2008 Woodie Awards
The 2005 Arts Festival
Could this University Actually (Gasp) Begin Looking Like a Real Cultural Center?
Menachem Wecker
Issue date: 4/18/05 Section: Arts & Culture
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For those of you who missed it, the 2005 Yeshiva University Arts Festival has dominated the last two weeks on campus, from a flamenco concert to Elizabethan drama, from poetry and prose readings to a Shabaton. Dean Norman Adler and the Joyce Jesionowski launched the festival six years ago in an effort to promote the arts on campus. Previous festivals allowed students to showcase their work in the fine arts, photography, poetry, prose, music and the dramatic arts. This year's festival upheld that tradition of providing a platform for student artwork, but it also pioneered an unprecedented trajectory of involving alumni participation as well as that of those outside the YU extended family.
Working with University Director of Alumni Affairs Robert R. Saltzman, the festival staff invited YU alumni to submit work to the fine arts exhibit. The festival staff also invited Jay Michaels, artistic director of the Genesis Repertory Ensemble, to direct the theater night, which included a reading of the Yorkshire Tragedy-once believed to be penned by Shakespeare-and an opening act by a Stern College professor, who played Elizabethan era compositions. On the Shabaton, I moderated a panel with three artists: Boston-based painter, Tom Barron; my co-columnist at the Jewish Press and painter in his own right, Richard McBee; and Canadian painter, Chashi Skobac. The festival also opened with a concert of Sephardi music with renowned guitarist Gerard Edery.
These delegations of out-of-house artistic involvement joined with a series of workshops. One trip visited the Urban Glass studio in Brooklyn, and students received a tour of the glass blowing facilities. Another event involved visiting Ceramic Supply, the largest ceramic tool distributor in the Northeast.
All these "extras" would never have been possible without the great support of the Yeshiva College Dean's Office. The festival, though titled the Yeshiva University Arts Festival, perhaps ought to be titled the Yeshiva College Dean's Office Festival; though other facets of the institution did contribute funds to the festival, the administrative and organizational planning really came mostly from Assistant Dean Fred Sugarman and Dean Adler. While in previous years there was definitely positive theoretical interest in the festival from the YU administration, this year the deans actually sported a can-do, pragmatic attitude that allowed student organizers the space they needed to plan new things, while also providing funding and advice when necessary. Under Sugarman's successful navigation of the channels that be at YU-I daresay he has learnt the ropes quite quickly-the festival increased its operating funding by more than double its previous resources.
Working with University Director of Alumni Affairs Robert R. Saltzman, the festival staff invited YU alumni to submit work to the fine arts exhibit. The festival staff also invited Jay Michaels, artistic director of the Genesis Repertory Ensemble, to direct the theater night, which included a reading of the Yorkshire Tragedy-once believed to be penned by Shakespeare-and an opening act by a Stern College professor, who played Elizabethan era compositions. On the Shabaton, I moderated a panel with three artists: Boston-based painter, Tom Barron; my co-columnist at the Jewish Press and painter in his own right, Richard McBee; and Canadian painter, Chashi Skobac. The festival also opened with a concert of Sephardi music with renowned guitarist Gerard Edery.
These delegations of out-of-house artistic involvement joined with a series of workshops. One trip visited the Urban Glass studio in Brooklyn, and students received a tour of the glass blowing facilities. Another event involved visiting Ceramic Supply, the largest ceramic tool distributor in the Northeast.
All these "extras" would never have been possible without the great support of the Yeshiva College Dean's Office. The festival, though titled the Yeshiva University Arts Festival, perhaps ought to be titled the Yeshiva College Dean's Office Festival; though other facets of the institution did contribute funds to the festival, the administrative and organizational planning really came mostly from Assistant Dean Fred Sugarman and Dean Adler. While in previous years there was definitely positive theoretical interest in the festival from the YU administration, this year the deans actually sported a can-do, pragmatic attitude that allowed student organizers the space they needed to plan new things, while also providing funding and advice when necessary. Under Sugarman's successful navigation of the channels that be at YU-I daresay he has learnt the ropes quite quickly-the festival increased its operating funding by more than double its previous resources.