(noticia) The 2005 Arts Festival

Could this University Actually (Gasp) Begin Looking Like a Real Cultural Center?
By Menachem Wecker
Published: Monday, April 18, 2005
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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.

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