- Date: Nov. 16–17, 2024
- Hours: Sat 12–7 pm; Sun 11 am–5 pm
- Location: All ACAPA buildings, Eastbridge campus
- Total attendance: 1,847
- Students presenting: 214
- Departments: 5
- Admission: Free and open to the public
- Fine & Studio Arts
- Music
- Theatre & Performance
- Dance
- Film & Media Arts
ACAPA's annual Fall Open Studios event took place on November 16 and 17, 2024, drawing a total of 1,847 visitors to the Eastbridge campus over the two-day weekend — the highest attendance in the event's twelve-year history. Students, faculty, alumni, prospective students, and members of the surrounding community filled corridors, studios, practice rooms, black-box stages, and screening spaces from the Keller Arts Building to the Hargrove Pavilion.
Spanning all five academic departments — Fine & Studio Arts, Music, Theatre & Performance, Dance, and Film & Media Arts — the event offered an unusually candid look at the creative process across disciplines. This year's event was organized under the loose theme "Threshold," chosen collectively by the Student Activities Council to reflect the work of a student body navigating transitions in their artistic practices, their conservatory years, and their lives.
"Threshold" was not a curatorial mandate, but a suggestion: visitors encountered the word in hand-lettered signage at building entrances, on studio doors, and in artist statements pinned beside works-in-progress. Many students embraced it; others deliberately ignored it, which event coordinator and Associate Dean of Student Affairs Patricia Olufemi said was entirely the point.
"We want students to feel that Open Studios belongs to them," Olufemi said at the opening Saturday reception. "The theme is an invitation, not a requirement. What we really want is for every door on this campus to be open — literally and figuratively."
This year's event was the first to feature a printed map and schedule booklet distributed at all campus entrances, a change from prior years' reliance on a downloadable PDF. Approximately 800 print copies were distributed over the two days, with demand outpacing supply by mid-afternoon Saturday.
Department Highlights
Department of Fine & Studio Arts
The Fine & Studio Arts department occupies the Keller Arts Building, a renovated 1962 industrial structure whose north-facing skylights and high ceilings have made it the most consistently popular stop on the Open Studios tour. This year, 71 undergraduate and graduate students opened their studios, presenting work in painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and intermedia installation.
Among the most-discussed works was a series of large-format encaustic paintings by third-year BFA student Deondre Calloway (Montpelier, VT), who spent the fall semester developing a body of work referencing topographic survey maps of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. Second-year MFA student Yuki Tanaka presented a site-specific installation in Studio 14 consisting of hand-cast paper scrolls suspended from the ceiling by waxed linen thread, each scroll printed with text from her late grandmother's letters.
The ceramics studios drew a steady stream of visitors throughout both days, with live wheel-throwing demonstrations scheduled on the hour by faculty technician Lars Brekke. Several students sold work at modest prices; one student, fourth-year Amara Sidi, sold out her entire tray of small-edition reduction-fired mugs within the first three hours of Saturday.
The department's printmaking lab offered drop-in relief printing for visitors of all ages, resulting in what faculty supervisor Dr. Constance Aurelius described as "a beautiful chaos of ink-covered thumbprints and very enthusiastic eight-year-olds."
"Open Studios is the one time when I actually want people to see the mess — the failed prints, the discarded tests. That's where the real work is." — Marguerite Thibodeau, BFA Fine Arts (Year 3), Sherbrooke, QC
Department of Music
The Music department's contribution to Open Studios has evolved considerably over the past several years, shifting away from formal recital presentations and toward a format that mirrors the informal, process-oriented spirit of the visual arts. This year, practice rooms in Hargrove Hall were left open throughout the weekend, with students encouraged to work in their normal fashion while doors remained ajar.
Additionally, the Hargrove Pavilion hosted four informal "studio sessions" on Saturday afternoon: a song-cycle workshop for voice students, a student-run improvisation set by the ACAPA Jazz Collective, a chamber music reading session (open to observers), and a short lecture-demonstration by second-year graduate composition student Elif Demirci on her use of extended technique and electronics in a piece for alto saxophone and live electronics.
Third-year pianist Marcus Webb performed excerpts from a forty-minute program he is preparing for his junior recital, inviting visitors to stay for portions of rehearsal and ask questions. Webb paused his run-throughs to speak with several young children who wandered in, explaining basic piano mechanics and the concept of practicing in small segments.
The department also displayed scores, sketches, and notation manuscripts in the second-floor corridor of Hargrove Hall, allowing visitors unfamiliar with music notation to see the written dimension of compositional and arranging work. Handwritten program notes accompanied each display.
"I thought it would feel strange to have strangers walk in while I was practicing. It was actually motivating. I played better." — Rosalind Achterberg, BM Violin Performance (Year 2), Burlington, VT
"Showing people the sketchbook — the crossed-out measures, the revisions — felt more honest than just playing a clean performance. Composition is mostly about making decisions, and I wanted to show that." — Elif Demirci, MM Composition (Year 2), Ankara, Turkey
Department of Theatre & Performance
Theatre & Performance occupied both the Lundgren Black Box Theatre and the adjacent scene shop and costume workrooms. The department structured its Open Studios around three short "work-in-progress" showings — informal presentations of scenes and devised work that students had been developing over the fall semester. Each showing was approximately 25 minutes, followed by a 15-minute conversation with visitors.
