Center for the Arts

Gallery Exhibitions

Oceanids by Joseph Coscia Jr.

Oceanids are some 3000 nymphs in Greek mythology who watch over fresh water: rain, clouds, lakes, springs and rivers, as well as pastures, breezes and flowers. They are the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Coscia, the Chief Photographer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has spent countless hours with classical sculptures, photographing them in various settings and seasons. He focuses on the qualities of light on sculpture in changing conditions, and the shifting effects of natural light on stone surfaces. His photographs of museum pieces explore elements of the art outside the context of the museum setting.

His recent work draws on Man Ray’s solarization techniques. This effect reverses the shadow areas and transforms the sense of weight and volume of the objects, so that they appear suspended in air or water. The forms are evocative of earthly creatures or fossils; photographing and printing them using recreated old photographic techniques removes time specificity, so that they also are suspended in time.

Gallery Exhibitions

Maunderings by Tonya D. Lee

In this exhibition, artist and Monmouth University Art and Design faculty member, Tonya D. Lee presents a collection of multi-discipline work that explores the abstraction of nature and environment through the combination shapes, patterns, moments and pauses that are derived from passive spaces, fleeting thoughts and changing winds. Location and process are in a conversation about ephemeral moments of beauty. Using a multi-disciplinary process of combining painting, drawing, collage, construction, and digital media, the obsessions with materiality explore form and color as an echo of the present overlapping past presents — form and color negotiating to exist as object and subject.

Gallery Exhibitions

Jacob Landau and His Circle

An exhibition of paintings by the late Jacob Landau and works by members
of the artist’s circle who were strongly influenced by his vision
including Myron Wasserman, Jack McGovern and Joanne Leone. The exhibition
was curated by Leone who studied with Landau from 1985-2001. This event is
part of the Jewish Cultural Studies Program.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Semiramide (Broadcast in HD)

Angela Meade makes her Met role debut as the title character in Semiramide. Rossini’s opera, which has not been seen at the Met in 25 years, will be conducted by Maurizio Benini and feature Elizabeth DeShong as the Commander of the Assyrian army Arsace, Javier Camarena as an Indian king Idreno, Ildar Abdrazakov as the prince Assur, and Ryan Speedo Green as the high priest Oroe.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

La Bohème (Encore)

An exciting young cast stars in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production of La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history. Sonya Yoncheva stars as Mimì opposite Michael Fabiano as the passionate writer Rodolfo. Susanna Phillips reprises the role of the flirtatious Musetta and Lucas Meachem sings the role of her lover, the painter Marcello. The cast also features Alexey Lavrov and Matthew Rose as Rodolfo and Marcello’s friends Schaunard and Colline and Paul Plishka as Benoit and Alcindoro in this performance, led by Marco Armiliato.

Visiting Writers

Eleanor Hooker & Clodagh Beresford Dunne

Clodagh Beresford Dunne was the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Emerging-Writer Award Bursary, 2016. Her poems have appeared in Irish and international print and online journals, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, Southword, The Moth, The Pickled Body, Spontaneity and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. Eleanor Hooker is a poet and writer. She lives in North Tipperary with her husband Peter, they have two sons. Her second collection of poems A Tug of Blue (Dedalus Press) was published October 2016.

World Cinema Series

World Cinema Series: Mountains May Depart

China, 1999. Childhood friends Liangzi and Zhang are both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually decides to marry the wealthier Zhang. They soon have a son he names Dollar… From China to Australia, the lives, loves, hopes and disillusions of a family over two generations in a society changing at breakneck speed.

Live Theatre Broadcasts in HD

National Theatre: Broadcast in HD

Hamlet

Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, The Imitation Game) takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy.

Now seen by over 750,000 people worldwide, the original 2015 NT Live broadcast returns to cinemas.

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Posh, Chimerica) and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

Gallery Exhibitions

First Senior Show: Fine Art & Animation

Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Fine Art and Animation.

