Division of Creative Arts

Faculty Accomplishments

Check out some highlights of accomplishments by the faculty in the Division of Creative Arts!

Fall 2023

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

August 2023

Prof. Soleimani has work in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, which is part of an ongoing series called the Banner Project. This work is up through June 23, 2024.

Cameron Anderson - Theater Arts

September 2023

Prof. Anderson designed the sets for mega popstar Charlie Puth’s North American tour which also played at Radio City Hall in NYC and embarks on a tour of Asia this fall. She opened a new production of Handel’s opera Semele at Wolf Trap Opera. She also designed the sets for the Off Broadway world premiere of Cat Kid Comic Club, based on the New York Times best selling graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey - the show will tour across the United States this fall.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

September 2023

The Denny Gallery in New York is exhibiting work by Prof. Soleimani. The show is called "Bride of Passage" and is on view from September 5 through October 7, 2023. On September 26, 2023, Prof. Soleimani participated on a panel called "Women, Life, Freedom and the Art of Protest" hosted by the Victoria & Albert Museum South Kensington in London. Hoda Afshar, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and Prof. Soleimani discussed their personal relationships to the political unrest in Iran and present their ongoing responses in support of the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

October 2023

Prof. Almeida was part of the Fabric Festival, which takes place in the city of Fall River, MA. The annual festival started in 2019 with the aim to create a space for dialogue with the portuguese diaspora. She collaborated with André e. Teodósio on an installation-performance-dinner titled On the other side: a dinner performance at Portugalia Marketplace. André is based in Lisbon and wears many hats as an actor, theater and opera director, dance choreographer, theatre writer, book publisher, teacher and essayist. He will perform in and around banners of fabric which Prof. Almeida created for the occasion, while a dinner by Chef Robert Andreozzi is being served. Prof. Almeida also had work in the group exhibition called Hyperballads. The exhibition inaugurates Fall River’s new cultural endeavor, Gather: a crossroads for design, manufacturing, and contemporary art.

Alfredo Gisholt - Fine Arts

October 2023

Prof Gisholt has a solo exhibition entitled “por arboledas, campos y lugares” (around meadows, valleys and places) at Cristobal Contemporary, Mexico City. It is on view 10/12/2023 through 1/14/2024. There is an essay by Pablo Emiliano de la Rosa and a catalogue available. It includes recent work painted in Maine, Boston and Mexico City from October 2022 thru August 2023.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

October 2023

Prof Wong gave a public lecture titled "Japanese Inspirations in Bengal: Nandalal Bose's Ink Painting and the Art of Life" at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in October.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

November 2023

Professor Almeida and curator Bruno Marchand had a conversation on artist books and the role of printed matter in Almeida's work at the Simone Subal Gallery in New York City on November 4, 2023. The gallery also be celebrating the publication of Almeida's monograph Ó (o acute), produced on the occasion of the artist's solo exhibition at Culturgest, Lisbon. The catalog features texts by Bruno Marchand, Gloria Sutton João Ribas, and Rahel Aima.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation

November 2023

Prof. Shapiro-Phim moderated a multimedia seminar at Cambodia's Royal University of Fine Arts, focused on the legacies of a preeminent 20th-century Cambodian culture bearer and featuring presentations by four Cambodian performing artists of different generations.

Lydian String Quartet - Music

December 2023

There was a release of the Lydian String Quartet recording of Henri Lazarof’s String Quartet No. 6 on the Immersive Music label. Andrea Segar and Julia Glenn, violins; Mark Berger, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

December 2023

Aida Yuen Wong published: "Kang Youwei." In Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796-1912. Edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell, pp. 286-89. London: British Museum, 2023.

Summer 2023

Toni Shapiro-Phim - Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation

May 2023

Prof. Shapiro-Phim's article, "Freedom and the Archive," co-authored with Germaine Ingram, was published in the new book, Art and Human Rights: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation

May 2023

Prof. Shapiro-Phim served on the Peace Research Institute of Oslo's first-ever INSPIRE Art Award panel, selecting finalists from across the globe whose artistic practice is or has been affected by violent conflict.

Joe Wardwell - Fine Arts

May 2023

Prof. Wardwell had a solo exhibition of paintings at Frosh & Co Gallery in NYC. He also completed a commissioned mural for the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

Robert Walsh - Theater Arts

June 2023

Prof. Walsh appeared in the U.S. premiere of The Gaaga, written and directed by Sasha Denisova. Inspired by true events surrounding the conflict in Ukraine, the play was produced by Arlekin Players Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Following that, he served as Fight Director for Macbeth, on Boston Common, produced by Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. and directed by Artistic Director, Steven Maler, and featuring Brandeis MFA grads Marianna Bassham and Jesse Hinson.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation

July 2023

CAST Course 150B, taught by Prof. Shapiro-Phim, was named one of the "10 Ways the Year of Climate Action at Brandeis Made a Difference" in Brandeis NOW.

