Arts and Humanities

‘Wild Stories’ shows the power of ‘bombastic’ and brilliant narrative art

April 23, 2025

An exhibition in Brown’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts celebrates the artwork of Professor of Visual Art Leslie Bostrom as she reflects on three decades of teaching and painting at Brown.

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Arts and Humanities

Two Brown faculty members win Guggenheim fellowships

April 16, 2025

The prestigious fellowships will support the creation of new books by Yannis Hamilakis, a professor of archaeology and modern Greek studies, and Tracy Steffes, a professor of education and history.

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Arts and Humanities

Free, student-led public art tours at Brown University to run from April to November

April 11, 2025

The Brown Arts Institute will host public art tours every Saturday and Sunday, inviting Brown and Providence community members to explore the University’s distinctive public art collection.

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Arts and Humanities

In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history

April 8, 2025

A newly discovered altar, buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal, is shedding new light on the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan.

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Arts and Humanities

Residual Noise festival explores the creative power of sound

April 7, 2025

Hosted at Brown and RISD, the festival celebrated sound’s potential to transform art and society — and The Lindemann’s potential to push the limits of sound exploration for generations to come.

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Arts and Humanities

Staff Spotlight: Behind the scenes with Alexander Haynes

March 6, 2025

As the technical director of Brown’s John Street Studio, Haynes oversees the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies workspace and supports students’ experiential learning in art and design.

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Arts and Humanities

Filmmaker and Brown scholar RaMell Ross nets another Oscar nomination with ‘Nickel Boys’

February 24, 2025

Five years after his first Academy Award nomination, Ross earned a second for his film about a notorious Florida reformatory school, which stars Brown alumni Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Daveed Diggs.

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Arts and Humanities

French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet stages immersive, multi-sensory installation at Brown

February 19, 2025

In a site-specific reimagining of the artist’s Venice Biennale exhibition, the installation in Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery focuses on water as a site of trauma and emancipation and incorporates Rhode Island-made sculptures.

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Arts and Humanities

With graffiti-inspired bubble clouds, whimsical new art installation illuminates Sayles Hall at Brown

February 11, 2025

New York-based interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers created a site-specific installation, “Unsui (Cloud Forest),” which features 10 cloud sculptures that hang from the rafters of Brown’s iconic 1881 Sayles Hall.

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Arts and Humanities

Art history detectives for a semester, Brown students research mystery of the ‘Black Gospel Window’

December 20, 2024

In a hands-on history of art and architecture course, students researched a stained-glass window uncovered in a local church, which may be the first representation of a Black Christ and gospel women.

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Arts and Humanities

From the Lab: Christelle Alvarez illuminates ancient Egyptian insights, encoded in hieroglyphs

December 19, 2024

A collaboration between an Egyptologist and data scientists at Brown aims to make the Pyramid Texts, the world’s oldest surviving corpus of religious texts, widely accessible to a modern audience.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Simmons Center co-organizes major Smithsonian exhibition on global legacies of slavery

December 18, 2024

“In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture prominently features Brown University research, scholarship and artifacts.

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Arts and Humanities

Elijah Golden: Embracing storytelling from the Grand Ole Opry stage to Brown’s classrooms

December 17, 2024

Brown University senior Elijah Golden pursues a varied academic and extracurricular life at Brown while also performing and touring with his family’s three-generation country music band.

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Arts and Humanities

'Blue Moon': Student exhibition of cyanotypes featuring NASA lunar images lands at Brown

November 12, 2024

A collection of silk and cotton prints created by Brown University students and community members is on display at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts through Nov. 16.

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Arts and Humanities

Student-led public art installation in Providence offers a new perspective on visual impairment

November 1, 2024

Following research, development and community collaboration, a team of Brown and RISD students unveiled “The Blind Urban Subject,” where passersby can experience the streetscape through common ocular conditions.

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Arts and Humanities

21st Century Orchestra festival at Brown to celebrate new orchestral music and performance

October 23, 2024

An open-to-the-public festival, from Oct. 24 to 27, will highlight Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center as a premier site for orchestral music performance, experimentation and recording.

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Arts and Humanities

Exhibition at Brown’s Bell Gallery celebrates the vibrant, textured artwork of Franklin Williams

October 17, 2024

On view through Dec. 8, the new survey exhibition, “Franklin Williams: It’s About Love,” showcases the deeply personal paintings and sculptures the artist has created over the last six decades.