The Saturday 3:00 pm showing drew an audience of over 90 people, filling the Lundgren Black Box beyond its usual configured capacity and requiring department chair Prof. Bernard Macaulay to request that additional folding chairs be retrieved from the lobby. The work shown included excerpts from a devised ensemble piece exploring intergenerational memory, a solo performance work by fourth-year BFA student Solenne Brière drawing on Haitian oral storytelling traditions, and two scenes from a student-directed production of Suzan-Lori Parks's Topdog/Underdog slated for the spring semester.
The costume workroom proved unexpectedly popular, with costume shop supervisor Ingrid Halverson guiding groups of five to ten visitors through the space and explaining the construction process behind several garments currently in progress for spring productions. A display of student costume design renderings was mounted along the north wall.
"We don't usually let people in before the work is ready. Doing it this way — showing it messy, showing it unfinished — actually helped me understand what I'm trying to do." — Solenne Brière, BFA Theatre Performance (Year 4), Port-au-Prince, Haiti / Montreal, QC
Department of Dance
The Dance department occupied Studios D-1 and D-2 in the Whitmore Center for Movement Arts for the majority of the weekend, with students leading open rehearsals, brief technique demonstrations, and informal "movement conversations" in which visitors were invited — but never required — to participate. The tone throughout was welcoming and low-pressure, and faculty noted that participation from adult visitors was higher this year than in previous iterations.
A highlight of Sunday morning was an informal showing by the ACAPA Repertory Dance Ensemble, which performed a 35-minute set of excerpts from their fall repertory, including a new work choreographed by visiting artist and alumna Tamsin Reyes Okafor (ACAPA BFA '09). Okafor was present for the showing and spoke briefly about the work's development, describing her research into Afro-Brazilian dance traditions as a structural foundation for contemporary movement vocabulary.
Studio D-2 was dedicated to an exhibition of student choreographic research: video documentation of works-in-progress, process journals, movement notation sketches, and annotated rehearsal footage displayed on monitors arranged along the studio's mirrored wall.
MFA candidate Priya Nandini Ghosh (Kolkata, India) presented documentation of her thesis project, a solo work that integrates Bharatanatyam vocabulary with site-responsive improvisation. A short video of her rehearsals in the Keller Building courtyard and the second-floor corridor of Hargrove Hall attracted sustained viewer attention throughout both days.
"People always think dance is just the final performance. Showing them a rehearsal, showing them the notes and sketches — I could see the moment when it changed for them. That was worth more than any applause." — Priya Nandini Ghosh, MFA Dance (Year 2), Kolkata, India
Department of Film & Media Arts
The Film & Media Arts department hosted its Open Studios programming primarily in the Pellegrini Media Center, including a continuous-loop screening program in the main screening room (seating 48), an open editing suite tour, and an exhibition of student photography and digital imaging work in the center's main corridor gallery.
The screening program, titled Fall Works 2024, featured 22 student films ranging from 90-second experimental pieces to a 24-minute documentary by third-year BFA student Jonas Eriksen (Oslo, Norway) about the Eastbridge lumber industry in the mid-20th century, drawing on archival footage and interviews with former mill workers and their descendants. Eriksen's film drew particular praise from visitors, several of whom had personal or family connections to the mill. Audience members remained for a 20-minute post-screening discussion on Sunday afternoon.
The editing suite tour, offered in groups of six and led by department technician Winifred Abara, showed visitors the complete post-production workflow from raw footage assembly to color grading and sound mix. Several prospective students enrolled in the tour list, which was full within the first hour of Saturday morning.
The corridor gallery displayed 34 prints from students in the department's photography concentration, the largest photographic exhibition shown in the Pellegrini Center in a single showing. Work ranged from large-format silver gelatin prints produced in the darkroom to digital prints from a documentary project documenting rural Vermont communities.
"I've screened work in class a hundred times. But watching strangers watch my film — people who don't know me, who have no obligation to like it — that's when I found out what it actually was." — Jonas Eriksen, BFA Film (Year 3), Oslo, Norway
Attendance and Community Engagement
| Total visitors (both days): | 1,847 |
| Saturday attendance: | 1,142 |
| Sunday attendance: | 705 |
| Students presenting work: | 214 |
| Undergraduate students: | 171 |
| Graduate students: | 43 |
| Works/projects presented: | approx. 280 |
| Visitors from outside Eastbridge: | approx. 630 (est.) |
| Prospective students/families: | approx. 90 (est.) |
| Films screened (Pellegrini): | 22 |
| Work-in-progress showings (Theatre): | 3 |
| Live music performances: | 4 sessions |
Visitor origin estimates are drawn from sign-in sheets at the Information Table, which were voluntary and incomplete; actual out-of-area attendance may be higher. The Information Table was staffed throughout the weekend by members of the ACAPA Ambassadors student group, who reported fielding numerous questions from prospective students and their families, particularly regarding the Film & Media Arts and Dance programs.
The Eastbridge Public Library, the Eastbridge Historical Society, and the Eastbridge Inn & Suites were all acknowledged as community partners who helped promote the event in the surrounding region. The library displayed ACAPA flyers for six weeks preceding the event, and the Inn offered a discount rate for families attending Open Studios from out of town.
A Note from the Dean
In a brief address at Saturday's opening reception, Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Howard Szymanski thanked students, faculty, and staff for their preparation and noted that the event marked ACAPA's 77th year of operation in Eastbridge.
"Since 1947, this institution has held that the making of art is itself the argument for why art matters," Szymanski said. "Open Studios is where that argument becomes visible to everyone — not just to us. We are grateful for every visitor who walked through these doors this weekend, and we're proud of every student who had the courage to open theirs."
Plans for Spring Open Studios 2025 have not yet been announced. Check the Events & Performances page for updates, or sign up for the ACAPA newsletter via the Contact page.