Dmitry Troyanovsky - Theater Arts

July 2023

Prof. Troyanovsky directed an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for the summer intensive, hosted by Prague Shakespeare Company, Bez Zabradli Theater, Prague Czech Republic.

Jennifer Cleary - Theater Arts

August 2023

Prof. Clearly was awarded an MSW from Boston University School of Social Work, where she focused on the mental health and wellness of high school and college-aged students within educational spaces. She will bring this knowledge and experience into her new Fall '23 course on Wellness and the Artistic Process.

Adrianne Krstansky - Theater Arts

August 2023

Prof. Krstansky participated as an actor in several new play readings over the summer at the Huntington Theater and Speakeasy Stage Company. She looks forward to returning to teaching after appearing in The Art of Burning at Hartford Stage Company last spring (Zoe Golub-Sass '15, artistic associate and producer). She was recently interviewed about teaching by Gregory Jones for the website Howlround Theatre Commons.

Dmitry Troyanovsky - Theater Arts

August 2023

Prof. Troyanovsky taught master classes in Shakespeare and acting at the Poti International Festival of Regional Theaters, Georgia (country).

Spring 2023

Tory Fair – Fine Arts

January 2023

Prof. Fair was a part of a group show at Gallery VERY in Boston called "Death Show," which is on view from January 14 to February 11.

Peter Kalb – Fine Arts

January 2023

Prof. Kalb was awarded the National Humanities Center Summer Residency (2023) to develop the book project Beyond Apprehension: Artists Respond to Apollo.

Adrianne Krstansky – Theater Arts

January 2023

Prof. Krstansky played the lead in THE ART OF BURNING, by Kate Snodgrass, presented at the Huntington/BCA.

Tory Fair – Fine Arts

February 2023

Prof. Fair was a part of a group show at Suffolk University Gallery called "Artists and Materials 2." It is on view from January 23 - February 24, 2023 with a gallery talk with the artists on Thursday February 2 at 4:30pm. Prof. Fair was also a part of a group show at the Fitchburg Art Museum called "Paper Town." It is on view from February 4 - June 4, 2023 with an opening receipt on Saturday, February 4 from 2-4pm.

Susan Lichtman – Fine Arts

February 2023

Prof. Lichtman was part of a two person show called "Sightings" on view from February 9 to March 8, 2023 at the Chazan Gallery at Wheeler College.

Ariel Freiberg – Fine Arts

March 2023

Prof. Freiberg has a show entitled "From Silk to Cement" at the RSM GALLERY at Bentley University that is on view from March 9 to April 28, 2023.

Sheida Soleimani – Fine Arts

March 2023

Prof. Soleimani has an exhibit entitled "Ghostwriter" that opened at Edel Assanti in London in March. The exhibition is on view through May 13, 2023.

Dmitry Troyanovsky – Theater Arts

March 2023

Prof. Troyanovsky and Dan Smith co-authored “War, Ukraine, and American Theatre: A Call to Action" in REVIEW: THE JOURNAL OF DRAMATURGY.

Adrianne Krstansky – Theater Arts

April 2023

Prof. Krstansky was one of two recipients of the Professor Mark A. Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards in the Humanities and Creative Arts.

Mitsu Salmon – Theater Arts

April 2023

Prof. Salmon had a performance in APIDA Arts Festival at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in April 2023.

Joe Wardwell – Fine Arts

April 2023

Prof. Wardwell had a gallery show at Frosch & CO. called "Present Company Excepted" that was on view from April 20 to May 28. Prof. Wardwell also had a mural on display at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art from April 29 to November 12, 2023.

Christopher Frost – Fine Arts

May 2023

Prof. Frost was part of "Otherwordly" which is an outdoor sculpture group exhibition at the Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, MA. It was on view from May 19-October 31, 2023. Prof. Frost also had a solo show titled "Constructor Nature" on view at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in Boston from May 10-June 11, 2023with an artist's talk and reception on Saturday, May 27 from 4-7pm.

Erin Gee – Music

May 2023

Prof. Gee, was one of the recipients of the 29th Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Each of the 11 winners will receive an unrestricted prize of $75,000 and participate in a residency at the California Institute of the Arts.