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Arts and Humanities

Gone but not forgotten: Beloved elm tree from Brown sees new life in the form of handcrafted art

October 2, 2024

Eiden Spilker and others from the Brown Design Workshop are repurposing wood from a treasured American elm into sculptures and keepsakes for the Brown community.

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Arts and Humanities

Artist Leo Villareal returns to Brown to reflect on his immersive campus light installation

September 28, 2024

The world-renowned artist and creator of “Infinite Composition” in Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center shared insights on his creative process at a late-September Light in Art and Architecture Symposium.

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Arts and Humanities

Tuning up: Brown’s cutting-edge Lindemann Performing Arts Center marks its first year

September 28, 2024

As the one-of-kind, high-tech Lindemann Performing Arts Center turns one, artists are just starting to embrace the building’s limitless possibilities.

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Arts and Humanities

Renovated Andrews House reopens its doors as new humanities hub at Brown

September 24, 2024

A breathtaking renovation has transformed the historic building, which housed Brown’s Health Services for eight decades, into a modern, collaborative and flexible space to advance humanities scholarship.

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Arts and Humanities

Studying fossil extraction on Native lands and exploring the depths of untold histories

September 23, 2024

Supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, a Brown historian teamed up with a Lakotan scholar to illuminate overlooked histories of fossil extraction on Native American lands.

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Arts and Humanities

Prestigious grant to enable first major exhibition on 19th century painter Edward Mitchell Bannister

August 28, 2024

A National Endowment for the Humanities grant will enable Brown Professor Dietrich Neumann to develop a traveling exhibition on the long underrecognized African American painter.

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Arts and Humanities

Natan Rodrigues Ferreira: Taking to the stage to broaden access to bilingual community theater

August 15, 2024

Through a summer internship with Rhode Island Latino Arts and Trinity Rep, the rising Brown senior is helping to stage a free, outdoor bilingual performance series for Rhode Island communities.

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Arts and Humanities

With focus on supporting HBCU faculty, Brown library expands access to scholarly digital publishing

July 26, 2024

The Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing institute introduces scholars, many of whom are from historically Black and other minority-serving institutions, to best practices in online scholarly publishing.

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Arts and Humanities

Photos: Community concert, program for local musicians cap off dynamic residency at Brown

July 16, 2024

The University’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center hosted the sold-out Global C.A.F.E., a free and open-to-the-public concert curated by Rhode Island hip-hop artist Chachi Carvalho.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Bell Gallery awarded prestigious two-year Warhol Foundation grant

July 12, 2024

An award from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will enable the University’s David Winton Bell Gallery to expand public programming for exhibitions in 2025 and 2026.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown University’s John Hay Library acquires former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s papers

July 11, 2024

Harjo’s writing drafts, correspondence, scripts and teaching materials will significantly enhance the University’s scholarly resources from Native and Indigenous writers and performers.

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Arts and Humanities

Student research sheds light on history of Andrews House on Brown campus

May 15, 2024

As Brown’s Cogut Institute for the Humanities prepares to move into Andrews House, the institute engaged two undergraduates in a semester-long research internship to explore the building’s history and significance.

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Arts and Humanities

Photos: Professional musicians bring final projects by Brown student composers to life

May 7, 2024

Musicians from the New York Classical Players provided expert insights and performed Brown students’ original works as part of a Seminar in Composition course.

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Arts and Humanities

Student-led walking tours highlight Brown’s diverse collection of public art

May 2, 2024

Through free weekly outdoor tours, Brown students offer guided narration for a selection of works in the University’s expansive public art collection.

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Arts and Humanities

Photos: Open studio event showcases creativity of Brown University artists

April 26, 2024

Students and faculty in Brown’s Department of Visual Art opened their studios and classrooms to display and converse about their creative work at an open-to-the-public event.

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Arts and Humanities

Inaugural FLIP Festival celebrates Spanish-language writers with weekend-long event series

April 1, 2024

The open-to-the-public Festival of Ibero-American Literature of Providence, organized by Brown’s Department of Hispanic Studies, will feature prominent novelists, poets and short-story writers, from April 5 to 7.

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Arts and Humanities

Simmons Center exhibition examines art and incarceration, through Mumia Abu-Jamal works

March 15, 2024

“Art and the Freedom Struggle: The Works of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” on view at Brown’s Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, underscores the impact of creation during incarceration.

