Close Close

  • Fun Home

    When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.

    Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking graphic novel, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

    Presented by the Department of Music and Theatre Arts, Fun Home features Director Sheri Anderson, Choreographer by Bob Boross, Musical Director of George Wurzbach and Assistant Director Annie Sacks.

    Fun Home is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

    “In an effort to make our show accessible to as wide an audience as possible, we’ve decided to make the show free to the public. 

    Thank you for your ongoing support of the arts at Monmouth University.”

  • The Red Bank: Rum Runner – Immersive Digital Storytelling

    Award Winning local Red Bank filmmaker and Monmouth Alum will present a talk and creative workshop at Monmouth University’s ArtNOW visiting artists series. Anthony Jude Setaro and cousin Douglas Booton will discuss their creative process in-depth as they dive deeper into the local history of their family emigrating from Italy. The Setaro family left Sassano, Italy, their home for the last 400 years, in 1888, searching for a better life in America. With maps and trade routes drawn out by their father, Don Vito Setaro, his sons split the family apart to create shipping routes to establish their wine business on the shores of New Jersey, establishing an Italian community and then bootlegging in the Red Bank area.

    After releasing a podcast, The Red Bank: Rum Runner, Part 1: Temperance, which they recorded with Ming Chen (A Shared Universe), Setaro and Booton are now using cutting-edge 3D software, Unreal Engine (also used in The Mandalorian and The Matrix Awakens), to visually recreate Red Bank and Monmouth County in the early 1900s. Anthony and Doug are using Unreal Engine to bring long-forgotten ancestors back to life with an incredible level of lifelike detail. The filmmakers combine live footage, filmed by cinematographer and producing partner Joe Minnella (Joe Minnella Studios), with virtual footage to transport viewers to a time of significant change in our area.

    October 4th 
    Tuesday 6pm – 7:30pm , 30min Q&A
    Location: The Great Hall Auditorium

    October 5th 
    Wednesday 2:45pm – 4:30pm
    Location: IDM (Interactive Digital Media) Research Lab, Plangere Room 135
    RSVP Required

    For more info or to RSVP, contact Amanda Stojanov at astojano@monmouth.edu

  • The Red Bank: Rum Runner – Immersive Digital Storytelling

    Award Winning local Red Bank filmmaker and Monmouth Alum will present a talk and creative workshop at Monmouth University’s ArtNOW visiting artists series. Anthony Jude Setaro and cousin Douglas Booton will discuss their creative process in-depth as they dive deeper into the local history of their family emigrating from Italy. The Setaro family left Sassano, Italy, their home for the last 400 years, in 1888, searching for a better life in America. With maps and trade routes drawn out by their father, Don Vito Setaro, his sons split the family apart to create shipping routes to establish their wine business on the shores of New Jersey, establishing an Italian community and then bootlegging in the Red Bank area.

    After releasing a podcast, The Red Bank: Rum Runner, Part 1: Temperance, which they recorded with Ming Chen (A Shared Universe), Setaro and Booton are now using cutting-edge 3D software, Unreal Engine (also used in The Mandalorian and The Matrix Awakens), to visually recreate Red Bank and Monmouth County in the early 1900s. Anthony and Doug are using Unreal Engine to bring long-forgotten ancestors back to life with an incredible level of lifelike detail. The filmmakers combine live footage, filmed by cinematographer and producing partner Joe Minnella (Joe Minnella Studios), with virtual footage to transport viewers to a time of significant change in our area.

    October 4th 
    Tuesday 6pm – 7:30pm , 30min Q&A
    Location: The Great Hall Auditorium

    October 5th 
    Wednesday 2:45pm – 4:30pm
    Location: IDM (Interactive Digital Media) Research Lab, Plangere Room 135
    RSVP Required

    For more info or to RSVP, contact Amanda Stojanov at astojano@monmouth.edu

  • “Classical Realism” with master painter – Scott Nickerson

    This exhibit features work by painter Scott Nickerson and his core group of advanced students, and is a great example of the powerful influence one master painter can have on a school of artists.

    Scott Nickerson was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in the fall of 1970. His passion for the art world evolved as he matured and he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts, New York City in 1996. Scott studied under many extremely talented instructors at SVA, including renowned figure painter and draftsman, Steven Assael. He continued his studies after graduation at the Art Students League, New York City and Studio Incamminati, Philadelphia with distinguished artist and teacher, Nelson Shanks.

    In 1997, Scott began to share his knowledge and love of painting with his own students, teaching classes at several locations across Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Many of his courses work directly from live models, allowing the students an extensive study of each pose. When not teaching, Scott can be found working at his Ocean Township Studio on commissioned portraits. His work is displayed worldwide in private and public collections, including universities and government agencies.

    Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.

    Opening Reception: October 28 from 5 pm to 7 pm. RSVP for the reception here

    **Please note the gallery will be closed November 24-November 27 for the holiday weekend.***

  • Jeanine Pennell: Stepping Off the Page: Stories in Clay

    An exhibition of work by artist Jeanine Pennell

    Artist Statement:
    I began this year journeying away from the studio. I left behind my bags of clay and my work tools. Bringing with me only a sketchbook and watercolors. It was the first time since the pandemic that I was away from clay.