Neal Hampton - Music

May 2023

There was a UK Premiere of Sense and Sensibility, composed by prof. Hampton, at Surrey Opera.

Susan Lichtman – Fine Arts

May 2023

Prof. Lichtman was part of the group show FACTUAL / ACTUAL: COLOR AFTER ALBERS, at the Wage Center for the Arts, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa

Fall 2022

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

August 2022

The New York Times Style Magazine profiled Prof. Soleimani, visiting her home art studio and wildlife clinic.

Eric Chasalow - Music

September 2022

Prof. Chasalow has been awarded a prestigious commission from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress for a major new original composition.

Ariel Freiberg - Fine Arts

September 2022

Prof. Freiberg's work "Love + Salt" is on view at the Brookline Art Center Garden from mid-September to mid-November 2022.

Susan Lichtman - Fine Arts

September 2022

Prof. Lichtman had a show entitled "Days are where we Live" at the Fahrenheit Madrid Gallery in Spain. The show opened on September 28, 2022 and closed November 5, 2022.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

October 2022

Prof. Almeida received a research grant from FLAD (Luso-American Development Foundation) to study the graphic work of Ilda Reis in the transition to democracy.

Yu-Hui Chang and Eric Chasalow - Music

October 2022

The Winsor Music series presents performances of new works by Prof. Chasalow and Prof. Chang at Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge.

lauren woods - Fine Arts

October 2022

Prof. woods' work, American Monument, was the subject of a Oxford Art Journal article entitled "American Monument: Racism and Class", written by Nizan Shaked.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

November 2022

Prof. Soleimani had a solo exhibition entitled "Credible Threats" at the Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels from November 12 to December 17, 2022.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

November 2022

Prof. Soleimani is part of the multimedia installation Eyes on Iran, part of a campaign to remove Iran from the UN's Commission on the States of Women. On view through January 1, 2023 in FDR Four Freedoms State Park, Governors Island, New York, the project was created by the artist collaborative For Freedoms and Vital Voices Global Partnership.

On November 28, Sheida spoke at the unveiling alongside former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, human rights lawyer and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council Gissou Nia, artist Shirin Neshat, and actor and singer Sepideh Moafi, among others.

Dmitry Troyanovsky - Theater Arts

November 2022

Prof. Troyanovsky published an essay on German theater, Ukraine, and the refugee crisis in The Theater Times.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

November 2022

Prof. Wong was a discussant at the "Chinese Kinestheic Forms" Conference at Harvard University this Friday and Saturday (11/11-11/12), commenting on the use of kinesthetic language in calligraphy practice and theory.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

December 2022

Prof. Wong's essay, "Visual History," has been published in Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method. This essay explores the global history of documenting the past through images. Visual history takes the form of cave paintings, commemorative reliefs on architecture, printed books and handwritten manuscripts, paintings, illustrations, biographical films, photojournalism, museum exhibitions, genealogical trees, digital imaging, and more. Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method is a subscription-only, online resource that is dedicated to historiography and the examination of historical theory and methods using a global approach.

Summer 2022

David Rakowski - Music

June 2022

Prof. Rakowski was a composer in residence at Yaddo, where he finished a saxophone quartet called 6:20 and wrote a solo viola piece called Open Season, for Michael Hall.

Lydian String Quartet - Music

June 2022

The Lydian Quartet performed at Duke University as a guest of the Ciompi Quartet’s summer chamber music series. They performed Andrew Waggoner’s 5th Quartet (Fromm commission dedicated to the Lyds) in addition to string quintets by Harbison and Schubert.

Mark Berger - Music

June 2022

Prof. Berger performed eight concerts as Third Dimension Music Festival artist along with members of the Grammy nominated Hermitage Piano Trio and other internationally renowned soloists and chamber musicians.

Jessica Jahn - Theater Arts

July 2022

Prof. Jahn designed costumes for summer productions of CASTOR AND PATIENCE at Cincinnati Opera and THE PASSION OF MARY CARDWELL DAWSON at Glimmerglass Festival

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

July 2022

Prof. Wong's article “Yuan Jai’s Deconstructive Paintings and Craft Conceptualism: Sentiments of the 1.5 Generation” was published in the Yuan Jai Reader. She also contributed a chapter on Developments of Chinese-style Painting in Post-war Taiwan to General History of Taiwanese Art (Taipei: Taiwan Art History Association).

