Arts weekend to showcase performers, celebrate Tilghman's tenure

The Princeton campus will come alive this weekend with music, song, and dance. From April 25-28, Princeton Arts Weekend will celebrate the ways in which University and community members create art. The weekend will feature performances, exhibits, and collaborative projects. On Sunday, the weekend will culminate with Communiversity, the annual town-gown street festival, and Shirleypalooza, a tribute to President Tilghman’s dedication to the arts.

Some of the art that will be showcased is the product of classroom projects. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding taught an Atelier course this semester on songwriting. The students will perform their original songs Saturday night at Small World Coffee.

“It’s been a joy to work with these student writers and musicians,” Muldoon said. “Each and every one of them is remarkable in some way. I fully expect this class to throw up some people who will become household names.”

For some students, Princeton Arts Weekend marks their debut. Performing for the first time at Princeton, Avanthika Srinivasan ’16 will be singing classical Indian songs at Blair Arch.

“To be performing here in Princeton and to have all my friends come support me and learn more about my culture definitely means a lot to me,” said Srinivasan. She added that she also appreciates the University’s “willingness to give platforms for artists like me to share our passion for music, dance, or any other art form, with the community.”

For others, this weekend is the culmination of four years steeped in the arts. Daniel Rattner ’13 is presenting his senior thesis show “O Where Are You Going?” on Saturday and Sunday.

Rattner said that the show started out as a short assignment for the Introductory Playwriting class he took as a junior. After working on it for a year-and-a-half, he has molded it into a full-length piece exploring the tensions of growing up through the lens of the myth of Persephone.

“It means a lot to me having [my play] performed the same time as Princeton Arts Weekend because I am so indebted to the arts programs, both academic and student-run, at this school, and I wouldn’t have been able to put up this show without them,” Rattner said.

Princeton Arts Weekend also provides an opportunity for different mediums to collaborate. Princeton’s Modern Improvisational Music Appreciation (MIMA) group is bringing together dance groups, music groups, WPRB, architectural installations, and more for an experimental dance party on Friday.

Cara Michell ’14, who helped revive MIMA, said, “It is really important for different creative groups on campus to work together because there is so much we can learn from each other when we work across artistic genres, which is lost when things are segregated between academic programs and separate student groups.”

 For a full list of events, visit the Princeton Arts Weekend Calendar of Events.