283 Washington Terrace
Middletown, CT 06459-0442
USA
Hours: Monday–Friday 8:30am–5pm
T +1 860 685 3355
cfa@wesleyan.edu
Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Director Joshua Lubin-Levy. He succeeds Interim Director Jennifer Calienes, and will report to Nicole Stanton, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Dance, Environmental Studies, and African American Studies. Stanton notes that, “in discussions with Joshua, our search committee was impressed not only by his rare combination of performing and visual arts knowledge but also with his strong commitment to collaboration and team building. It became clear that he could serve as an advocate for the arts across campus, as a scholarly and creative practice, and within the community of Middletown.” This appointment coincides with the Center for the Arts upcoming 50th anniversary in 2023.
Lubin-Levy comes to Wesleyan having developed a multifaceted career as a scholar, dramaturg, and curator, with a special focus on visual and performing arts programming and public humanities. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Movement Research Performance Journal, and most recently worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art leading arts education programs as the Senior Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow. His experience as an educator extends across many years of undergraduate and graduate instruction at The New School, Bard College, Wesleyan University, Princeton University, New York University, and Wilson College. Previously, he served as Interim Director of Visual Arts at Abrons Arts Center and was a 2016–17 Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow in the Whitney Independent Studies Program. For his work in Public Humanities, he was awarded an Emerging Voices Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. He received his doctorate from the Department of Performance Studies, New York University.
Lubin-Levy has produced curatorial projects and collaborations that address a range of approaches to historical methodologies, interrogating the archives of queer art, the AIDS crisis and its ephemera, and dance and its recording and transcription, among others. He is currently working on a book project focused on the queer artist and filmmaker Jack Smith, centered on Smith’s concept of “landlordism” and the artist’s approach to rent as a condition of contemporary art and aesthetics. Of his appointment, Lubin-Levy remarks, “what most inspires me about the Center for the Arts is that it’s built on a long tradition at Wesleyan of treating art as an equal partner in a transformative and cross-disciplinary education that extends beyond the traditional confines of the classroom—treating practice as a means of theorizing the world.”
Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts (CFA) is both a complex of buildings as well as an organization dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary research within and beyond the University’s campus. Designed by architectural firm Kevin Roche/John Dinkeloo and Associates, the CFA opened in the fall of 1973 with a mission to support the work of faculty and students, encourage collaborations among the University’s art departments, and help integrate artistic practice and study as a core component of Wesleyan’s global and experimental education in the liberal arts. Since its inception, the CFA has become a notable presenter of international artists. Lubin-Levy will lead the CFA’s team in reimagining this mission—upholding the CFA’s role as an entry point for visiting artists to have long-term engagements with Wesleyan students, faculty, staff, and the broader Middletown community; while extending the university’s resources to guest artists who are in the process of incubating original creative work that is responsive to pressing social and political questions.
To read about the latest news and events at the Center for the Arts, visit the online publication “The Connection” by visiting here.
About Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a diverse, energetic liberal arts community where critical thinking and practical idealism go hand in hand. The student body of approximately 3,000 undergraduate and 200 graduate students is housed on a beautiful 316-acre historic New England campus that offers the comfort of an intimate and collaborative learning environment supported by renowned faculty, cutting-edge facilities, and unique research opportunities. With a distinctive scholar-teacher culture, creative programming, and commitment to interdisciplinary learning, Wesleyan challenges students to explore new ideas and change the world.
Media inquiries
Contact: Andrew R. Chatfield (Director, Arts Communication)
Wesleyan University, University Communications
283 Washington Terrace
Middletown, CT 06459-0442
achatfield [at] wesleyan.edu
T +1 860 685 2806 or T +1 860 916 6448
