'Shout the big dreams' at Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts

The festival runs from April 14 to 17, featuring the Guy Mendilow Ensemble, Knighthorse Theatre Company, Rick Lowe and JJ PEET

 Art takes over the Brandeis campus April 14-17 at this year’s Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. 

Dance, music and theater performances will take place nightly. Artwork created for the festival will appear in public spaces. And the campus will welcome guest artists from around the country and around the world.

The festival’s theme, “Shout the Big Dreams,” refers to founder Leonard Bernstein, who said: “It is the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers, who will ultimately save us, who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams.”

"This year's festival of the arts is about exuberance, about courage, about being heard. Our guest artists have literally transformed communities through their art," said Ingrid Schorr, acting director of the Office of the Arts. "Brandeis students have created works for the festival that are rooted in an urgent desire to amplify their ideas about real things: climate change, spirituality, social justice."

All events are free and open to the public. Families will especially enjoy an afternoon of free short performances and activities on Sunday, April 17, 1-5 p.m.

Featured artists:

• The Guy Mendilow Ensemble will perform “Tales from the Forgotten Kingdom,” a spellbinding concert of Sephardi-influenced songs about vagabond queens, pauper poets, and lovers lost to the sea, Sunday, April 17, 2 p.m., Shapiro Campus Center Theater. 

• Knighthorse Theatre Company performs “Shakespeare on Demand,” scenes and speeches from Shakespeare’s most-loved plays, Sunday, April 17, 3 p.m., Shapiro Campus Center Atrium.

• Artist Rick Lowe gives a talk about Project Row Houses, which transformed a neglected Houston neighborhood into a visionary, still-evolving public art project, Sunday, April 17, 3 p.m., Rose Art Museum.

• Painter, sculptor and video artist JJ PEET invites participants to barter for a piece of his work, in exchange for their assistance or participation in the realization of a larger artwork to be displayed at Rosebud, the Rose Art Museum’s satellite gallery in Waltham.

Featured events:

• “Shoes On, Shoes Off,” a dance theater work created by acclaimed choreographer Susan Dibble, will be performed April 15-17, Spingold Theater Center.

• FolkFest will feature sets by up-and-coming folk artists including Four-Legged Faithful, April 16, noon–5:30 p.m., Great Lawn (rain location: Shapiro Campus Center).

• Guerilla Opera of Boston will perform a premiere concert Saturday, April 16, 8 p.m., Slosberg Music Center.

 Waltham’s Tick-Tock Trolley will run from Waltham City Hall, the Council on Aging, and Rosebud (683 Main Street) to the Brandeis campus on Sunday, April 17, 12:30-5 p.m.

 For a complete schedule, visit the Festival of the Creative Arts website. Most events are handicapped accessible and all are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.