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During her senior year at Bowdoin, Amie Sillah ’20 created Black Lady Art Group: an art class and artist collective where she, Amani Hite ’20 and Destiny Kearney ’21 could focus entirely on creating a safe space for producing and exploring artistic practices as Black women.
In 2016, J.D. Vance released “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” and it has been the topic of conversation for years since. Some say it points to why Trump won the 2016 presidential election, as it unveils a group of people living in Appalachia that have seemingly been forgotten.
The Bowdoin visual arts department hopes to showcase student artwork and spark conversation through their new Instagram account. The account, which has been in operation since October, is administered by Colleen Kinsella, visual arts technician, along with Teaching Assistants Sarah Flanagan ’21, Lizzy Gracey ’22 and Abby Wang ’23.
Because the Bowdoin Craft Center, with its sewing machines, pottery wheels and student art displays, is too constrictive to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions this semester, the student managers of the Center have had to find creative ways to involve the community in artistic programming.
Nestled in the back of the Fort Andross building directly overlooking the Androscoggin River, Frontier has served as a community gathering place for over a decade. In addition to a restaurant and a coffee bar, Frontier is an event space that showcases art, music, performance and film.
This past March, during the initial spike in COVID-19 cases, Bowdoin alumna Amanda Newman ’19 launched Miss Manda Pet Portraits. Since then, she has listed over 300 products for sale on her website and has painted and drawn countless custom pet portraits.
The Bowdoin Animation Society (BAS) continues to virtually watch and critique animation through online platforms in an effort to maintain their tight-knit community during the mostly remote fall semester. The members of BAS hope to simulate the social experience of gathering together and discussing animation by using a variety of messengers and servers.
In the third installment of the “Beyond the Reading Room” virtual lecture series hosted by Bowdoin College Library’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives (Special Collections), literary scholar Susan Beegel joined the Bowdoin community over Zoom on Monday to explore the role of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel in transforming Orr’s Island from a fishing village to a summer tourist attraction.
In the COVID-19 era, art looks and sounds different. Vibrant coffee houses have fallen silent, open mics are now closed and the murmur of a live audience has been reduced to quiet clapping and small hands snapping in the corner of a Zoom screen.
With hopes to unite the Bowdoin community through film, the Cinema Studies Program has partnered with the Maine Jewish Film Festival (MJFF), a Portland-based nonprofit, to bring the Festival’s virtual lineup to the screens of students, staff and faculty at no cost.
Over the course of this month, Masque and Gown, Bowdoin’s student theater group, will perform three virtual play readings. In the absence of access to on-campus spaces and equipment, the group has been innovating new ways to connect and bring out its members’ shared enthusiasm for performance.
Last Friday, the visual arts department hosted printmaker Taro Takizawa for a public lecture during which he shared his artwork and spoke about his artistic journey. The event was part of the Marvin Bileck Printmaking Project at Bowdoin, which traditionally involves a weeklong, intensive workshop with a guest artist.
For years, one of my holiday traditions has been watching movies all throughout Thanksgiving break with friends and family. As we approach the end of this unusual year, this tradition of seeing, at times, five movies in the theater is something that I am especially missing.
On Wednesday night, in the midst of an election week with climate change on the ballot, Sunrise Bowdoin held a climate storytelling workshop encouraging the Bowdoin community to connect the climate crisis to their personal identities and lived experiences.
While Bowdoin jazz ensembles might not be able to perform synchronously, the dedication of Anthony Gabory, visiting lecturer in the department of music and leader of the ensembles, has provided musicians with another way of staying connected.
Seeking to replace the tedium of Zoom meetings with the joyful experience of shared dance, Lucy Sydel ’22 and Emma Dewey ’22 are transforming the landscape of dance at Bowdoin through the Movement Collective: an expressive, dance-based initiative that emphasizes the need for student connection without the formality of usual Zoom meetings.
Despite having donating over 500 pieces to Bowdoin’s collection, Edward Perry Warren’s name was not known by most students—that is, until Brooke Wrubel ’21 decided to delve deeper into the career of the prolific American antiquities collector.
This semester, fEMPOWER, a student-run organization, is tackling the task of virtually producing the annual show “RISE: Untold Stories of Bowdoin Women,” which showcases the stories of Bowdoin women, while also trying to connect with the Bowdoin community through initiatives such as their new Instagram page.
