HWS News Top Stories
11 July 2025Olivieri's Approach to Music Composition and Mentorship
From Bogotá to Fort Worth, Composer and Associate Professor of Music Mark Olivieri performs his works while balancing teaching, composing and coordinating international performances.
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18 June 2025The Davis Gallery Extends its Footprint Virtually
Spatial data technology extends the reach of works on display at Houghton House’s gallery.
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18 March 2025Examining Art Through a Lesbian Lens
Opportunity to nationally showcase Honors project on queer art history helps further excitement for postgraduate study. Following graduation, she will attend Concordia University in Montréal to her master’s in Art History.
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17 March 2025HWS Acquires Basket Belly Sculpture through Art Intern Purchase
Students have selected a powerful new sculpture by Native Haudenosaunee artist Natasha Smoke Santiago to join Hobart and William Smith’s permanent art collection.
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20 November 2024Kinetic Dance Collective Puts on Yet Another Captivating Showcase
This semester, more than 120 students took center stage for the Kinetic Dance Collective’s annual fall showcase.
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20 November 2024Beyond the Sheltering Sky
The Hobart and William Smith Wind Ensemble will present “Beyond the Sheltering Sky” on Friday, Nov. 22. at 7:30 p.m. in the Vandervort Room.
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14 November 2024Womb Chair Speaks at Winterthur Museum
Professor of American Studies Kirin Makker’s collaborative artwork Womb Chair Speaks is on display at the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware through Sunday, Jan. 5.
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12 November 2024HWS Vocal Ensembles to Present Concerts of Hope and Reflection
Featuring music since the Renaissance, “Splendor of Eternal Light” and “Peace Be Within Thy Walls” will be held on Nov. 16 and Nov. 21.
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7 November 2024Kinetic Dance Collective Promises an Unforgettable Evening
120 dancers. 20 stunning performances. 2 shows only. Join the Kinetic Dance Collective for an evening of movement and artistry as they present their annual Fall Showcase on Nov. 8 and 9.
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2 October 2024Hacks Wins Emmy for Best Comedy
Christopher McDonald ’77, L.H.D. ’13 is a cast member on the 2024 Emmy Award-winner for Best Comedy Series Hacks.
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1 October 2024HWS Theatre Opens the Academic Year with Antigone
The 2024-2025 theatre season kicks off with Greek tragedy performed in the Sunken Gardens on the HWS Arts Campus.
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9 July 2024Dance Professors Present at International Conference
Sessions on Somatic Jazz Pedagogy and Somatic Modalities in Dialogue offered at DSSE conference.
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12 June 2024From Geneva to San Antonio: Olivieri Debuts New Compositions
Associate Professor of Music Mark Olivieri premieres new works at both the Geneva Music Festival and the 2024 National Flute Convention.
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1 April 2024Come Back, My Love: A Concert of Love Songs
The Hobart and William Smith Community Chorus will present Come Back, My Love on Wednesday, April 17 at the Presbyterian Church in Geneva.
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26 February 2024HWS Hosts Annual Women in Music Conference
During Women’s History Month in March, scholars and performers will gather at HWS for a day of presentations on musical theory, history and criticism, with a keynote address and concert.
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15 February 2024Vision of Sound 2024
Individual compositions by Associate Professor of Music Mark Olivieri and Ivan Malcolm ’24 will be presented in this year’s Vision of Sound performances in Syracuse, Geneva and Rochester.
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13 February 2024HWS Theatre Presents: “Zombie Cheerleaders, a Teenage Witch, & The Demonic Voice on the Other End of the Phone”
What happens when you combine camp, horror, mystery and the supernatural? An uproarious and over-the-top comedy, whose twists and turns will have you laughing in delight and gasping in surprise.
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9 February 2024Frames of History
Students curate an exhibition of photos from the George Stephanopoulos Collection, showcasing major events and prominent individuals of the 20th century.
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7 February 2024Theatre Residency and Staged Reading with Playwright Brandon Monokian
A staged reading of Playwright Brandon Monokian’s latest play will feature guest artists Che Holloway and Kiefer Schenk with Anthony Bray ’23, Lillian Davis ’24 and Hope Guzman ’24 rounding out the cast.
