Arts And Culture

Jay Boyer, BA’95, is the founder and CEO of Castability, an app designed to demystify the art—or perhaps the science—of casting actors in productions.  Read More

Carsen Smith, BA'18, is the co-author of "Alien Summer #1" with James S. Murray of TV's "Impractical Jokers." The book, released March 15 by Penguin, is a middle grade reader and the first in a sci-fi series with female characters at the forefront and a tone that’s more funny than scary. Read More

Recent books written by alumni of Vanderbilt University Read More

Prolific bestselling novelist James Patterson, MA’70, and country music legend Dolly Parton have collaborated on a novel, Run, Rose, Run, to be published March 7 by Little, Brown and Co. Read More

In a new book, 'Gilded Age Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America’s Golden Age,' Cecelia Tichi, research professor of English, explores the history of some of bartending’s most enduring recipes, as well as drinks created for business titans of the day, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt Read More

The husband-and-wife team of Camille Obering, BA’00, and Ben Musser, BS’01, are the founders of Guesthouse, an exhibition space and residence that functions as a laboratory for adventurous art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Read More

A listing of recent books published by Vanderbilt alumni from the latter part of 2020 to fall 2021. Read More

Vanderbilt Blair creates Curso Virtual de Dirección de Banda, a remote learning program for music directors in Latin America that covers instrument pedagogy, conducting techniques and other topics in band direction. Read More

Alumna Alyssa Weinberg, cofounder of new music and contemporary dance collective Duende, creates new forms of expression as a composer inspired by artists in other disciplines. She also has written music for some of the country’s premier chamber ensembles, including Eighth Blackbird, So Percussion and Aizuri Quartet. Read More

Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, which offered online-only streamed concerts for most of the 2020–21 academic year, hosted two outdoor in-person performances on Wilson Lawn in April, including a production of Benjamin Britten's 'Albert Herring' by Vanderbilt Opera Theatre. Read More

A compilation of recent awards, events and research in Vanderbilt's arts community. Read More

'Pressed for Time: Five Centuries of Prints from the May Collection,' on view online and from January through the end of March at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery, was curated by Professor David Price and students in his History of Prints class. Meeting weekly throughout the summer and fall of 2020, the students often were joined by Jack May, a longtime Nashville businessman and print collector, who inspired a new generation of collectors and connoisseurs of print art. Read More

Assistant Professor of History of Art Rebecca VanDiver focuses her research on African American artists—particularly Black female artists of the 20th century. In the classroom, she presents art history not only as a discipline that allows for a study of the history of artistic movements and style, but also as a lens to study culture and history. Read More

Allison Schachter, an associate professor of Jewish studies, English, and Russian and East European studies, developed a new theory about the role of women who made lasting and meaningful contributions to Jewish culture and history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Read More

Edwin Wilson, BA'50, recounts his journey in theatre, from Nashville to New York, in a memoir, Magic Time: Notes on Theatre & Other Entertainments (Smith and Kraus, 2020). Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have acquired a collection of rare photographs of, and by, the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., ’71—a pivotal figure in the history of the civil rights movement and Vanderbilt University. Read More

Ediciones Vigía, a publishing house in the town of Matanzas, Cuba, began to create handbills and invitations in 1985 for local cultural events. Displayed through March of this year, these works now can be enjoyed again in the online exhibit Found in Cuba: The Ingenuity and Creativity of Ediciones Vigía. Read More

Overcoming daunting challenges is routine for Blake-Anthony Johnson, BMus’12, who in May became CEO of the Chicago Sinfonietta, a pioneering organization in the orchestral world committed to diversity and parity for all. Read More

A selection of recent accolades awarded to faculty and alumni Read More

The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery has been selected among spring 2020 applicants to receive support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for an exhibition of medieval and Renaissance artworks. Read More