Jak sie masz! The days are now in the single digits as we wait for the election, and Sacha Baron Cohen decided it was a perfect time to release his new political comedy, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Although I was thoroughly excited to watch the film, I noticed that there were great differences between the two Borat films.
Over the last eight months of preventative isolation and social distancing, Shane Araujo ’23 has done more than simply pick up a hobby—he has reignited his passion for making art and taken to Instagram to share his work.
Singer and songwriter John Lane ’21 released “Turn Up Country,” a pop-country single, earlier this month. This is Lane’s second officially-released song, and it was written, recorded and produced remotely due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Bowdoin College Alumni Magazine text reads: “This picture of the Senior Center was taken the day after the construction fire on January 20 which damaged the wooden forms at the upper levels of the Center. Students at the Delta Kappa Epsilon House discovered the fire at about 6:30 p.m., and it had pretty well burned itself out by 9 o’clock.
In a normal academic year, Bowdoin’s six a cappella groups would have finished recruitment several weeks ago. The week-long process, which typically takes place in late September, consists of a first round of auditions, a second round of callbacks and the “draft,” where the A Cappella Council meets to express interest in singers and then issue bids to them.
Without the ability to gather for rehearsal on stage this semester, the Bowdoin Symphony Orchestra switched to a remote model. George Lopez, director of the Orchestra, has been working to develop new initiatives to keep members connected.
Over the past few weeks, I have constantly been thinking about the movies that studios are putting on the backburner to release when theaters are completely reopened. I am excited to see Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time To Die,” Edgar Wright’s “Late Night in Soho,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” and, honestly, I am curious about Malcolm D.
During the initial chaos of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a month after Bowdoin’s emergency transition to remote instruction, the Theater and Dance Department hired Lily Prentice ’10 as its newest costume shop manager. While the fall semester has been unlike any other for the Theater and Dance Department, Prentice still has her hands full with small- and large-scale sewing projects, educating and advising students about the role of costume in the performing arts and organizing the costume shop—all of which the department lacked the time to do during typical, in-person semesters.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) has unanimously approved and released an Anti-Racism Action Plan with hopes of pushing the Museum towards greater equity and inclusion. “This statement represents a recommitment on the part of everybody who’s a member of the [BCMA] staff since everybody had an opportunity to read drafts and contribute recommendations,” said Frank Goodyear, co-director of the BCMA, in a Zoom interview with the Orient.
Every Monday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. EDT, the Hispanic Studies Department holds one of a series of Creative Writing and Journalism in Spanish Workshops for Bowdoin students, hoping to offer a unique take on language learning in the virtual sphere.
Singer and songwriter Ariana Smith ’21 released “Nostalgia,” an acoustic single, earlier this month. “Nostalgia” is Smith’s second of two produced songs—both of which she released after Bowdoin’s campus switched to remote learning due to the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
On Wednesday, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Kate Gerry gave two talks about her recent exhibition on the Wyvern Collection—one of the most important privately owned medieval art collections in the world. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) secured a long-term loan of 100 of its objects through an anonymous lender.
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum started planning its move to a virtual format as soon as Bowdoin closed its doors in the spring. Genny LeMoine, the curator and registrar of the Arctic Museum, is leading its virtual programming focused on goals of greater at-home accessibility and a stronger online presence.
Not long ago, it was assumed that two types of film could make studios a significant profit: Disney remakes and Christopher Nolan films. Disney has been churning out remakes of animated classics yearly since Rober Stromberg’s “Maleficent” in 2014.
With only first years, transfer students and a select few upperclass students on campus this semester, maintaining club connections requires extra creativity in the virtual sphere. Ursus Verses, one of Bowdoin’s coed a cappella groups, is working to overcome the challenges of remote learning and to cultivate a supportive musical environment despite the distance.
On Wednesday, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) hosted the first installment of “Art Up Close”—a five-part series where students, staff and faculty come together to discuss art. The first webinar brought together 20 community members to discuss “Protest Art and Black Lives Matter.” Claire Traum ’21 and Lucy Siegel ’22, two members of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Advisory Council, developed the idea after gaining experience with webinars during summer opportunities.