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12 January 2024Exchange Students from Armenia to Perform at HWS
Young musicians from Armenia will perform in Albright Auditorium on Thursday, Jan. 18.
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4 January 2024Nguyen ’25 Interns with TikTok
Preparing for a career in marketing, Van Nguyen ’25 gained valuable experience during an internship with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
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20 December 2023Creating Art to Capture the Wonder of Scientific Discovery
The artwork of Anya Davis ’24 fills two display cases in Rosenberg Hall.
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13 October 2023HWS Theatre Presents “The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong”
Associate Professor of Theatre Chris Hatch will direct the HWS Theatre 2023-2024 season debut during Homecoming and Family Weekend.
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3 October 2023Holch ’70 Honored by Artists Association of Nantucket
Alumnus Eric Holch ’70 Recognized for New England inspired paintings at annual Wet Paint Auction in Nantucket.
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18 September 2023Breaking Ice, Fostering Community
Performances from an award-winning theatre troupe to cut through bias and misperceptions.
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21 August 2023HWS Theatre Announces 2023-2024 Season
A rollicking backstage farce, a campy supernatural mystery, and a lyrical journey of friendship and artistry comprise the HWS Theatre 2023-2024 season of detours and delights.
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19 June 2023From the Collection of Edward T. Pollack '55
The exhibition American Women Artists, now on display at the Dove Block Project on Exchange Street in Geneva, N.Y., engages with efforts to help rectify the historical inattention of women, ethnic and racial minorities, and members of culturally marginalized groups who were artists.
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7 June 2023Stephanopoulos Collection Inspires Cataloging Course
Since 2019, television anchor and political commentator George Stephanopoulos has donated more than 2,000 photographs to the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges with an appraised value of nearly $7 million.
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17 May 2023Celebrating Colton's Work at Reunion
A collection of prints by retiring Lead Photographer Kevin Colton L.H.D.’23 will be on display at the Davis Art Gallery at Houghton House during Reunion 2023.
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28 March 2023HWS Attends American College Dance Association Conference
Students enjoy participating in classes in modern dance, West African dance, improvisation, musical theatre and somatic techniques.
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27 February 2023HWS Welcomes New Visual Arts Curator
Meghan Jordan is eager to collaborate with student artists, art historians and aspiring curators as she joins Hobart and William Smith as the Clarence A. Davis ’48 Visual Arts Curator.
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10 February 2023Much Ado About Nothing Premieres
Gossip, wit and romance abound in the Theatre Department’s production of Shakespeare’s comedy.
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15 December 2022McCormack ’23 Reflects on Starring in Cabaret
Approaching her final semester, Julia McCormack ’23 reflects on playing the lead role of Sally Bowles in the community production of the musical Cabaret.
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15 November 2022Biggest HWS Club-hosted Event of the Year
This semester, more than 100 students took center stage for the Kinetic Dance Collective’s annual fall showcase.
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3 November 2022Everyday Wonders
Under the Direction of Colin Mann, the HWS Community Chorus will present Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo and Gloria in D, works that juxtapose two very different cantatas, in a performance at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at The Presbyterian Church, 24 Park Place, Geneva. The concert is free and open to the public.
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20 October 2022Unvarnished America
Described as “one of the most original choreographers on the downtown dance scene,” (Village Voice) Bessie Award winning NYC choreographer Jane Comfort has been creating innovative work that bridges movement and text, dance and theatre, and the personal and the political since 1978. Comfort’s choreography addresses contemporary and social issues with compassion and wit.
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6 September 2022Guest Artist Music Series Coming to HWS
The Gearan Center for the Performing Arts will host a variety of performances by several notable musicians and artists for the 2022-23 academic year as part of the Guest Artist Concert Series.
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23 August 2022Disability Arts Ensemble Kinetic Light to Perform at HWS
The internationally recognized disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light will perform on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Deming Theatre of the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts.
