Affectionately called The Hop by Dartmouth students, The Hopkins Center for the Arts is the cultural hub of the Upper Valley. Every year it brings artists from every corner of the world to little Hanover, N. H., and every day delivers mail and serves, according to many, the best French fries on campus.
To give students a taste of life outside of Hanover, the idea of the Hopkins Center first arose early in the 20th century. The actual creation of the Hop, however, was a long process, and was only successfully accomplished on its fourth try -- scrapped twice by a world war and once by the Great Depression.
Finally, on April 22, 1955, the trustees voted to build an arts center on Wheelock Street named for Ernest Martin Hopkins. The next year, Wallace Harrison of Harrison and Abramovitz -- designers of the Lincoln Center and the United Nations complex " fame, was commissioned to build Dartmouth her very own center for the arts.
Harrison envisioned a building that would not "challenge" the architectural inheritance of Dartmouth Row. He said of his plans for the center, "Keep it low. Set it back. Make it modest. Use the old red brick with white trim, give it space."
Finally in November of 1962, the Hop was unveiled, and on November 8, 1962, The Dartmouth ran a special issue commemorating the grand opening weekend of the new Hopkins Center.
In the editorial from that day, students expressed their opinion that the Hop was "an idea that in plan exceeds in scale and magnificence any previous project of this nature." However, they feared the Hopkins Center might "prove too much for the College to swallow in one gulp."
There was widespread fear on campus at the time the Hop was built that it would not mesh well into the ideals of a liberal arts institution. Editorials in The Dartmouth called for the Hop to be merely "at best a supplement to the regular curriculum."
Some critics feared the Hop would bring about a "professionalism in the form of limiting drama, music and art to those students who are majoring in these fields enters the picture, then we feel that Dartmouth will be guilty of a vocationalism entirely inconsistent with the ideals of a liberal arts college."
When the Hopkins Center was created, there were fears around campus that it would be ignored by the student body. In the days before BlitzMail, the administration felt it needed a way to advertise to the students the plethora of options available at the Hop.
Thus, the Hinman Mail Center , an idea students at the time called "ludicrous indeed," proximity to the art studios, the Jaffe-Friede Gallery and the advertising windows was established in the Hopkins Center, making it one of the few buildings on campus that every student visits on a regular basis. Prior to the creation of the Hinman boxes, Dartmouth student mail was delivered to the dorms.
The constant student traffic through the Hop has created a few Dartmouth superstitions surrounding the center. The most famous of which is rubbing the nose of the bust of Warner Bentley, which sits across from the Jaffe-Friede Gallery, for good luck before exams.
This tradition has left Bentley's nose well-worn, and the campus was rocked with scandal in the spring of 1996 when a vandal poured chemicals over the bust and it was temporarily removed.
Though the Courtyard Caf and its famous short-order cooks and breakfast sandwiches have not always been a part of the Hop's menu, there has always been some kind of restaurant at the Hop. One the opening day of the Hop, the College bought an advertisement in The Dartmouth advertising a new "modern dining hall" complete with the latest Howell Modern Metal Stacking Chairs. "They stack on top of one another to store" the ad said.
Crickard estimates that it took the Hop about four years or one "Dartmouth generation" to become completely integrated into the Dartmouth lifestyle. Even today, attendance at the Hopkins Center is increasing. Just three years ago, the College began something students demanded at the creation of the Hopkins Center -- subsidized student tickets for the live performances.
Now ticket prices for Dartmouth students run between three and five dollars, as opposed to between $12 and $25. According to Crickard, since then student attendance at Hopkins Center events has increased from approximately 26 percent of the student body attending at least one live performance per quarter, to 33 percent.
According to Crickard, even before the student tickets were subsidized, the Hopkins Center still relied heavily on designated endowments, and was not running a for-profit business off of the students.
Beyond the famous names that sell out concerts in Spaulding Auditorium Crickard says he sees a great student enthusiasm for the many workshops offered by the Hopkins Center. In the Hop itself is the Clafin Jewelry Studio and the and the Woodshop. Also run by the Hop, but located across the Ledyard Bridge is the Davidson Pottery Studio.
Any student at any experience level is allowed to use any of the studios for a $10 fee for one term, or $25 dollar fee for the year. With the studio fee also comes free instruction and assistance on projects at any level from students with experience in the field.
At 40, the Hopkins Center is continuing to evolve. Recently, the Hopkins Center has taken over the dance program from the theater department, and it has grown more than twofold in the past four years.
Dance had a slow beginning in the days of pre-coeducation Dartmouth. The first dance class, Dance and Movement, was offered by the department of drama in the late 1960's. This class was offered at Dartmouth for nearly 30 years, and spawned such famous groups as Philolobus and BodyVox.
Four years ago, the Hopkins Center hired Ford Evans to be the director of the Hop's new dance program. Evans created the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble. The Ensemble is a modern dance group that is run like a professional dance group, and will complete their first tour this year, spending spring break in sunny Costa Rica.
Someday Evan hopes the Hop will be able to offer dance as an academic subject, and perhaps offer a dance minor or even a major. "There is an interest in dance here at Dartmouth, and there are so many things we could offer from history and criticism to kinesiology."
The Hopkins Center is also home to several art galleries, studios and musical performing groups, including the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and the Glee Club.
"At the time it was built this was very controversial, but I love and will always love walking across the green and seeing the light from Baker Library's tower on one side and the interior of the Hop glowing on the other," Crickard said.
