The University of Indianapolis hosts shows on campus during each academic school year that are available to the public. Arts and cultural events include student-produced art exhibits in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, student and faculty music performances in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall and student and faculty theatre performances in Ransburg Auditorium plus dinner theatre performances in the dining hall of the Schwitzer Student Center.
The Ruth Lilly Performance Hall presents many styles of performances, such as instrumental, vocal, opera and Lecture Performance credit performances.
“I love when the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra performs on campus,” sophomore music education major Brenden Everett said. “They seem to have really lengthy concerts, but you can never tell as an audience member because it’s captivating. When it comes to music that can be regarded as complex, like the IBO [Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra], I think everyone can enjoy it in different ways. I feel that people, even if they don’t understand music, they have some kind of way of feeling and realizing that something is really pretty because it touches something inside of them, even if they don’t know much about it.”
The choral department hosts a variety of shows year round for audiences of all ages.
“For the first semester, we have the Opening Gala, which is usually about a month into the year. We perform, usually, a [Franz Joseph] Haydn Mass with Maestro [Raymond] Leppard. That is always fantastic,” Everett said. “Throughout the semester, we host another four more concerts including the mid semester choral concert, the Crimson Express concert, the student chamber ensembles and our end-of-semester Christmas Celebration concert.”
Ruth Lilly Performance Hall has hosted thousands of artists over the past ten years providing a Viennese-style space with high-quality sound and acoustics. The Art Gallery, located in CDFAC, showcases major local and regional artists but holds juried student presentations. With a proscenium arch, Ransburg Auditorium seats 780 patrons for various performances and lectures. UIndy’s Dinner Theatre Performances have been running for over 45 years.
UIndy theatre performances for the 2016-2017 performance year include “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” in the fall, “The Totalitarians” in the winter, “Move Over Mrs. Markham” as the dinner theatre production in the spring and Student Directed Productions rounding out the year.
In the exhibit hall of Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center for the tudent art displays, there will be five featured presentations. Kicking off the school year as the first exhibit from Aug. 29 through Sept. 30 is “Deconstructions: New Work” by Michal Lile. Beginning Oct. 10 through Nov. 4 is a presentation by Lobyn Hamilton called “The Breaks.” The Art and Design Faculty Exhibition will take place from Nov. 14 through Dec. 16. “Henrencia” will take off on Feb. 20 and continue through March 15. The final art exhibit of the year is the Art and Design Juried Student Exhibition beginning on April 3 and ending on May 6.
Performances in CDFAC are free to UIndy students with presentation of their student I.D. at the door and free to the general public. This kind of entry may vary depending on the type of performance. Tickets for all arts and cultural events are made available through the Event Ticketing Center at 317-788-3251. ETC has a ticketing office in the Ransburg Auditorium lobby where tickets are made available.