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3 August 2022“All the World’s a Stage:” HWS Theatre Abroad
This summer, Lucas Amaral ’23, Hannah Angelico ’25 and A King ’25 participated in the “Advanced Studies in England” Theatre Summer School in Bath, England.
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29 June 2022Faculty Dance Concert 2022
Three Faculty Choreographers join Guest Artist Olive Prince ’99 in three performances.
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29 April 2022Give Write Now Challenge Smashes Fundraising Goal
The Give Write Now Challenge, a 48-hour fundraising challenge to support the Writing Colleagues Program, was a breakout success.
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1 April 2022Student Scholarship the Focus of Senior Symposium 2022
The Center for Teaching Learning will host the 13th annual Senior Symposium on April 15, a daylong conference where seniors and graduate students present their intellectual passions to the HWS community.
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31 March 2022Music for a New Apocalypse
Music for a New Apocalypse,composed by Associate Professor of Music Mark Olivieri, premiered this month with a performance by pianist Andres Gomez-Bravo.
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30 March 2022Once Upon a Time in the Italian Western
Sebastiano Lucci, instructor of Italian and director of the Less Commonly Taught Languages, will reflect on the birth, development and culmination of the midcentury westerns made by Italian filmmakers like Sergio Leone.
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18 March 2022Tribute to Cadence Joy Whittier
The late Professor of Dance Cadence Joy Whittier, who served at HWS from 2000-2021, will be remembered on Sunday, April 10, from 2-4 p.m. in Deming Theatre.
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17 March 2022Music is Key for Malcolm '24
Sophomore plays nine instruments, writes and records his own music.
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9 December 2021New Gift from Stephanopoulos Grows HWS Photo Collection
A donation from journalist George Stephanopoulos adds approximately 700 new items to the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
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3 December 2021The Hopes and Dreams of Tomorrow's Architects
Ben Tesler '23 is the 2021 recipient of the A Fund scholarship.
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5 November 2021Meet the Newest GSA Scholars
The latest recipients of the Geneva Scholarship Associates fund are beginning to explore a variety of academic fields and interests during their first semester.
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5 November 2021Under the Sea Paintings Transform Daycare
Architecture and studio art double major Courtney Page '22 is painting an imaginative underwater scene in the halls of the Geneva Lakefront Childcare Center.
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2 November 2021A Homecoming for Dove's Cow V
An anonymous donation returns a watercolor painting by renowned abstract artist Arthur Dove to its hometown.
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25 October 2021Printmaking: "New and Improved"
A new exhibit showcases HWS professor and artist Nick Ruths latest work exploring everyday encounters with the infrastructure of social systems.
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15 October 2021When the Art Galleries of NYC Become the Classroom
Ten students in the Art and Architecture Department traveled to NYC to see art and meet alums working in the fine arts industry.
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24 September 2021From the Beyond: Geneva's Unheard Voices
HWS Theatre presents a history-based theatrical walking tour based on the real lives of past Genevans.
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21 September 2021New Blueprints: "To Help People See"
University of Rochesters Memorial Art Gallery features works by Associate Professor of American Studies Kirin Makker and G. Peter Jemison L.H.D. '20.
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23 July 2021Finding the Spotlight, Roberts '24 Reflects on First Year at HWS
In her first year at the Colleges, Eliyah Roberts '24 made her mark on the HWS Theatre stage, performing in all three productions.
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16 July 2021Ready to Change the World, Brown '24 Reflects on First Year at HWS
Rising sophomore Samari Brown '24 looks back at her first year at the Colleges, including how she found her passion for theatre.
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29 June 2021Nardone '21 on to Syracuse University for Audio Arts
In the fall, Matthew Nardone '21 will attend Syracuse University to pursue a masters in audio arts.
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25 June 2021Wander and Wonder Dance Performances to Feature HWS Dancers
HWS faculty and alums dance at Rochester Museum and Science Center event.
