John B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities | Haverford College

The John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities provides a place for inclusive and interdisciplinary programming by promoting collaborative engagement with the intellectual and artistic ambitions of Haverford College and broader communities.

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News & Updates

HCAH Awarded Pew Grant

The $360,000 grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage supports “LOOK HERE,” a project that includes multiple exhibitions, a publication, and a symposium focused on the work of neurodivergent artists.

The Ghosts of History

In The Ghosts of History, Magnum photographer Moises Saman commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq by exploring the construction of competing narratives of war through the interaction of images and language.

Ying Li: Weather Report

The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and Gross McCleaf Gallery presents Weather Report, a two-part exhibition of new paintings by Ying Li, the Phlyssa Koshland Professor of Fine Arts at Haverford College.

Isabella Otterbein is pictured in a portrait wearing a white headband and a white sweater over a dark-colored shirt.

Summer Centered: Isabella Otterbein '26 Combines Art and Activism to Drive Awareness of Crisis Pregnancy Centers

One of three Hurford Center creative interns, Otterbein is spending the summer as a programs intern for Abortion Access Front and creating a zine designed to educate the College community.

Zainab-Saleh in a floral print top smiling for the camera with a soft focus background of Haverford College

Welcome to New HCAH Director Zainab Saleh

Please join us in welcoming Zainab Saleh, who will serve as the Huford Center's Koshland Director for the next three years!

Sound Abounds at Strange Truth 2024

Now in its 15th year, the film series begins March 27 with a live film performance by Oscar-nominated director Sam Green.

Yesterday we had a wonderful collage workshop titl

Yesterday we had a wonderful collage workshop titled Rested Futures with artist Yannick Lowery (@severe.paper)!!

Thank you Yannick for coming out to Haverford and for all of our participants for showing up✨🌟🦋

If you missed this workshop it’s okay😌 The Artist Workshop series continues with 🌸Amir Khadar’s Piecework and Embroidery Workshop on 11/20🌸

Faculty! Apply to the Hurford Center’s AY 2025-2

Faculty! Apply to the Hurford Center’s AY 2025-26 Faculty Seminar “Waste:Life”!

Seminar leader: Craig Borowiak (Political Science)
Deadline: October 17, 2024

From greenhouse gasses to plastic pollution, waste has become a defining feature of the 21st-century Anthropocene. While waste can be life-threatening (eg, oceanic dead zones, species extinction, environmental collapse), it can also be life-giving, including in unexpected ways. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch hosts a thriving aquatic ecosystem. In South Asia, an endangered species of stork finds precarious safety in urban dumps, finding refuge in the refuse. More unsettling is the discovery of microplastics in human embryos. Such examples challenge simplistic characterizations of waste as a problem while raising existential questions about the integrity of living beings.

This faculty seminar will explore the relationship between waste and life through multiple lenses. What do waste and life mean in different disciplinary and cultural contexts? Are those meanings shifting? How is it that some life gets rendered essential whereas others are treated as excessive, wasted, or destined for wastelands? Drawing from Discard Studies, the seminar will push beyond conventional waste management frameworks to evoke broader reflection on the systems and power dynamics that generate, represent, and distribute both waste and life. It will also explore creative and life-affirming repurposing of waste, whether through art, compost, engineering, or the circular economy.

Learn more via the link in our bio.

Open to all tenured, tenure-track, continuing, and visiting faculty. Please send a detailed account (1-2 pages) to HCAH Director Zainab Saleh (zsaleh@haverford.edu) outlining how your research and teaching would centrally engage the theme and the ways you imagine contributing to this interdisciplinary dialogue.

Today in VCAM! 1. VCAMbient: Protest Songs with G

Today in VCAM!

1. VCAMbient: Protest Songs with Gustavus Stadler
Wednesday, October 9, 1pm, VCAM Lounge

This session explores the wide, wide world of protest songs, broadly construed: from the liberatory spirit of queer dance-floor anthems (Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real”) to the stridency of militant folk songs (Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”); from the biting irony of punk rock (Gang of Four’s “To Hell With Poverty!”) to the stark drum and bass of proto hip hop (Gil Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”) And speaking of liberation, don’t forget Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill”!

2. Rested Futures: A Collage Workshop led by Yannick Lowery
Wednesday October 9, 4:30-6:30pm, VCAM 201

Introducing “futuring” as a communal exercise, visual artist Yannick Lowery will lead a workshop using paper collage to visualize our collective futures. By reframing the theme of rest as an essential tool for future manifestation, participants will compose images that connect present duty to the future realm.

During this workshop, Lowery will share several collage techniques and provide insight into his practice while encouraging participants to develop their own methods.
*Although collage materials and supplies will be provided, participants are encouraged to bring their own images dealing with rest and burnout.

