Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts has announced a fall schedule featuring 60 livestreamed events for global audiences, most of them free of charge. Ticket sales for the nine paid offerings will open to the public on September 16.
In this season we bring you critical perspectives, information, and conversations that we hope will help us move forward as a society, but we also bring the cultural performances and discussions that provide a much-needed balm in unprecedented times.
— Executive Director of the Quick Center for the Arts, Peter Van Heerden
Juxtaposing cutting-edge performance art with classic audience favorites and thought-provoking panel discussions, the Quick’s 30th anniversary year boasts a robust fall lineup of 60 virtual events spanning arts, culture, education, and contemporary topics. With only nine events requiring a ticket purchase, the bulk of programming will be offered free to the global digital audience.
“We have been through a lot as a community this year — locally, nationally, and globally. We believe it is our role as an arts center to be flexible so that we are not only meeting the needs of our community as a venue, but also as a window to the world around us,” said the Quick Center’s Executive Director Peter Van Heerden. “In this season we bring you critical perspectives, information, and conversations that we hope will help us move forward as a society, but we also bring the cultural performances and discussions that provide a much-needed balm in unprecedented times.”
On Sept. 21, voice actor and P.T. Barnum enthusiast Will Sarris will host the Barnum Museum’s Executive Director Kathleen Maher for a fun-filled presentation that reveals fact vs. fiction in the film The Greatest Showman. For those who miss thought-provoking and compelling drama at the theatre, award-winning TV writer and producer Stan Zimmermann’s Right Before I Go will be presented on Oct. 10 as part of the Quick Center’s Global Theatre Series, curated by Broadway producer Cheryl Wiesenfeld. On Dec. 8, fan-favorite Orin Grossman will grace screens with a repertoire of Gershwin favorites.
The Open VISIONS Forum boasts a stellar lineup of interdisciplinary speakers. Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan kicks things off on Oct. 2 with “Finding the Moral High Ground/Challenges for USA’s Reboot,” in Bank of America's Women and Leadership series, and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha — pediatrician, professor, and public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint water crisis — will discuss the state of children’s healthcare on Nov. 18.
Designed to foster an inclusive worldview, the Quick Center’s programming reflects diverse perspectives across disciplines. Returning this year as a senior fellow, performance artist and audience favorite Nora Chipaumire will continue to explore the African experience and black bodies in the arts. A film screening of Let the People Decide with producer/director Gavin Guerra will share first-hand stories from the Civil Rights movement. In partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Institute, the speaker series Hindsight/2020 will bring revered experts in the arts and humanities to interpret and contextualize critical developments in issues of racialized violence, public health, and social responsibility.
The Open MINDS Institute is back for a semester of virtual learning, with curated courses in fine art, opera, publishing, and more. The Quick has also partnered with the Fairfield University Art Museum on a full schedule of webinar gallery talks and discussions that range from collecting artwork to the psychology of art.
This small sampling of what the Quick has to offer this fall is representative of the holistic, multidisciplinary programming upon which Fairfield University prides itself... and there is so much more. For complete information about performing arts programming at the Quick Center and Fairfield University, please visit quickcenter.com.