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21 April 2021VIRTUAL VIEWS: Faculty Dance Concert 2021
Three professors of Dance Ensemble, Donna Davenport, Michelle Iklé and Kelly Johnson, spent the spring semester with 35 William Smith dancers and two media and society students in a pandemic, masked, indoors and outdoors, in snow, on Seneca Lake piers, with green screens, on the streets of Geneva, and on stage, in 12-foot squares in Deming Theater, to create six new, short films.
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23 February 2021HWS Celebrates Black History
Join the HWS community in celebrating Black history through a teach-in, virtual art exhibition and speaker series.
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11 December 2020Blanchard Honored with Joseph Levenson Book Prize
Described by the Association for Asian Studies as a “triumph of intertextual and intervisual methods in gender studies,” Professor of Art and Architecture Lara Blanchard is the winner of the 2020 Joseph Levenson Pre-1900 Book Prize (China).
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3 December 2020Rodrguez Mansilla Publishes on Lope de Vega
Associate Professor of Spanish Fernando Rodríguez Mansilla’s reconstruction and analysis of a 17th-century work by Spanish playwright Lope de Vega has been published in Parte XIX Comedias de Lope de Vega (Part 19 of Lope de Vega’s Complete Plays).
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3 November 2020The Substance (and Science) Behind the Art
From painting and literature to comedy and country music, first-year students at HWS probed the making and meaning of a wide range of artistic media.
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21 August 2020Making Music, Pursuing Finance with Mukkamala '20
Dhiraj Mukkamala '20 (pictured above on right) has been accepted to a comprehensive development program at Prudential Financial.
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30 October 2019A Celebration of Dance at Koshare 2019
Koshare, Hobart and William Smith Colleges’ Dance Collective, will showcase upwards of 150 dancers in more than twenty diverse pieces on the Smith Opera House stage on Friday, Nov. 15 and Saturday, Nov. 16.
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17 September 2019Art & Memory in Germany
This summer during a program co-led by Associate Professor of Art and Architecture Gabriella D’Angelo and Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture Alysia Kaplan, 13 students studied abroad in Berlin. While designed for architectural studies and studio art students, the program also encompassed a range of disciplines and explored the intersections of architecture, art, memory and space within Germany.
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1 February 2019Spelling Bee Fundraiser for Literacy
Members of the Hobart and William Smith community are preparing for the 17th annual Literacy Volunteers of Ontario-Yates (LVOY) Spelling Bee, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 10 at Geneva High School. Proceeds from the event will fund important literacy initiatives in the region.
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6 December 2018Jennings '19 Showcases No Exit
Austin Jennings 19 concludes a component of his Honors project with a performance of No Exit in collaboration with the student-led theater group, the Phoenix Players at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9 in Williams 200.
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20 September 2018Sustainable Community Development Rethinks Castle Street
With proposals for a quarter-mile stretch along the Castle Street Corridor in Geneva, students in the spring 2018 Sustainable Community Development (SCD) capstone course have created a series of inclusive, celebratory and innovative designs informed by and tailored to the daily lives of the city’s residents.
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3 July 2018Bill Evans Institutes and Somatic Dance Conference at HWS
Renowned choreographer, performer and dance educator William “Bill” Evans returns to Hobart and William Smith Colleges for six days of classes for dance teachers and pre-professional dancers in the Bill Evans Teachers Institute and the concurrent Bill Evans Dancers Institute, followed by the 6th Annual Somatic Dance Conference, July 10-14.
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31 May 2018Defying the Laws of Physics and Dance
As Hobart Colleges' first dance major, Drew Scammell '18 took to the Deming Theatre stage for the final performance of his college career in April.
Read More16 March 2018Spelling Bee Benefits Literacy
The Literacy Volunteers of Ontario and Yates Counties (LVOY) hosted the 16th Annual Adult Spelling Bee at Geneva High School on Sunday, Feb. 11.
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11 August 2017Students Explore Ancient Greece
A group of HWS students recently returned from a three-week study abroad program across Greece, exploring the connections between ancient cities, sanctuaries and life.
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10 February 2017A Day of Dance
The Koshare Dance Collective will host a Day of Dance Workshop inviting local students in grades 8– 12 to campus to explore the art of dance on Sunday, Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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