Performing Arts Series

Rockin’ Road to Dublin

Rockin’ Road to Dublin returns to Pollak Theatre in 2018 by popular demand! Created by the 2009 World Champion of Irish Dance Scott Doherty (Riverdance & Lord of the Dance) and worldwide touring Irish musician Chris Smith, Rockin’
Road is the new generation of Irish music and dance. RRTD is a breathtaking display of classic Irish tunes accented by rock ‘n’ roll riffs, electrifying dancers and a dynamic light show. Enjoy the thrilling sights and sounds as daring performers execute rapid-fire leaps, twirls and footwork, and nimble fiddlers square off with driving electric guitar chords and pulse-pounding drum beats. Fans say, “Rockin’ Road to Dublin not only combines Riverdance and Lord of the Dance perfectly, but actually surpasses them!”

Department of Music & Theatre Arts Productions

SONGWRITERS BY THE SEA

Distinguished NJ Songwriters Joe Rapolla and Joe D’Urso are back this year hosting the celebrated Songwriters by the Sea series at the Lauren K. Woods Theatre. What once started in a small coffee shop as an area for local songwriters has now grown into a series that features some of the top songwriters in the country. This year, the show features special guest Willie Nile

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Semiramide (Encore)

Angela Meade makes her Met role debut as the title character in Semiramide. Rossini’s opera, which has not been seen at the Met in 25 years, will be conducted by Maurizio Benini and feature Elizabeth DeShong as the Commander of the Assyrian army Arsace, Javier Camarena as an Indian king Idreno, Ildar Abdrazakov as the prince Assur, and Ryan Speedo Green as the high priest Oroe.

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD

Così Fan Tutte

Phelim McDermott returns to the Met staging Mozart’s comedy Così fan tutte, led by David Robertson. Set in the 1950s on Coney Island, the cast features Amanda Majeski as the conflicted Fiordiligi; Serena Malfi as her sister, Dorabella; Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara as their feisty maid, Despina; Ben Bliss and Adam Plachetka as the sisters’ fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Christopher Maltman as the cynical Don Alfonso. Così fan tutte is a co-production with the English National Opera.

Artful Explorations of Activism

Gallery Exhibitions

Artivism

As a universal language, the arts have always been an effective tool for addressing social issues. Artivism or “activist art” is a form of social protest that explores cultural and political concerns. However, it is much more than just an innovative tactic, Artivism involves an entire practice that attempts to inspire positive change in society. This juried exhibition will feature works of art that employ spectacle, symbolism and collective participation to fight for issues of social justice including racial discrimination, gender equality, fair labor practices, human rights and more.

ArtNOW: Performance, Art, and Technology

Artist Talk with Chris Clavio

Chris Clavio is an Electronic Artist and Entrepreneur living and working in Santa Fe, NM. His work explores the sublime and perception using light, sound, and interactive environments. Currently he is the Director of IT and Electrical Infrastructure Systems for the artist collective Meow Wolf. Clavio has shown work across the United States, most recently in Pittsburgh, PA, with Energy Flow, a project in collaboration with Andrea Polli that highlights the Rachel Carson bridge with wind-turbine powered LEDs. His current projects integrate several software platforms and various hardware configurations to create immersive and interactive environments that stimulate the senses in order to evoke the imagination and push the limits of our perceived reality.

Live Theatre Broadcasts in HD

National Theatre: Broadcast in HD

Julius Caesar

Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London.
Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital.
Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

Gallery Exhibitions

Second Senior Show: Graphic Design

Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Graphic Design.

Visiting Writers

Marlon James

Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His recent novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award.

World Cinema Series

Human Capital

Dino Ossola, a small-time real estate agent who dreams of bigger things; Serena Ossola, his teenage daughter who dates a spoiled rich brat; Carla Bruneschi, an actress who has given up her career to marry a wealthy businessman; Massimiliano Giovanni Bernaschi, her husband, a powerful player; Massimiliano Bernaschi, the troubled son of the Bernaschis; Roberta Ossola, a psychologist, Dino’s second wife; Donato Russomano, a brilliant drama teacher who is stuck on Carla; Luca Ambrosini, a teenager frowned upon by others; an anonymous cyclist… They are all shareholders of the human capital.

Grammy Museum Affiliation

Tuesday Night Record Club

TUESDAY NIGHT RECORD CLUB: Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town

It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights in Woods Theatre to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss… there will be special guest moderators and panelists at each event! This discussion will feature Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town.