Julia Glenn - Music

July 2022

Prof. Glenn performed at ArtsLIVE! in Fredericksburg, VA ; Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival; and in the Conference Ensemble for 2022 Composers Conference, held at Brandeis. She also recorded "china is the fuiture48," a solo album of contemporary Chinese music (with Konstantinos Valianatos, piano).

Robert Walsh - Theater Arts

July 2022

Prof. Walsh directed the New England premiere of GRAND HORIZONS by Bess Wohl at Gloucester Stage. 

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

August 2022

The New York Times Style Magazine profiled Sheida Soleimani, visiting her home art studio and wildlife clinic.

Spring 2022

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

January 2022

On January 14, Nancy Scott gave a lecture on the Kimbell Art Museum's current exhibition "Turner's Modern World" with Prof. Em. James Walvin, University of York. This lecture is available on YouTube.

Adrianne Krstansky - Theater

February 2022

Prof. Krstansky performed in the play "People, Places and Things," produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, February 11-March 5, 2022. Previous appearances at SpeakEasy include Every Brilliant Thing, Tribes, Body Awareness and Snakebit.

Erin Gee

February 2022

Prof. Gee received an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which honors outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges composers who have arrived at their own voice. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the 300 members of the Academy. The four recipients receive $10,000 and an additional $10,000 to record their work, and will also have their music presented in a concert at the Academy.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

March 2022

“Absence/Presence/Silence/Noise,” a chapter by Prof. Shapiro-Phim has been published in Dancing Transnational Feminisms: Ananya Dance Theatre and the Art of Social Justice (University of Washington Press, 2022). Edited by Ananya Chatterjea, Hui Niu Wilcox, and Alessandra Lebea Williams, the book “explores timely questions surrounding race and performance, gender and sexuality, art and politics, global and local inequities, and artists’ responsibilities toward their communities,” with a focus on the artistry and decolonizing feminisms of Ananya Dance Theatre. Shapiro-Phim’s piece shines a light on two conversations in separate cities among artists of movement as they navigate memory, historical and contemporary power imbalances, and the fostering of empathy and action. 

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

March 2022

Prof. Soleimani was in a a group exhibition, "The Immune Project," at the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland that opened March 20, 2022.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

March 2022

Prof. Almeida was in a group exhibition call "The Black Pages 01-100" at Franz Josef Kai Gallery in Vienna Austria. Exhibition on view from March 23 to July 17, 2022.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

March 2022

As part of Providence College Gallery's annual On the Wall mural exhibition, Prof. Soleimani will present a multimedia installation that explores her parents' past as Iranian political activists and refugees. Exhibition on view from March 30–July 30, 2022.

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

March 2022

Prof. Scott participated in the Scholars Day at the MFABoston for the opening of the exhibition, Turner’s Modern World, where she gave a talk on the provenance of Turner’s Slave Ship from London to Boston, and how it narrowly escaped being sold off for a private gain.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

April 2022

Prof Wong participated in an International Virtual Symposium called "Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Painting: Histories, Borders, and Values." Her talk was entitled "Two Female Ink Modernizers in Colonial Hong Kong: Fang Zhaoling and Irene Chou".

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

April 2022

Prof. Scott has an article in the forthcoming festschrift for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Vincenzo Vela called “Imaging slavery in 20th and 21st Century Memorials: A Legacy of Vela’s Spartaco.”

Karen Desmond - Music

April 2022

Associate Professor of Music and Department Chair Karen Desmond gave the Sacred Music at Notre Dame Spring 2022 Calvin M. Bower Lecture: "In Pieces: Composing and Analyzing the Late Medieval Alleluya" on April 1, 2022.

Joe Wardwell - Fine Arts

May 2022

Prof Wardwell is one of six international artists featured in Revival: Materials and Monumental Forms, at the ICA Watershed in East Boston. Inspired by the Watershed building’s mixed-use history—built in the 1930s as a copper pipe and sheet metal manufacturing plant and serving since 2018 as a free site for contemporary art—this exhibition highlights how artists have derived inspiration from industry, labor, and the poetic and political power of found goods.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

May 2022

Art historian and curator Dr. Jordan Amirkhani wrote an essay about Prof. Soleimani's practice and her exhibition at the Smith Center for the Arts (Providence College Galleries). Read about how the work touches the notion of home, recuperates memory through the stories of her family and uses photography in a new "akimbo" way.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

May 2022

Pillars of Industry is Prof. Soleimani's first solo exhibition in Italy, following her residency at Castello San Basilio. Her residency focused on ILVA, Italy’s largest and most pollutive steel plant, and the ethical questions surrounding how large entities operate. The exhibition was on view from May 28-September 4, 2022.