See you there!

VCAMbient: Protest Songs with Gustavus Stadler Wed

VCAMbient: Protest Songs with Gustavus Stadler
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
1pm
VCAM Lounge

This session explores the wide, wide world of protest songs, broadly construed: from the liberatory spirit of queer dance-floor anthems (Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real”) to the stridency of militant folk songs (Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”); from the biting irony of punk rock (Gang of Four’s “To Hell With Poverty!”) to the stark drum and bass of proto hip hop (Gil Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”) And speaking of liberation, don’t forget Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill”!

Now in its fourth year, VCAMbient is an opportunity for students, staff, faculty, and guests to fill the cavernous space of VCAM with their favorite sounds–at a volume that permits the ongoing business of teaching, learning, and working in the building. Make a Spotify playlist, or better yet, bring an instrument, start playing/streaming, and see what happens. You can have a theme, or the theme can simply be “stuff I like.”

Contact HCAH & VCAM Associate Director James Weissinger to sign up for your VCAMbient set! jweissin@haverford.edu

Latinx Heritage Month Keynote Speaker: Kristal Sot

Latinx Heritage Month Keynote Speaker: Kristal Sotomayor
TODAY, Friday October 4
4:30-5:30pm
Stokes Auditorium

Latinx documentary filmmaker, journalist, and curator Kristal Sotomayor (BMC ‘17) is the keynote speaker for Latinx Heritage Month on campus! They’ll be sharing their journey and experiences in Latinx filmmaking. See you there!

Organized by ALAS. Supported by the Hurford Center’s Student Arts Fund and VCAM.

Rested Futures: A Collage Workshop led by Yannick

Rested Futures: A Collage Workshop led by Yannick Lowery
Wednesday October 9th
4:30-6:30pm
VCAM 201

Sign up via the link in our bio!!

Introducing “futuring” as a communal exercise, visual artist Yannick Lowery will lead a workshop using paper collage to visualize our collective futures. By reframing the theme of rest as an essential tool for future manifestation, participants will compose images that connect present duty to the future realm.

During this workshop, Lowery will share several collage techniques and provide insight into his practice while encouraging participants to develop their own methods.

*Although collage materials and supplies will be provided, participants are encouraged to bring their own images dealing with rest and burnout.

Yannick Lowery is an interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Inspired by the cultural dynamism of his native New York and present hometown, his work explores the creations of illustrated proverbs, portents, and historical souvenirs to guide the viewer through cultural introspection and responsible, imaginative perpetuation. He parallels archival imagery and his photography to employ world-creation and compile instigative and investigative way-making devices through collage, animation, and sculptural works.

Part of the Hold on Tight: Philly Artist Workshop Series, organized by Kelly Jung and Manasi Eswarapu.

Email meswarapu@haverford.edu with any questions.

New Reading Group! Depictions of Mental Health in

New Reading Group!
Depictions of Mental Health in Psychosocial Writings
Organized by Julia D’Amato ’27

Interested in the intersection of psychology and sociology as it pertains to mental health? Want to explore literary applications of clinical psychology?

Books we will read include Odes to Lithium, Post-Traumatic, and The God of Small Things. Whether you are majoring in Sociology, Fine Arts, or Chemistry, we want your voice in our discussions!

Email Julia to sign up at jdamato@haverford.edu. Supported by the Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Lots going on in VCAM today! Join us at noon in th

Lots going on in VCAM today! Join us at noon in the VCAM Lounge for a VCAMbient listening session focusing on My Bloody Valentine’s m b v album 🎸4pm in the Maker Arts Space for the return of Weaving Wednesdays with @manasi.k.e + @turkeyburgerrecipe 🧶🧶 4:30pm in the VCAM Screening Room for “Palissy’s Lost Grotto: From the Archive to the Virtual,” a talk by Haverford faculty Luis Rodríguez-Rincón with collaborator and Tuttle Creative Resident Kelley O’Brien! ✨✨ See you at any and all!

Events

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024

7:00PM

BUNKER: Screening & Conversation with Filmmaker Jenny Perlin and Lightbox Film Center's Jesse Pires

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024

12:00PM

VCAMbient: A Slightly Quiet Drum Machine Jam

7:00PM

Flaherty Film Seminar Student-Curated Screenings: Tellurian Drama (2020) & Foragers (2022)

Wednesday, October 30th, 2024

4:30PM

Summer Reflections and Creative Fellowship Show Opening

Contact

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John B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities
Haverford College
370 Lancaster Ave
Haverford, PA 19041

(610) 896-1336
hcah [at] haverford.edu