fota
enter
festival of the arts
1st FOTA 1955 | ||
post '55 | ||
1961 | ||
1963 | ||
1973-4 | ||
1978 | ||
1998 | ||
200298 | ||
To: 2003 Submission Form | 2003 | To: Virtual FOTA Gallery |
Have a Beaux Arts Ball story to share? ..... Do tell us
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The
first Festival of the Arts, held April 14 - 17, 1955, was sponsored by trustee's wives.
Co-chairing the sponsoring committee were Mrs. George A. Ranney Jr and Mrs. Charles H
Percy. William Carlos Williams, famous poet-pediatrician, was the featured speaker at the four day Festival. Dr. Williams, National Book Award and the Bollingen Prize for poetry recipient, spoke at Rockefeller Chapel at 3 p.m. Friday, April 15th. On Saturday, April 16th, students, parents, faculty members, trustees and their wives donned gay costumes for the Beaux Arts Masquerade Ball held in the medieval setting of Hurtchinson Commons.
......and from the University of Chicago Magazine, June 1961 It began modestly, even inauspiciously. A small group sat around a conference table last fall [1954] and talked of a weekend where the originality of our students could be demonstrated. Art and music were to be the focus of the Festival." In this manner, the late Robert M. Strozier, then dean of students, described the first Festival Of The Arts in 1955. |
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post '55 | ![]() |
.....as reported by the University of Chicago Magazine, June 1961 |
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In
the Festivals that followed [1955], programs have varied. Some have indulged in the
more antic arts, some have featured sports cars and athletics, some have imported
lecturers and performers in large numbers, some have relied more extensively on faculty
and administration in programming participation, some have strongly reflected student
interests and activities. Always there has been displayed the wide range of the
arts, and the involvement of this campus in the arts. (return to top) |
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FOTA 1961 | ![]() |
.....as reported by the University of Chicago Magazine, June 1961 in time, pictures will be added to this report |
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Opening at noon on April 21, this year [1961], to the traditional trumpet fanfare (music by faculty member Howard Brofsky (1, 2)in Hutchinson Court, the Festival closed on May 3, with a concert by the Lennox String Quartet and Leon Kirchner, of music by Mr. Kirchner in Mandel Hall. Other features of the Festival were: actress and director Margaret Webster reading a Shakespearean anthology, one of the most praised Blackfriars shows in years, the International House festival of the Nations featuring songs and dances from many lands, a concert of 14th, 15th, and 16th Century music by the Collegium Musicum, a Hootenanny, lectures by artist-in-residence James Joseph McGarrell, a professional modern dance program, University Theater presenting Laurents' "Home of the Brave". a program by the Chicago Piano Quartet, and the Laboratory School performance of Smetna's opera, "The Bartered Bride." Poetry was read, fiction won prizes, and the pennants waved in the breeze. [pictures to come, check back] Festival Of The Arts: featuring art and photography exhibits, musical events, dance, lectures, and as a finale the Beaux Arts ball. This year's seventh annual Festival, perhaps because of its smaller operating budget, drew more than many past festivals upon the resources of Chicago. Among the exhibits were two shown in Lexington Hall: The Midway Gardens (1, 2, 3, 4), 1914-1929, and exhibition of the building by Frank Lloyd Wright (1, 2, 3 ), sculpture by Alfonso Lannelli ( 1, 2); and student art. [webNOTE: come to campus for our 40th and while you can't see Midway Gardens you can see how Lorado Taft's (( 1,2,3) Fountain of Time sculpture has been restored] In the women's residence hall, the Chicago Chapter of the Artists Equity Association
hung an exhibit. It included sculpture and a painting by Harold Haydon. The lounge of the men's new
residence hall featured the Annual Water Color and Small Sculpture Exhibition of the
Chicago Society of Artists. The Beaux Arts Ball took place in the Law School lobby midst
forgeries of masterpieces and a student photography exhibit. The masquerades, garbed
as famous |
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FOTA 1963 | ![]() |
...as reported in the Chicago Maroon April 26, 1963 by Lawrence Lindgren | |
This Year's FOTA Breaks with Tradition The 1963 Festival of the Arts (FOTA) which begins this weekend breaks completely with tradition. The festival was originally conceived as an effort to focus attention on creative efforts indigenous to the University. Concerts and performances by campus groups were concentrated into a four or five day festival, highlighted with an occasional event featuring a non-UC artist. This year's Festival is a survey of the contemporary arts, bringing to campus outstanding figures from almost every art form to give lectures, readings and concerts. Almost the only vestiges of the old FOTA are three art shows and the Student Art Exhibit and Competition which open the Festival this weekend. The revamping began last autumn when the Festival was almost cancelled because of a lack of student interest. A small group of students decided that the needed interest could be aroused by focusing attention on a number of personalities not often appearing in Chicago.
A Festival committee member explained that this hole in the program was to be filled by the Soviet Poet Evgeny Evtushenko, who was scheduled to visit here as part of a tour of colleges in the United States.
(check back, more to come)
...detailed schedule with links to artists, etc |
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FOTA '73-74 | ![]() |
...detailed schedule for The Arts on the Midway --includes FOTA | |
FOTA 1978 | ![]() |
...graphic to come, check back. send us your FOTA '78 memories. | |
FOTA 1998 | ![]() |
....the year the Class of '63 revived FOTA visit the '98 Gallery | |
FOTA 2002 | ![]() |
....student check it out (return to top) | |
FOTA 2003 | ![]() |
...student & alumni (return to top) |