To kick off the festivities, the Hopkins Center will premiere projection artist Ross Ashton's "Five Windows," which will illuminate the facade of the Hopkins Center in preparation for the multitude of performances and concerts that the building will host this weekend. Notable visitors including actor John Lithgow, famed filmmaker Buck Henry '52 and comedian Rachel Dratch '88 will join the Dartmouth community to celebrate the arts this weekend.
Now in its 50th year, when the Hopkins Center opened in 1962, it was the culmination of an over 40-year project promised by then-College President Ernest Martin Hopkins to Warner Bentley of the English department, delayed in completion by World War II and Hopkins' retirement. Now, in the 21st century, the Hopkins Center embodies the epicenter of the arts at Dartmouth, which formerly did not have a true home on campus before the building's construction. In celebration of its anniversary, the Year of the Arts spotlights the now vibrant, thriving art culture at the College. The arts have increasingly become a greater part of Dartmouth culture over the last half century, signified by the continued devotion and prominence of student, alumni and faculty members.
