Paul Creative Arts Center theatre

DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire will celebrate 50 years of the Paul Creative Arts Center with a year-long events series "Arts for Life" for the 2010-2011 academic year.

"Since the mid-20th century, the University of New Hampshire has prided itself on being a center of arts and culture in New Hampshire. Our fine artists, choral groups, theater programs, musical ensembles, and dance troupes are outstanding. They feed the soul, not just of UNH, but of everyone who experiences them. This year-long celebration recognizes the important role that the arts play in all of our lives, and the university's commitment to them," UNH President Mark W. Huddleston said.

Arts for Life features signature events running from September 2010 to May 2011, and include art exhibitions, plays and operas, concerts and recitals, and staged readings. The following are select events that are among the year's signature events:

• Paul Creative Arts Center Open House - Homecoming Weekend
  Saturday, Oct. 9, 3-5 p.m., free

  Wander the corridors and practice rooms of the Paul Creative Arts Center and "eavesdrop" on the creative process. Watch a play rehearsal, listen to a music lesson, watch a painter work on his art, and visit the Museum of Art. Classrooms, theatres, and practice rooms will be open to the public. Light refreshments will be available.

• Arts for Life Sunday Salon Series - Homecoming Weekend
  Embracing the Past: The Birth of the Art Department
  Sunday, Oct. 10, 1 p.m., Museum of Art, Free

  Arthur Balderacchi, Christopher Cook, Daniel Valenza, and Melvin Zabarsky, former studio faculty members from the department of art and art history, discuss the early development and the creation of the University's first public gallery spaces.

• Art exhibition
  Fusion: Merging the Arts in PCAC
  Saturday, Nov. 6 through Monday, Dec. 16 (closed Nov. 11 and 24-28)
  Opening Reception
  Friday, November 5, 5-7 p.m., Museum of Art, free

  FUSION: Merging the Arts in PCAC, an interdisciplinary installation, follows 50 years of the development of the fine and performing arts in the Paul Creative Arts Center and highlights past presentations by the Museum of Art, and the Departments of art and art history, music, and theatre and dance. A special exhibition focusing on the benefactors and supporters of the center, including Isabel Paul, is featured.

• Celebrity Series: Barbara Bonney, soprano soloist
  Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011, 2 p.m., Johnson Theatre
  For tickets, visit www.unhmub.com/ticket or call (603) 862-2290.

  Barbara Bonney, '78 '00H, considered one of the world's most accomplished lyric sopranos, will return to UNH for a recital of art song accompanied by pianist Arlene Kies. Bonney has made more than 100 recordings and is a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as guest professor of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Master class: Bonney will lead a master class on Tuesday, Feb., 1, 2011, from 12:40-2 p.m. that is free and open to the public.

• Staged reading: Diverting Devotion
  Written by UNH alumnus Mike O'Malley '88
  Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Feb. 15, 17, 19, 7 p.m., Hennessy Theatre
  For tickets, visit www.unhmub.com/ticket or call (603) 862-2290.

  New love and an old secret emerge in this richly drawn sentimental comedy. Three 30-something men gather to attend a friend's wedding, when events conspire to cast shadows over a friendship and an engagement.

More on the signature events is available at www.unh.edu/pcac/afl.
The celebration also recognizes the philanthropy of arts patrons Isabel and Harriet Paul of Newfields. Their gift of $800,000, at the time the university's largest gift, allowed UNH to build its first arts center, the Paul Creative Arts Center. Since 1960, it has served the university and surrounding communities as a vibrant arts and cultural center.  

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling more than 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

PHOTOS
Paul Creative Arts Center theatre
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Isabel Paul painting by John W. Hatch
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Kandinskywald, 1993, by former UNH studio faculty member Melvin Zabarsky
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Barbara Bonney, UNH '78 '00H
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Mike O'Malley, UNH '88
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SLIDESHOW
Early years of the Paul Creative Arts Center.
www.unh.edu/pcac/slideshow
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