    I was in search of a new creative process. All of my early sculptures were created in short spurts of time, capturing the fleeting magic of a creative idea, much like gesture drawing. But this process did not serve when I began to push the boundaries. As the sculptures grew and I was creating without a clear end in mind, I found myself stuck. Clay figures draped in plastic shrouds collected in the corners of my studio.

    During this time away I turned the process around. I began drawing small intuitive drawings. The sketches were quick, with no purpose or expectation. Capturing the essence of ideas that would float up. Later I would return to color them in and to excavate the meaning behind the art. What did the masks mean? The sharp teeth…faces and more faces? What did it all mean?

    I then developed the ideas from my sketchbook in 3-D or clay by creating small maquettes. Once the sculptures were completed early mornings found me sitting with the art to write what I saw. The stories came out. Slowly at first, but with practice more steadily.

    This collection is a record of that journey. In the main gallery is a collection of the largest, finished sculptures. As you descend to the lower gallery you will encounter the beginning of the journey. On display are the original drawings, maquettes and early sculptures as well as the stories behind the art.

    Opening Reception September 30, 2022   7 PM – 9 PM | Ice House Gallery

  • Tell Pharaoh

    Produced by DUNBAR REPERTORY COMPANY, Tell Pharaoh is a concert drama about Harlem, our nation’s foremost Black community, from the time of slavery all the way through the 21st century. Written by playwright Loften Mitchell who was part of a groundswell of writers that contributed to the Black American theatre movement in the 1960s, the play is a masterfully crafted and poetic recitation of a history that began long before the slave trade.

    “Mitchell reached his artistic heights as a dramatist in TELL PHARAOH, an eloquent ‘theater-at-the-lectern’ history of black people.”  —Darwin T. Turner, Contemporary Dramatists

    Directed by:
    Mark Antonio Henderson
    Starring:
    Darrell Lawrence Willis, Sr.
    Lorraine Stone
    Kirk Lambert
    Takia Clayton
    Featuring singers:
    Janet Clarke Graham
    Jazmin Graham
    Viveca Graham

  • Tell Pharaoh

    Produced by DUNBAR REPERTORY COMPANY, Tell Pharaoh is a concert drama about Harlem, our nation’s foremost Black community, from the time of slavery all the way through the 21st century. Written by playwright Loften Mitchell who was part of a groundswell of writers that contributed to the Black American theatre movement in the 1960s, the play is a masterfully crafted and poetic recitation of a history that began long before the slave trade.

    “Mitchell reached his artistic heights as a dramatist in TELL PHARAOH, an eloquent ‘theater-at-the-lectern’ history of black people.”  —Darwin T. Turner, Contemporary Dramatists

    Directed by:
    Mark Antonio Henderson
    Starring:
    Darrell Lawrence Willis, Sr.
    Lorraine Stone
    Kirk Lambert
    Takia Clayton
    Featuring singers:
    Janet Clarke Graham
    Jazmin Graham
    Viveca Graham

  • Cherish the Ladies

    One of America’s most heralded Irish music ensembles for the last 37 years, Cherish the Ladies has won the hearts of audiences worldwide with their rousing blend of traditional music, captivating vocals, and propulsive step dancing. Under the leadership of Joanie Madden, these extremely gifted women create a moving experience with a blend of virtuoso instrumentals, beautiful vocals, traditional and original arrangements along with stunning step dancing — all presented with extraordinary talent, creativity, and humor.

  • As We Forgive

    Join us for a World Cinema Series film screening/discussion illuminating the theme “Wartime Lives: Enduring and Transcending Violence and Occupation” by analyzing the message and impact of the film As We Forgive (2009).

    Directed by Laura Waters Hinson and narrated by Mia Farrow comes the award-winning documentary of two Rwandan women who struggle with the face-to-face encounter with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. These women and men speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government released 50,000 perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy. Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution of reconciliation. Come experience through their eyes the journey from death to life through forgiveness.

    (District of Columbia: Image Bearer Films, 2010), 54 minutes

    The discussion of the film will be led by Claude Taylor, Director For Academic Transition And Inclusion.

  • Quo Vadis, Aida?

    Join us for a World Cinema Series film screening/discussion illuminating the theme “Wartime Lives: Enduring and Transcending Violence and Occupation” by analyzing the message and impact of the film Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnian, 2020).

    Quo Vadis, Aida? (lit. Where are you going, Aida?) is a 2020 Bosnian film written, produced and directed by Jasmila Žbanić. An international co-production of twelve production companies, the film was shown in the main competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival. It was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards and has won the Award for Best Film at the 34th European Film Awards.

    The film dramatizes the events of the Srebrenica massacre, during which Serbian troops sent Bosniak men and boys to death in July 1995 led by Serbian convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. Named for its protagonist, Quo Vadis, Aida? exposes the events through the eyes of a mother named Aida, a schoolteacher who works with the United Nations as a translator. After three and a half years under siege, the town of Srebrenica, close to the northeastern Serbian border, was declared a UN safety zone in 1993 and put under the protection of a Dutch battalion working for the UN.

    The discussion of the film will be led by Christopher DeRosa, Associate Professor in the department of History and Anthropology and Marina Vujnovic, Professor,  in the department of Communication.