HIGH POINT, N.C., Jan. 3, 2019 – High Point University invites the community to campus for an exciting lineup of cultural events. The spring schedule includes a variety of art, music and theatre performances, and special speakers.
Triad residents can sign up to receive email updates about community events at HPU throughout the year by visiting www.highpoint.edu/friends. They can also receive notifications about events by downloading the HPU Community App at www.highpoint.edu/communityapp.
Some of the spring events are part of the Faculty Cultural Enrichment Grant Series and are identified with an asterisk below. The grant assists faculty in planning vibrant, intellectually stimulating cultural events featuring nationally renowned academics, artists and performers. It supports programming in all academic disciplines and introduces students to thought-provoking ideas in art, literature, science, philosophy and business.
January
Chapel Services, to be held Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 16 through April 24 in the Charles E. Hayworth Memorial Chapel. Open to the public. On Wednesdays, the university community gathers for song, prayer, preaching and meditative silence. It’s a time to move from the chaos of life to the most important things in life: community, care of self and creativity of God’s spirit that transforms the world. Fellowship and small group discussion follow the service. The Rev. Preston Davis, minister to the university, preaches at each service, unless otherwise stated, and the Board of Stewards, composed entirely of students, oversees the liturgies.
The Pass/Fail Series: Steven Cozart’s Art, to be held Jan. 15 through March 8 in the Sechrest Art Gallery of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. The Sechrest Art Gallery is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. An opening reception will be held on Feb. 7. Steve Cozart is a North Carolina native and a graduate of East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design. He has taught art students of all ages for Guilford County Schools, The Center for Visual Arts and Theater Art Galleries since 1995. Cozart now pursues an ongoing career in freelance illustration, producing fine art, and works on private commissions as well. He lives with his family in Greensboro. His work has evolved into drawings, paintings and mixed media, and he has begun to collaborate with artists in other disciplines, such as dance, music production and digital media.
Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel Service, to be held at 11 a.m. on Jan. 21 in the Charles E. Hayworth Memorial Chapel. Open to the public. This annual chapel service celebrates the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and features noteworthy clergy and scholars from across the country.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, to be held on Jan. 21 at various locations and times across the city of High Point. HPU has organized nearly 35 service projects. Community members may sign up to participate at http://www.highpoint.edu/servicelearning/mlk-day-of-service/. Registration closes Jan. 18. Martin Luther King Jr. was deeply committed to serving others and helping foster a most just society. Every year, thousands of people across the United States come together to honor King through service projects, scholarship opportunities and worship services. High Point University and the surrounding community are growing their partnership to make MLK Day a day on rather than a day off.
Hank Brodt: Holocaust Survivor, to be held at 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. A limited number of complimentary tickets will be available by contacting Campus Concierge at 336-841-4636 or [email protected]. Hank Brodt, originally from Boryslaw, Poland, now lives in High Point. He was born on Dec. 1, 1925, and spent his teenaged years as the unwelcome guest of five Nazi prison camps and a forced labor camp, including Plashov, Matthausen and Ebensee from which he was liberated on May 6, 1945, by the troops of the U.S. 80th Infantry Division. In 1949, he immigrated to the United States and served in the U.S. Army. He had given up on finding other members of his family who had survived the war, but in 2007 he learned that his brother Simcha had survived the war and that his family was living in Israel. It is a miracle that Brodt was able to reunite with his nephews and their families in these twilight years of his life. This event is sponsored by Hillel, the History Department and the Office of Jewish Life.
Piano Division Series: Mozart’s Birthday Celebration Concert, to be held at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 in the Charles E. Hayworth Memorial Chapel. Open to the public. No tickets required. This concert is part of High Point University’s Music Department Chamber Music Concert Series. The program includes works for voices, piano and other instruments, including oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn.
February
David L. Clough: The Challenge of Christian Animal Ethics, to be held at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 7 in the Francis Auditorium of Phillips Hall. Open to the public. No tickets required. David Clough is professor of theological ethics at the University of Chester and has just finished a term as president of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. He co-wrote “Faith and Force: A Christian Debate about War” (2007), debating just war and pacifism in a 21st century context, and has recently completed the landmark two-volume monograph “On Animals” (2012, 2018), on the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics. He is the founder of CreatureKind, a project aiming to engage Christians with farmed animal welfare, and principal investigator for a three-year U.K. Research Council-funded project on the Christian ethics of farmed animal welfare in partnership with major U.K. churches and Compassion in World Farming. He is a Methodist lay preacher and has represented the Methodist Church on national ecumenical working groups on the ethics of warfare and climate change.
