The Arts Ignite Campus Creativity
Theater
“Antigonick,” a poetic and thrilling translation, infuses fresh language and new life into “Antigone,” Sophocles’ ancient and disturbing tragedy. Westmont presented a beautifully staged and haunting production of the new work this fall. “The play critiques and laments the tragedy and injustice around us, leaving us yearning for a more just, merciful and peaceful society and world,” says Professor Mitchell Thomas, who previously directed another Greek tragedy, “Electra.” “We recognize that our own feelings of pity and fear are not singular, but universal. We’re not alone.” Santa Barbara Voice Magazine described the play as “timely and captivating” and “well-acted and visually intriguing.” The Santa Barbara Independent said it was “…gritty and eerie and alights the senses.”
The theater department has launched a K-12 education program, inviting about 30 Providence High School students to a special preview of “Antigonick.” “We’ll offer workshops at local schools, host a matinee for students in the spring, promote engagement with our Montecito Student Film Festival and Fringe Festival, and launch a summer theater camp,” says department chair Jonathan Hicks.
In its third year, the film festival received nearly 900 submissions from local, national and international student filmmakers. Audiences enjoyed creative stories, meaningful documentaries and exciting visual storytelling techniques and heard roundtable discussions featuring leading professionals in the film industry. “Each student film represents not only emerging talent, but the raw courage to share a truth, a dream or a question through the language of cinema,” says Wendy Jackson, the festival’s co-founder and executive producer. “Storytelling still has the power to transform, connect and reimagine the world around us.”
Next spring, the theater program will stage “Little Women,” Louisa May Alcott’s beloved story.
Music
The season began with the college’s talented music faculty presenting a recital in the newly renovated
Deane Chapel, funded by gifts from the Hind Foundation, the Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation and the Ann Jackson Family Foundation.
In their fall concert, the Westmont Orchestra performed the overture to “The Pirates of Penzance” and the complete ballet suite from “Sylvia” by French composer Léo Delibes. A 2024-25 concerto winner Aaron Wu (cello) played Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra.”
More than 200 high school singers arrived on campus in November for coaching from Westmont’s choral and vocal faculty before presenting the Fall Choral Festival at First Presbyterian Church. The College Choir and Chamber Singers also performed, providing a full and memorable experience of musical life at Westmont.
The college presented the 21st Christmas Festival, “Christ the Redeemer,” at the Granada Theatre in December. “The birth of Christ set in motion God’s plan to redeem a fallen world,” says Zig Reichwald, Adams professor of music and worship. “Humankind is reconciled with its creator. The Christmas Festival tells the story of creation, fall, loss, incarnation, reconciliation and recreation.” Ruth Lin, who chairs the music department, conducted the Westmont Orchestra, and Professor Daniel Gee ’13 directed the College Choir and Chamber Singers.
In January, Westmont stages the “The Pirates of Penzance” by the famous operetta composers Gilbert and Sullivan in Porter Theatre. Enjoy the chaos as a pirate-in-training attempts to escape his life. More than a dozen cast members sing, dance, and swashbuckle their way through this hilarious story of adventure, danger and romance.
Last spring, Lin led a successful Westmont Orchestra tour to Iceland. Gee will take the Westmont College Choir and Chamber Singers to Brazil next May, performing five concerts in churches and universities in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Art
The art faculty offered an impressive range of works in “Lines of Inquiry: Westmont Art Faculty Exhibition Fall 2025” at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The professors represent a range of innovative, artistic careers such as graphic design, community activism, art history, museum studies, studio art, commercial photography, illustration and education. “Their paths reflect a deep commitment to continuous learning, growth and exploration,” says Chris Rupp, interim museum director and art instructor. “‘Lines of Inquiry’ beautifully captures the power of art to uncover and express meaningful truths about our world, encouraging students to stay curious, keep creating and pursue art that makes a lasting impact.” The featured artists included Rupp, Scott Anderson, Brad Elliott, Ryan Ethington, Nathan Hayden, Nathan Huff and Meagan Stirling.
Another fall exhibition, “Between Planes: Exploring Sculpture Through Print,” explored artistic vision across two-dimensional and three-dimensional media. “A sculpture and a print exist in two different planes; each expresses something the other cannot,” Rupp says. “Viewing a sculpture and print together illuminates the full exploration of a theme, with each medium informing the other to create a fuller picture.” The
exhibition features a kinetic sculpture, “The Smile and the Eye” (1974), by renowned American artist Alexander Calder, on loan from local collectors. Calder’s innovative moving sculptures led a critic to coin the term “mobile” in 1931. “It’s a coup to exhibit this work,” Rupp says.
In August, a nearly 2,000-pound bronze sculpture by renowned South American artist Fernando Botero arrived on campus. The 9-foot tall, voluptuous “Maternity,” sits at the base of the staircase between Whittier Science Building and Adams Center for the Visual Arts. Owned by the late Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, who donated it to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the sculpture appears on loan from the museum.