Cameron Anderson - Theater Arts

May 2022

Prof. Anderson designed a world premiere opera, RUR A Torrent of Light, composed by Nicole Lizée, and directed by Michael Mori at the Tapestry Opera in Toronto, Canada,

Dmitry Troyanovsky - Theater Arts

May 2022 

While conducting research in Berlin on theater and the Holocaust, Prof. Troyanovsky--a native of Ukraine--spent time volunteering as translator for Ukrainian refugees traveling through the Hauptbahnhof train station.

Fall 2021

Sarah Mead - Music

September 2021

Prof. Mead participated in JOSQUIN 500 FESTIVAL, Video Concert: "Like a Virgin: Women in the Music of Josquin des Prez" with Nota Bene Viol Consort. She also gave a lecture called "Why Josquin?" and did a participatory workshop called "Repeat after Me".

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

September 2021

Prof. Shapiro-Phim, along with Liberian singer and anti-violence activist Fatu Gayflor, delivered the inaugural presentation for the Peace Research Institute of Oslo's INSPIRE seminar series. They spoke about their documentary film, Because of the War.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

September 2021

A hyperallergic article featured Prof. Soleimani's objections to an opening event at Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles, which incorporated the release of live birds.

Isaiah Wooden - Theater Arts

September 2021

Prof. Wooden participated in REACTIVATING MEMORY, a virtual symposium hosted by Princeton University to mark the centennials of the Shuffle Along premiere on Broadway and the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921.

Gannit Ankori - Fine Arts

October 2021

On October 7th the Queen of Holland opened a major Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Drentsmuseum, co-curated by Prof Ankori and Circe Henestrosa. The exhibition combines two of the major Kahlo collections from Mexico for the first time, including dozens of paintings, drawings, photographs, and the artist's personal belonging.

Erin Gee - Music

October 2021

Prof. Gee had performances in October of "Mouthpiece II" at Festival Mixtur in Barcelona; Inter Feral Arts/New Music Festival in Malmö, Sweden; and the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris. Erin is also currently featured on the PBS series Resonant Bodies.

Jonathan Unglaub - Fine Arts

October 2021

Prof. Ungaub published an essay on Poussin's  "A Dance to the Music of Time" in the catalogue for a major loan exhibition "Poussin and the Dance" at the National Gallery, London (October 9th-January 2nd) and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (February 15-May 8, 2022).

Robert Walsh - Theater

October 2021

Prof. Walsh directed the world premiere of "Think of Me Tuesday" by Ken Riaf for Gloucester Stage Company.

Joe Wardwell - Fine Arts

October 2021

Prof. Wardwell had a solo exhibition at LaMontagne Gallery called "I'm Afraid of Americans."

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

November 2021

Prof. Almeida exhibited work at Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Lisbon; Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto; and Galeria Cristina Guerra, Lisbon.

Karen Desmond - Music

November 2021

Prof. Desmond published an article on W. de Wicumbe in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, a flagship musicological journal.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

November 2021

Prof. Shapiro-Phim along with Naomi M. Jackson, Rebecca Pappas were editors on The Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance published in November 2021.

 

Caren Irr - CAST

November 2021

Life in Plastic: Artistic Responses to Petromodernity, edited by Prof Irr, was published by University of Minnesota Press.

Joe Wardwell - Fine Arts

November 2021

Work by Prof. Wardwell was featured in the Boston Globe about mural project for the Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library. 

Eric Chasalow - Music

December 2021

Prof. Chasalow is currently composing a violin concerto for Miranda Cuckson and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, to be performed as an "intervention" in the Rose Art Museum in December 2021, and a song cycle on themes of climate change.

Summer 2021

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

June 2021

Prof Almeida is part of an exhibit called "All I want: Portuguese Women Artists from 1900 to 2020" at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. This exhibition featured two hundred works of art from 40 Portuguese women artists created between the start of the 20th century and our days will be reunited in this grand exhibition, as part of the Cultural Programme of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Tory Fair - Fine Arts

June 2021

Prof. Fair received a Port Neighborhood Grant, Cambridge Public Art (2021 - 2022). Her sculpture, "Portable Window", gives agency to explore how we frame ourselves in relationship to each other and to our surroundings at large. The sculpture is essentially a wood wheel with handles and a rectangular window in the center that frames a view. While our digital culture has made it incredibly easy to frame and take pictures without restraint, Portable Window slows down and makes framing our surroundings a more physical act in sync with our bodies. Generating conversations, happenings, and time lapse videos from rolling and positioning Portable Window in accessible locations such as Spy Pond, opens up several platforms to listen and learn in an unprecedented time of pandemic anxiety and cultural upheaval.Throughout the grant year, residents of the Port neighborhood of Cambridge will co-create with a Portable Window Kit, a small 2-foot sculpture that is easily assembled and rolled by individuals. These rolls will generate a larger archive of videos and conversations that represent a 2021 portrait of The Port, framed by the residents. Engagements began in June 2021.