The Pass/Fail Series: Steven Cozart’s Gallery Talk and Reception, to be held at 5 p.m. on Feb. 7 in the Sechrest Art Gallery of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. Steven Cozart will first give a short gallery talk about his exhibition followed by a light reception for attendees to appreciate his art. This exhibition will be on view Jan. 15 through March 8.
Finch Lecture: Got Privilege, to be held at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 11 in the ballroom of Webb Conference Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. Privilege is often invisible to those who have it. This lecture by Dr. Alice Hunt will examine ways privilege functions in our society and will raise questions about how our values should impact our engagement with our privileges. Hunt is executive director of the American Academy of Religion, the major association for scholars of religion in the U.S. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, where she taught Hebrew Bible and served as associate dean for Academic Affairs. She served as president of Chicago Theological Seminary for 10 years.
*Cell-Art Collaborative Experiment Day, to be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Feb. 16 on the second floor of Couch Hall. Open to the public. To sign up to attend or participate, contact Dr. Veronica Segarra at [email protected]. High Point University’s Cell-Art Collaborative event gives local high school artists the opportunity to collaborate with HPU undergraduate scientists and explore the ways science and art can be integrated. Young artists will be invited to visit HPU research labs during Experiment Day and utilize the knowledge obtained and observations made to produce a work of art of their choice, whether that be in music, literature, or studio. These works will be displayed at a showcase on April 13.
HPU Theatre: “The Great God Pan,” to be held at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21-27 in the Empty Space Theatre. Open to the public. Complimentary tickets can be reserved starting Feb. 4 at http://www.highpoint.edu/theatre. Evocative, discerning and unswervingly sincere, “The Great God Pan” is a complex study of the ways in which a tragic event affects our lives and the lives of those around us. The play centers on an encounter between two childhood friends who have not seen each other for over 25 years. When one reveals a hidden secret from the past, the well-ordered world of the other begins to unravel and his life will never be the same again. “The Great God Pan” explores the questions of what is lost and what is won when we are exposed to potentially life-changing truths.
*Showcase of Dominican Cinema, to be held at 5 p.m. on Feb. 28 in the screening room of the Nido Qubein School of Communication. Open to the public. No tickets required. Juan Namnun Tavarez, assistant professor of film studies at the Technical Institute of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, will lecture about the history and main themes of Dominican Films, showing clips of the most important movies of each period, concluding with an overview of the current trends of the industry.
*Phoenix Reading Series: Jerry Gabriel and Karen Leona Anderson, to be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 in the ballroom of the Plato S. Wilson Commerce Building. Open to the public. No tickets required. Join HPU for a reading by Karen Leona Anderson and Jerry Gabriel followed by a light reception and book signing. Gabriel’s first book of fiction, “Drowned Boy,” won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and was published in 2010 (Sarabande Books). It was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and awarded the 2011 Towson Prize for Literature. His second book of fiction, “The Let Go,” was published in 2015 (Queen’s Ferry Press). He teaches writing at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and directs the Chesapeake Writers’ Conference. Anderson grew up in Connecticut. She received an M.F.A from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Master of Arts from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and her Ph.D. from Cornell University, where she wrote a dissertation on poetry and science. Her work has appeared in ecopoetics, jubilat, Verse, Indiana Review, Fence, Volt and other journals. She is an associate professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
March
Greensboro Opera Presents Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 1 and at 2 p.m. on March 3 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. A limited number of complimentary tickets will be available by contacting Campus Concierge at 336-841-4636 or [email protected] after Jan. 14. HPU is pleased to have the Greensboro Opera, under the artistic direction of David Holley, at the Hayworth Fine Arts Center for a timeless opera performance of Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.”
Instrumental Kaleidoscope Concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 4 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. Kaleidoscope features the HPU instrumental ensembles in a concert of great variety. Ensembles large and small will perform in “surround sound” within Pauline Theater, making for a fast-paced and enjoyable concert experience. This year’s performance will cover a broad spectrum of musical styles.
New Impressions: A Showcase of Contemporary Printmaking, to be held March 9 through April 18 in the Sechrest Art Gallery of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. The Sechrest Art Gallery is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. There will be an opening reception on March 21. This sixth annual juried exhibition, formerly titled Visions, will feature prints from various artists made using traditional techniques such as woodcut, etching and mezzotint, as well as contemporary methods enabled by digital technologies. The exhibition is curated by Kimberly Varnadoe, an acclaimed printmaker, photographer and art professor at Salem College in Winston-Salem.
New Impressions Gallery Talk and Reception, to be held 4 to 6 p.m. on March 21 in the Sechrest Art Gallery of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. This exhibition will be on view March 9 through April 18.
