Redevelopment of Norris University Center’s East Lawn to begin this summer
April 5, 2024
EVANSTON, Ill. --- What’s happening in the arts and humanities at Northwestern University? Find out by browsing a new website -- www.artscircle.northwestern.edu -- that, for the first time, showcases all of Northwestern’s robust offerings in one convenient location.
The Arts Circle website provides a consolidated and comprehensive listing of campus arts exhibits, performances and programs, including film, humanities, literary arts, music, theatre, dance and visual arts. Upcoming events can be searched by genre, date or venue, enabling visitors to access detailed information about specific programs in which they are interested.
Arts Circle events are all open to the public and also can be followed on Facebook and Instagram. For ticketed events, the website includes links to various box offices.
With graphics reflecting Northwestern’s storied reputation in the arts and great cross-reference capabilities, the website makes it easy to find a multitude of exhibitions, performances, lectures, films, workshops and talks by visiting artists and leaders in their respective fields.
The new website represents the next chapter of Northwestern’s long history in the arts and humanities. Integral to the creative life of the University, the events for the most part take place in the Arts Circle, a neighborhood of buildings along Lake Michigan’s shore on the southeast end of the Evanston campus. The buildings include the new state-of-the-art Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts; Pick-Staiger Concert Hall; Regenstein Hall of Music; theaters in the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts; the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art; and the Norris University Center, including the Dittmar Memorial Gallery.
Northwestern has conceived of the Arts Circle as more than a geographic location but as a “state of mind” embracing arts programming across the University. University Library, which showcases its collections in public exhibits throughout the year, is also considered part of the extended circle.
Other campus venues in which the campus and community will come together to experience arts programs include The Gym, a temporary space for Northwestern’s renowned department of art theory and practice; Annie May Swift Hall, home to the department of radio/television/film; and The Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
Also, the Black Arts Initiative, which cultivates an interdisciplinary approach to black arts, is planning the third in a series of major symposia. The June 2017 conference will explore the role of black arts around the globe and include international performances and installations by world leaders in the black arts, in which the arts and humanities intersect.
Stay tuned for a celebration of the arts on the Evanston campus that will launch the Arts Circle June 4, including performances by the Actor’s Gymnasium and the Tricia Brown Dance Company. These events will be free and open to the public.