Ben Paulding - Music

June 2021

Prof. Paulding was awarded a Whiting Fellowship from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation to study traditional Manding dance-drumming at the Gambia Academy. Ben’s study of the music of Gambia adds to his already rich knowledge of traditional African music of Ghana, Togo and Benin.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

June 2021

Work by Prof Soleimani was part of the survey exhibition "With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932", at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Leigh Swigart - CAST

June 2021

Prof Swigart's paper proposal on English-language hegemony at the International Criminal Court was selected among a large pool of applicants to be part of a publication project entitled "International Criminal Justice: a Counter-Hegemonic Project?" It is organized by Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin and the group presented their drafts via Zoom on June 21-22.

Dmitry Troyanovsky - Theater

June 2021

Prof. Troyanovsky directed Magda Romanska's new play "Life is Everywhere" for Project Resilience at the SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston (streaming June 2021). "Life is Elsewhere" narrates the changes that pandemic inflicted on those of us for whom our homes became both places of confinement and places of freedom. Will the changes in how we communicate create a permanent society-wide mental capacity for reimagining access to work, knowledge, and resources?

Sabine Von Mering - CAST

June 2021

Prof. Von Mering has signed a contract with Routledge for a co-edited volume (together with Monika Hübscher) on "Antisemitism on Social Media".

Joe Wardwell - Fine Arts

June 2021

Work by Prof. Wardwell is part of the group exhibition "While You Were Sleeping", at LaMontagne Gallery in Boston.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

July 2021

Work by Prof. Almeida was part of exhibit "Double Trouble" at the ICA/MECA in Portland, ME. The exhibit featured the work of five artists working in the mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. Working with the idea of the double - as mirror, representation, or iteration - these artworks ask viewers to reflect on the potential of seeing themselves in new ways.

Cameron Anderson - Theater

July 2021

Prof. Anderson was scenic designer for Glory Denied at the Berkshire Opera Festival, July 22-24, 2021.

Erin Gee - Music

July 2021

Prof. Gee performed her composition "Mouthpieces 34" in an online premiere that took place  on July 14, 2021 on YouTube. The audio/video piece was originally shown in the spring of 2020 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Sarah Mead - Music

July 2021

Prof. Mead’s viol consort Nota Bene, along with five singers, released a CD of the Quattordeci Sonetti Spirituale of Pietro Vinci (1525-1584). This recording grew out of a project funded in part by Mandel Faculty Grant and the Brandeis Arts Council, and was originally inspired by a collaboration with Brandeis professor Ramie Targoff during the 2013 meeting of the New England Renaissance Conference that took place at the Mandel Center. The performances of the works, which were directed by Sarah, were recorded in 2019 in the Brandeis Harlan Chapel. It represents the first recording of this music. A review of the CD can be found on MusicWeb International.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

August 2021

Prof. Almeida had her 5th solo exhibition at Simone Subal Gallery in New York City.

Eric Chasalow - Music

August 2021

Prof. Chasalow was the Artist in Residence at the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy) and The Studios of Key West.

Peter Kalb - Fine Arts

August 2021

Prof. Kalb's book "Art Since 1980" was translated into Korean and published by Mijin Publishing Co. Seoul.

Spring 2021

Tory Fair - Fine Arts

January 2021

Prof. Fair had an exhibition, "Portable Window," which opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art on January 15, 2021. The video and sculpture of Tory Fair frames new perspectives in landscape. Inspired to steward some of the seeds that pioneering feminist Mary Miss planted as a sculptor in the 1970s, Fair opened an intergenerational dialogue with Miss and is guided by her priorities: “Breathing space, human scale, and first-hand experience.” Through generating conversations, happenings, and videos Fair’s playful work opens up several platforms to listen and learn in an unprecedented time of pandemic anxiety and cultural upheaval.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

January 2021

The newly published Coexistence in the Aftermath of Mass Violence: Imagination, Empathy and Resilience (Eds. Eve M. Zucker and Laura McGrew) includes a chapter by Prof Shapiro-Phim. The book demonstrates how imagination, empathy, and resilience contribute to the processes of social repair after ethnic and political violence. Adding to the literature on transitional justice, peacebuilding, and the anthropology of violence and social repair, the authors show how these conceptual pathways — imagination, empathy and resilience — enhance recovery, coexistence, and sustainable peace.