Spring Dance Concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 21-23 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. Complimentary tickets can be reserved starting March 4 at http://www.highpoint.edu/theatre. The 2019 Spring Dance Concert features a mix of dance styles from faculty and guest choreographers. Attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items, which will be collected at the door and donated to Open Door Ministries of High Point.
Piano Division Series: Ben Blozan, to be held at 3:30 p.m. on March 24 in the Charles E. Hayworth Memorial Chapel. Open to the public. No tickets required. Ben Blozan, concert pianist and HPU music faculty member, will present a solo piano recital. Come enjoy several undisputed masterpieces by Beethoven, Chopin and Ravel, as well as a departure from the beaten path with the Argentinian dances of Alberto Ginastera.
Musical Theatre Scenes: Rodgers and Hammerstein, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 26 in the ballroom of the Plato S. Wilson Commerce Building. Open to the public. No tickets required. Students enrolled in the Musical Theatre Scenes course will perform selections from the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Audiences will recognize familiar tunes from “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma,” “The King and I” and more.
*Phoenix Reading Series: Christopher Castiglia, to be held at 7 p.m. on March 28 in the ballroom of the Plato S. Wilson Commerce Building. Open to the public. No tickets required. Christopher Castiglia will give a scholarly talk with a light reception to follow. Castiglia is a Distinguished Professor of English at Penn State University and author of several books and numerous articles. His project addresses 19th-century spiritualism as an early information technology that combined belief, affect, psychology and media in ways that made new forms of information acceptable to a mass audience.
Spring Percussion Ensemble, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 29 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. Come out and enjoy an extravagant evening of contemporary and classical percussion. Directed by Chris Thompson, the HPU Percussion Ensemble will present a diverse range of exciting percussion literature that is sure to entertain.
April
HPU Theatre: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” to be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 11-17 in the Empty Space Theatre. Open to the public. Complimentary tickets can be reserved starting March 25 at http://www.highpoint.edu/theatre. Of all the plays written by William Shakespeare, perhaps none is as accessible and funny as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” It is the eve of Duke Theseus’ wedding day and a group of less-than-talented actors are preparing a play for the big event. Two young couples run off into a dark forest trying to solve their relationship problems, where they encounter Puck, a fairy who loves to create chaos. Throw in the Queen of the Fairies falling in love with a donkey and a play-within-a-play guaranteed to bring the house down. HPU’s performance is directed by Adjunct Professor Michael Huie.
HPU Brass Extravaganza, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 12 in the Charles E. Hayworth Memorial Chapel. Open to the public. No tickets required. Enjoy a night of movie music with the HPU Brass Band. The annual brass concert will include the full HPU Brass Band as well as several brass chamber ensembles. The program features a number of selections from film, including music by John Williams and other famous film composers.
*Cell-Art Collaborative Showcase, to be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 13 in Room 3027 of the Congdon School of Health Sciences. Open to the public. To sign up to attend or participate, contact Dr. Veronica Segarra at [email protected]. Local high school artists and HPU students who participated in the Cell-Art Collaborative Experiment Day in February will share the art forms they have created by integrating science and art. Also, featured speaker and scholar-artist Julia Hoel Buntaine will talk about the ways in which she has been inspired to integrate science into her art.
HPU Symphonic Band Concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 16 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required. The HPU Symphonic Band, conducted by Dr. Brian Meixner, will present its spring concert with guest artist Lindsay Kesselman, internationally acclaimed soprano. The concert will feature two landmark compositions for soprano and wind ensemble, as well as masterworks for concert band. This is the final HPU Symphonic Band concert of the year.
Jazz Ensemble Concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 18 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. No tickets required.
HPU Arbor Day Celebration, to be held at 4 p.m. on April 25 at Cottrell Amphitheater. Open to the public. To reserve a seat, contact Campus Concierge at 336-841-4636 or email [email protected] by April 23. The annual Arbor Day event will feature various speakers, including HPU First Lady Mariana Qubein, who has spearheaded the transformation of the campus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. High Point University is one of only 12 universities in North Carolina to achieve Tree Campus USA status. Parking and shuttle service will be available from the Congdon School of Health Sciences and Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy parking lot on International Avenue. Please enter campus from N. Centennial Street and International Avenue. Rain location: Kushner Networking Marketplace in Cottrell Hall.
HPU Community Orchestra and Choirs Present “Carmina Burana,” to be held at 7:30 p.m. on April 29 in the Pauline Theatre of Hayworth Fine Arts Center. Open to the public. Reservations can be made by contacting the Campus Concierge at 336-841-4636 or [email protected]. The HPU Community Orchestra and HPU choirs will join forces for a performance of Carl Orff’s epic composition, “Carmina Burana.” The program will also feature the winner of the 2018-19 HPU Concerto Competition, music major Dakota Tameling, on Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3.