music both rooted in tradition and charged with originality.
Temperatures in the high 40s beg the lingering piles of snow to sink back into the earth, and bare legs to begin to peek out below shorts and dresses. With spring break over and many students’ closets swelling with newly thrifted overalls and bucket hats, murmurs begin to wind their way through dorms and dining halls: so, how close is Ivies?
Once audiences are confronted with the human cost of the American Dream, economics and politics will never look the same. On Friday night at Pickard Theater, tales of American workers take center stage as the Department of Theater debuts the Maine premiere of the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage.
While many students step into Gibson Hall each semester, very few know the inner workings of Bowdoin’s music department. Despite occasional setbacks, new efforts are being made to revive music programs and recruit students through a greater attention to musical abilities during the admissions process.
Chris Ritter ’21 picks: Zacari – “Don’t Trip” You might not know Zacari’s name, but you’ve definitely heard his voice. It probably caught you on Kendrick Lamar’s “LOVE,” where it soars in a falsetto riff adapted from his own song, “Lovely.” Or maybe you heard him on “Redemption,” a dancey afrobeat highlight from the star-studded “Black Panther” album.
On Tuesday night, students and community members were taken on a journey in Kresge Auditorium with the performance of “Voyage sans Visa, Tukki saa suné (Voyage without a Visa),” which followed immigrants travelling from Senegal to France.
You may not think of downtown Brunswick as the hub for cutting-edge contemporary art. Yet tucked away in a former furniture shop, just mere steps from Gelato Fiasco, the Frank Brockman Gallery is filled with colors, energy, vision and creative expression.
“Claustrophobic.” “Elitist.” “Boring.” Worse has been said about museums. Maybe you’re imagining pairs of women in patterned scarves and narrow red glasses with beaded straps gliding through cramped hallways spitting nonsensical art jargon. Staring at yet another oil portrait of Jesus and some other guys that looks like every other painting in the hall, you can’t help but feel that museums are only a place for art historians and pretentious hipster wannabes.
The audience snapped their fingers in unison on Tuesday as Hannah Tinti began singing. The author of three critically-acclaimed novels, Tinti knows how to captivate an audience. Singing, she says, does just that. Tinti, who was at Bowdoin as part of the Alpha Delta Phi Society Visiting Writers Series, read from her most recent best-selling novel, “The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.” It’s not Tinti’s first time receiving critical acclaim.
The bronze figures of Sophocles and Demosthenes, set in niches on the facade of the Walker Art Building, are turning 125-years-old. As the Bowdoin College Museum of Art celebrates the quasquicentennial anniversary of its iconic home, students, faculty and community members gathered on Tuesday evening to celebrate the legacy of art and visual culture at the College.
I should leave out the story about Maggie Rogers’ rise to fame through a viral video with Pharrell because it is clear by now that she deserves it. It is true that the Maryland singer/songwriter was a student at NYU just two years ago, making eclectic songs that fused her folky roots with Eurohouse influences acquired from a semester abroad, and that one day Pharrell showed up to class, instantly raved about Rogers’ work, and abruptly sent Rogers and her song “Alaska” into a firestorm of attention via YouTube.
The “quad squad” may sound like an unusual moniker for a music group, but this is far from the only surprise offered by the Bowdoin’s Department of Music’s chamber ensemble program. Each semester, dozens partake in a variety of independent, student-driven chamber groups.
Take a peek into the Bowdoin Children’s Center, and you might see a student plucking the strings of an acoustic guitar, the notes sweetly melodic, a mother with a sleeping infant strapped to her chest and a toddler at her side, swaying to the music, listening with curiosity and wonder.
Visitors are packed in the Becker Gallery, chatter filling the air as community members and students alike wait in anticipation to see the new exhibition, “Fashioning Modernity: Art and Independence Among Yorubas in Nigeria,” on display at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA).
You can see the glow of yellow light and the shadows of passing figures through the windows. You leap up a few steps and pull open the front door to be greeted by a rap song from Spotify’s Top 50 hits playing over someone’s parents’ speakers and, subsequently, you inhale an odd fog of beer, body odor and half-assed Febreze.
Tobi Omola ’19 and Ellis Laifer ’19 comprise the music duo Fortuno, which recently released the singles “Be” and “Feel” on all major music platforms. Omola will be performing in his senior recital this Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
The dome of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) rings with music as a full, rapt audience experiences sound interwoven with sight. On this February night, the performance series “Music at the Museum” continues yet another successful run.
Walking into Edwards Center for Art and Dance, you may run into interdisciplinary work in action. Last year, the Department of Theater and Dance launched the Performing Arts major with concentrations in dance, theater and interdisciplinary performance.
Whether it’s trekking up the ramp to get to the Hubbard Stacks, staring into the windows of Lamarche Gallery while working on a problem set or sinking into a couch right in the middle of the Blue Box, Bowdoin students can easily find art in their surroundings.