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

January 2021

Prof. Shapiro-Phim presented a paper as part of a "Transnational mobilities of music and dance in the Global South: Choreographing belonging, composing identity" workshop, hosted by the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University (The Hague, Netherlands).

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

January 2021

Prof Shapiro-Phim gave a presentation on IMPACT, in collaboration with an IMPACT colleague in Cyprus, at the International Peace Research Association conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

February 2021

Work by Prof. Almeida was part of a group show called, "l'entre-deux," at the Pina Gallery in Vienna, Austria.

Tory Fair - Fine Arts

February 2021

Prof. Fair gave a talk with artist Mary Miss that was hosted by Institute for Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. This talk was in conjunction with Tory Fair's solo exhibit "Portable Window" on view at the museum from January 15 through March 14.

Susan Lichtman - Fine Arts

February 2021

Prof. Lichtman was in a group show called "Paradise Island" at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Projects in New York. Show was on view from February 17 to March 20. 

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

February 2021

Prof. Scott wrote an article that was published online by the UK journal, the Journal for the History of Collections, and will later be in the print journal. Article titled "Henry Clay Frick and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The blockbuster exhibition of 1910."

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

February 2021

On Wednesday, February 10th, Prof. Scott presented a paper at the College Art Association Conference. The paper, "The Woman Abolitionist and The Slave Ship:  Alice Sturgis Hooper, Collector of Allston and Turner" was presented on a panel called "Chronicling Lost Legacies:  Women Collectors and Dealers of the long Nineteenth Century."

Leigh Swigart - CAST

February 2021

Prof. Swigart was invited to serve on a selection committee for the NEH-funded Council of American Overseas Research Centers senior researcher fellowship.

Ariel Freiberg - Fine Arts

March 2021

Prof. Freiberg received a Visual Arts Artist Fellowship from the Somerville Arts Council and the Mass Cultural Council.

Christopher Frost - Fine Arts

March 2021

Prof. Frost had an exhibit up at the Boston Sculptors Gallery called “non-pastoral." It was featured in WBUR's Artery list of spring art exhibitions to see!

Alfredo Gisholt - Fine Arts

March 2021

Prof. Gisholt had a solo exhibition, "Rituals of Perception" up at Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston Texas.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

March 2021

Prof. Soleimani was interviewed about her work and practices in Phroom Magazine.

Yu-Hui Chang - Music

April 2021

In April 2021, as one of the featured composers in Collage New Music’s “The Composer Speaks” series, Prof Chang was interviewed by conductor David Hoose, and their lively conversation included topics ranging from musical identity to composition advice. The entire interview is posted on Collage’s YouTube channel.

Ariel Freiberg - Fine Arts

April 2021

Prof. Freiberg received a Combined Jewish Philanthropies Arts (CJP) and Culture Community Impact Grant, for Love + Salt public art installation and virtual platform. The in-person part is an installation of cement paintings at a public site, featuring a visual narrative of my family’s refugee story from Baghdad. On the Love + Salt virtual platform, guests will be invited to share their own commonly used terms for love and curses. As a means to make this project inclusive, the website will encourage guests to write their phrases in their native tongue. The website will be fully accessible, with a survey link for guests to share their favorite terms of love and insults.

Nancy Scott - Fine Arts

April 2021

Prof. Scott was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa chapter as Honorary  Member of her alma mater, Austin College. She was chosen as the recipient for 2020, due to her career in arts and humanities, and the generosity of the College who honors an alum each year since the PBK chapter was granted in 2001.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

April 2021

Prof. Soleimani was asked by the New York Times to create a photo assignment on how we have 'fun' during the pandemic - check out what she came up with.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

April 2021

Prof. Soleimani has created a seven-piece body of work, Coping Mechanisms, for Denny Dimin Gallery in New York.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

May 2021

Prof. Soleimani was selected as a Bernstein Faculty Fellow by the School of Arts and Sciences for the 2021/2022 academic year. She received this honor in recognition of the promise of her scholarship and teaching.

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

May 2021

"Modernism In the Global Context: Art and Society in Taiwan" on May 7-8.

Fall 2020

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

September 2020

Prof. Almeida has work in a group show, Vantage Points, at the GRIMM Gallery in New York. The show opens on September 3rd and closes October 17th.

