Outdoor Art, Live Music and Dance, September 23 through October 7
Live Music and Dance Performances
Thursday, September 23, 1 pm
Wednesday, September 29, 1 pm
The Developer’s Midnight Fantasy is a two-week art installation that invites visitors to consider an imagined clear-cutting of the Ashley Schiff Preserve to construct more buildings, parking lots or other paved surfaces. Ashley Schiff is one of the few remaining native forests on the North Shore of Long Island; the ongoing destruction of these remaining forests is an under-recognized problem. This project seeks to make people think about development everywhere and especially our connection with nature.
The Developer’s Midnight Fantasy fosters inclusive cross-campus collaboration. The interactive art installation features life-size cut-outs of construction machinery displayed in the trees, set back from the paths. Two live performances in the Ashley Schiff Preserve will feature music composed by the Department of Music’s Tommy Wu and Daniel Cohen and performed by the Stony Brook Music Ensemble. The Student Dance Ensemble will perform the “Animals of the Forest Dance” directed by Associate Professor Amy Yopp Sullivan. Fantasy costumes are designed by the Department of Art’s Marta Baumiller. Poetry by Assistant Professor Michelle Whittaker will be experienced through the preserve’s trees. In collaboration with Professor Arianna Maffei from the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, the project will examine the neuroscience basis for the powerful effects forests have on our senses, memories and mood.
The Ashley Schiff forest is a preserve in name only. Legislation to designate the preserve a state park has not yet been passed. Ashley Schiff Preserve has no official protection. The ultimate goal of the project is for the Schiff Preserve to be granted permanent preservation status to ensure that future generations of Stony Brook’s human, floral and faunal communities continue to enjoy its serenity. University students, faculty, staff and visitors to the Preserve will be invited to write letters and hopes on a collective tree near the entrance of the Preserve on Circle Drive to engage in this cross-disciplinary and collaborative community event.
For more information, contact visual artist, poet, educator and SBU alum Annemarie.Waugh@stonybrook.edu.
This event is sponsored by Office of Equity & Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer and Friends of Ashley Schiff Preserve Scholarship in partnership with the Zuccaire Gallery.
Wonderful idea Annemarie. So inclusive in scope. Unfortunately I’ll have to miss the concert as it’s during my class. But I will for sure that a walk to see it. Anne