Working to cultivate community in a time of isolation, the Bowdoin Department of English hosted novelist and essayist Jennine Capó Crucet for an essay reading and a question-and-answer session over Zoom as part of the Alpha Delta Phi Society Visiting Writer Series on Wednesday.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) must abide by the College’s color-coded campus status levels. Currently, at “yellow” status, first-year writing seminar students and their accompanying faculty members can enter the BCMA for a class visit; at “orange” status, only faculty and staff may enter; at “red” status, only essential staff members may enter the building.
In July 2018, I prepared to go to the 75th Annual Florida Boys State Delegation, sponsored by the American Legion. This event is held all over the nation, with 1,000 rising high school senior boys in each state participating in mock state government.
When the initial surge of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the United States led to the shutdown of public spaces nationwide, one of the first things that Brunswick-based singer/songwriter Pete Kilpatrick did was purchase recording equipment with hopes to continue making music.
Between a pandemic and a precarious political climate, very little has gone according to plan over the past several months, and the world has had to learn how to improvise. “Improvabilities,” Bowdoin’s oldest improvisational comedy group, has worked to modify and adapt their craft to suit a remote model.
This semester, without the ability to gather in the studio or rehearse on stage, faculty in the visual and performing arts have had to come up with creative approaches to remote instruction and artistic community-building. Despite these challenges, students have begun the semester with great enthusiasm, filling introductory courses and, in some cases, becoming part of long waitlists.
Sewing face masks from muslin cloth and leftover fabric scraps is not how Costume Shop Manager Julie McMurry anticipated spending her final semester at Bowdoin. “You know, there’s a limit to how many one person can make, but every little bit helps,” McMurry said in a video interview with the Orient.
Eavan Boland H’04, scholar, professor and trailblazing poet, died following a stroke in her home in Dublin on April 27. She was 75. Boland was born in 1944 to Frederick Boland, a diplomat and Irish ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Frances Kelly, a well-known painter.
As remote learning has become the new global norm, college communities have been searching for ways to stay united while physically apart. At Bowdoin, student performance groups are channelling their creativity to bring the College’s community together with virtual performances.
On April 13, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, which brings together students and musicians from over 30 countries and 40 states, announced that it will cancel this year’s in-person masterclasses and performances due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Many of the seniors working on performing arts projects set to debut in the spring are crushed by the fact that they won’t see their capstone projects performed during their last year at the College. Sebastian Hernandez ’20 has a slightly different perspective.
Tina Satter ’96 got the news that she had received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art just as the entire landscape of her life’s work began shifting, maybe for good. “The big question, and the constant micro-question of every day [is]: ‘How does theater exist on the other side of [the COVID-19 pandemic]?’ That I don’t even know how to answer, but you go back to the work,” Satter said in a phone call with the Orient.
Katie Filiakova ’22 first developed the idea for a Bowdoin Minecraft Club in the middle of March, while sitting in the Moulton Union with a friend. Little did she know that less than a month later, the digitally-generated campus on the Bowdoin Minecraft server would be the nearest she could get to the real thing.
Late last year, K Irving ’21 downloaded Tik Tok in a moment she only vaguely remembers. She never imagined that just months later, strangers in Moulton Union would approach her and reference her viral videos on the app.
Chase Tomberlin ’20 took inspiration from the Frank Sinatra song “A Man Alone” for the title of his one-man senior studio show. Little did he know, this title would find new meaning in a world of social distancing and remote learning.
Otoboke Beaver is an all-female punk quartet from Kyoto, Japan which plays incredibly fast, angular rock music fueled by liberated rage. The original lineup, composed of singer Accorinrin, guitarist Yoyoyoshie, bassist Nishikawachi and drummer Pop formed in 2009 at Ritsumeikan University’s music club.
For Tori Clarke ’20 and Caroline Farber ’20, a lunchtime conversation in the Moulton Union lightroom became the inspiration for their co-written senior project, “Honey, I’m Home.” The play, which the two have been working on since September, explores the break up of friendships in a theater space.
On March 19, during a virtual ‘town hall’ about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on the College, President Clayton Rose confirmed the cancellation of this year’s Ivies weekend. The news saddened members of the Bowdoin community, including those on the Entertainment Board (eBoard) who plan the annual spring concert.
David C. Driskell H’89, artist, scholar, curator and titan figure in the field of African American art history, died on April 1 at 88 years old from complications related to the coronavirus (COVID-19). His death was announced by the University of Maryland, which founded the David C.
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.