Adrianne Krstansky - Theater

September 2020

Prof. Krstansky participated in Playwrights Lab as an actor at MIT. Check out this article about the lab.

Robert Walsh - Theater

September 2020

Prof. Walsh acted in the film Ring for Christmas.

lauren woods - Fine Arts

October 2020

Prof. woods participated in a lecture series entitled: "Forms of Reparations: The Museum and Restorative Justice." The series is presented by the Museum & Curatorial Studies graduate students of the School of Art at California State University, Long Beach.

lauren woods - Fine Arts

October 2020

Prof. woods gave a keynote on Saturday, October 24th for Now and There, the Public Art Accelerator Forum that will examine public art-making while sharing the resources available to the artists who participated in the three-year pilot N+T Public Art Accelerator program. 

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

November 2020

Prof. Almeida, had a show open at Tørreloft in Copenhagen. The show, Standard Error, also features work by artist, Magnus Frederik Clausen, and is on view till December 4. Sonia's work, all under the title of "Pocket and Lies," includes 1 large fabric piece, which is pictured here, 9 works on paper, and 1 book.

Ariel Freiberg - Fine Arts

November 2020

The Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University presented Hellbent, a solo exhibition by Prof. Ariel Basson Freiberg. Hellbent explores the structure of spectatorship through paintings that fluctuate between the divide of spectacle and concealment. Drawing from narratives and representations of Salome, the young woman who lasciviously danced in exchange for the head of John the Baptist, Freiberg beckons us to consider the nature of the infamous performance in relation to desire, gender, sexuality, and power. Through the sensuous and energetic handling of her medium, Freiberg operates alongside her protagonist, and her painterly gestures multitask as form and narration. The exhibition is on view from November 16, 2020 through May 28, 2021.

Christopher Frost - Fine Arts

November 2020

Prof. Frost has a piece in the exhibit "Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars Rocks" on view at the Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Center in New York City.

Fernando Rosenberg - CAST

November 2020

Prof. Rosenberg (HISP, COMP LIT) was a speaker at the International Colloquium on the Inter-American System of Human Rights, on a panel about Symbolic Reparations.

Sheida Soleimani - Fine Arts

November 2020

Prof. Soleimani had a solo exhibition, "Hotbed" at Denny Dimin Gallery, running from November 6th to December 23rd, 2020. An opening talk with the artist and Jasmine Wahi, the Holly Block Social Justice Curator at the Bronx Museum, accompanied the exhibition on November 6th.

Leigh Swigart - CAST

November 2020

Prof. Swigart was a panelist on an American Anthropological Association event organized around the theme "University-based centers and institutions as spaces for social justice and social change."

Aida Yuen Wong - Fine Arts

November 2020

Prof. Wong agve a lecture on Friday, November 13th in conjunction with the exhibit "Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks" on view at the Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Center in New York City.

Sonia Almeida - Fine Arts

December 2020

Prof. Almeida gave two virtual artist talks. One the Vakalo Art and Design College in Greece and one to Nick Oberthaler's class at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France.
Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

December 2020

Prof. Shapiro-Phim's documentary film, "Because of the War," was the focus of part of the UNESCO Art-Lab's International Human Rights Day celebration on December 10, 2020. UNESCO screened the trailer and interview Dr. Shapiro-Phim as well as Fatu Gayflor, one of the Liberian anti-violence activists and artists who share their stories in the movie.

About the film: In West Africa and North America, four Liberian women -- mothers, singers, dancers, survivors of civil wars, refugees and immigrants -- use their music to address injustice and inspire action for social change. Fatu Gayflor, Marie Nyenabo, Zaye Tete and Tokay Tomah share their stories in this film, deepening understandings of the active, constructive roles the arts and artists can take in moments of crisis in the lives of families and communities

 

Toni Shapiro-Phim - CAST

December 2020

Prof Shapiro-Phim gave a presentation at the Theatre in a Time of Crisis conference hosted by the Open University of Cyprus.

Summer 2020

Elizabeth Bradfield - CAST

July 2020

Prof. Bradfield's (English, Creative Writing) poem "Touchy" was in the July/August 2020 issue of Atlantic Monthly. One of her essays, "Buried Birds" was published in a new anthology, "When Birds Are Near," from Cornell U Press. And she has been teaching online for the Orion Environmental Writers Workshop.

Cynthia Cohen - CAST

July 2020

Prof. Cohen (Director Peacebuilding and the Arts, Ethics Center) served on an external review committee for the Program in Human Rights at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She also serves as co-convener of the Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice series, a set of virtual presentations and conversations based on the special issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice that she co-edited in March 2020.