Spring at the AU Museum

Learn more about current exhibitions and see the museum event calendar.

• The Tree around the Corner
  Barbara Kerne, Artist
  Vivienne M. Lassman, Curator
• Art and the Demands of Memory
  Works by Second Generation
  Holocaust Survivors

  Artists:
  Trudy Babchak
  Michael Steiner Borek
  Coos Hamburger
  Micheline Klagsbrun
  Kitty Klaidman 
  Dalya Luttwak
  Miriam Mörsel Nathan
  Margot Neuhaus 
  Chaya Schapiro
  Mindy Weisel

  Aneta Georgievska-Shine, Curator

• Dana Hart-Stone: Kaleidoscope
  Dana Hart-Stone, Artist
  Brian Gross, Curator
• A Drawing Like No Other: Marilyn Brought Back to Life in 9,000,000 Marks
  Billy Pappas, Artist
  Gary Vikan, Curator
• The Human Flood
  Ellyn Weiss, Artist
  Sondra N. Arkin, Artist
  Laura Roulet, Curator

• Looking for the Light

  Artist: Bob Schieffer
  Curator: Michael Beschloss

• SURFACE TENSION
  The Visible and The Hidden
  AU Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition

• Image: Barbara Kerne, Day and Night, 2022. Oil on linen, 39 x 39 inches.

DANCEWORKS 2024Artistic Direction by Erin Foreman-Murray
Ronya-Lee Anderson, Director, American University Dance Company
Choreography by Ronya-Lee Anderson, Esperonto Bean, Orange Grove Dance, and Rose Xinran Qi
April 19-20, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
Tickets: $10-$15, free for AU students with ID

Rediscover the power of live dance in our increasingly virtual world. The American University Dance Company brings DANCEWORKS 2024 to the Greenberg Theatre stage with original choreography.

Featuring guest choreographers Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves, artistic directors of Orange Grove Dance, a multimedia dance company that "creates visually athletic experiences through the lenses of dance, film, and design." Dancers will present contemporary dance repertory by independent artist Rose Xinran Qi, whose work is informed by her extensive background in contemporary, postmodern, ballet, and Chinese dance. The company will also perform a new dance theatre piece by faculty choreographer Ronya-Lee Anderson and a new club and street styles work by dance faculty member and guest choreographer Esperonto Bean.

Photo: Justin Williams, Unifyed Visuals.

Some Spring Swing
American University Jazz Orchestra
Joshua Bayer, director
April 19, 7:30 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall
Tickets: $10-$15, free for AU students

Swing into the season with the AU Jazz Orchestra playing Big Band swing, funk, and straight-ahead Jazz from a variety of composers. Featuring special guests from the Georgetown University Jazz Ensemble.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast"
American University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
Matthew Brown, director (AU Symphony Orchestra)
Casey Cook, director (AU Chorus)
April 27, 7:30 p.m. and April 28, 3 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall
Tickets: $10-$15, free for AU students

The AU Symphony Orchestra and Chorus collaborate to perform a lesser-known but important oratorio by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor—”Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” This work sets text from a section of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem Song of Hiawatha (1855) to jubilant music that narrates the marriage celebration of the fictional Ojibwe warrior Hiawatha to Minnehaha, a Dakota woman.    

The program also includes Saint-Saëns' Symphony no. 2 in A minor, the world premiere of “January Sunrise” by AU student composer Matthew Lipka, and soloist Madeleine Corrigan, AU student and winner of the annual Concerto and Aria competition, playing the first and second movements of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto no. 1.

Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha contains some misrepresentations of Native American culture. Learn more about Hiawatha in context.

FINALE Senior Capstone: Photography and New Media and Studio Art Majors

April 17-May 1
Reception: April 26, 5-7 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center Rotunda

The capstone exhibition, FINALE, represents the culmination of intensive research and creative exploration by students from two sections of the Studio Art Capstone class. Showcasing a diverse array of backgrounds, practices, and themes, this exhibition serves as a testament to the transformative journey each student has undertaken. Through their dedicated efforts, they have not only synthesized their learning from this education but also forged a new language of expression, one that reflects their unique ideas, imagination, and craftsmanship. FINALE invites viewers to embark on a journey of discovery, where each artwork offers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of perspectives and experiences cultivated within our Studio Art program at AU.