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Arts and Humanities

Photos: Brown University Orchestra and kids from Community MusicWorks team up for concert

March 12, 2024

Providence K-12 students took to the stage at Brown’s new Lindemann Performing Arts Center for a collaborative performance of the composition “Anthem.”

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Bell Gallery celebrates groundbreaking performance artist Barbara T. Smith

March 6, 2024

An exhibition of Smith’s work and objects is the only East Coast presentation of a show organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown University literary arts professor named Rhode Island poet laureate

March 4, 2024

Appointed by the governor, Colin Channer looks forward to expanding opportunities for writers and enabling more literary experiences for Rhode Islanders, including K-12 students, during his five-year term.

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Arts and Humanities

For this Brown University scholar, grey parrot trade offers a peek into both human and environmental history

February 29, 2024

As part of an enduring scholarly focus, Nancy Jacobs celebrates the exceptional characteristics of the grey parrot and examines complex ties between trade of the species and historical eras including the transatlantic slave trade.

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Arts and Humanities

South African artist William Kentridge and collaborators share innovative artmaking approach at Brown

February 29, 2024

Through a dynamic, multi-part residency with the Brown Arts Institute through mid-June, Kentridge and artists from his Johannesburg-based arts incubator are engaging with the University community and beyond.

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Arts and Humanities

New grant enables Brown, Princeton scholars to expand study of race in the classics

February 22, 2024

A $1 million Mellon Foundation award will support “Racing the Classics,” a project co-founded by Brown assistant professor Sasha-Mae Eccleston, to impact scholarship in ancient Greek and Roman studies.

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Arts and Humanities

Art exhibition at Brown’s Watson Institute puts new spin on ancient art of Indo-Persian miniature painting

February 8, 2024

A series of paintings by Mahnoor Hussain, a Rhode Island-based artist whose work focuses on themes related to women’s mental health, infertility and loss, is on display through May 31.

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Arts and Humanities

Dual-degree students explore nostalgia, intimacy in wide-ranging art exhibition

February 2, 2024

The 16th annual Brown-RISD dual-degree student art exhibition, "While The Sap Flows," is on display at Brown’s Granoff Center through Feb. 25.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center debuts recital configuration

January 19, 2024

Acclaimed classical singer Julia Bullock was the first artist to grace The Lindemann stage in its recital configuration, one of five dramatically different arrangements available in its main hall.

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Arts and Humanities

Award-winning novelist Katherine J. Chen sets out to reach new literary heights at Brown

December 21, 2023

A first-year student in Brown’s English Ph.D. program, Chen recently received the 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award for her novel about Joan of Arc.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown anthropologist’s mapping project shows how Peru transformed after colonization

December 18, 2023

A large-scale satellite mapping project, co-founded by Brown researcher Parker VanValkenburgh, is helping archaeologists identify sweeping climate and cultural changes that occurred in the Andes Mountains over the last millennium.

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Arts and Humanities

Political scientist Juliet Hooker examines range of forces driving racial politics

December 14, 2023

A leading thinker on race and democracy, the Brown University professor spoke about her new book, which explores race, democracy and expectations about whose losses matter.

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Arts and Humanities

Photos: The world turned upside down: Brown students experience room-scale camera obscura

December 13, 2023

Using a technique that preceded the photographic camera, Brown Arts Institute staff projected a live image of the outside world, including the University’s stunning new Lindemann Performing Arts Center, inside a darkened room.

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Arts and Humanities

Digging into Providence’s past, Brown’s in-demand Archaeology of College Hill course opens new site

December 6, 2023

After seven years of excavation at the former site of a 19th-century Providence family home, Brown students have begun searching for artifacts at a new location on campus.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown sociologist who contributed to new U.S. National Climate Assessment shares key takeaways

November 17, 2023

Professor Elizabeth Fussell discussed the Fifth National Climate Assessment, for which she co-authored a chapter, as part of the report’s expanded focus on the social impacts of climate change.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum to move from Bristol to Providence, enabling more research, engagement

November 9, 2023

The anthropology museum’s move to Providence’s Jewelry District, slated for Fall 2025, will open new possibilities for scholarship, community outreach and partnership with Indigenous communities worldwide.

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Arts and Humanities

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