New York City is packed with amazing culture and inspiring art, but sometimes it’s difficult to break the Morningside-bubble and experience it all first-hand. “Where Art Thou” is a weekly guide to interesting and notable lectures, events, and performances for the literary/musically/theatrically-inclined on campus.

Monday, February 13th

• East of Venice: La Serenissima as seen from its eastern frontiers, 5:30 PM, The Italian Academy – “Viewing the history of the Venetian Republic through the lens of its neighbors in the Balkans and its Mediterranean frontiers, this international panel of specialists examines the various exchanges—cultural, linguistic, and religious, among others—between the Ottoman and the Venetian worlds, between East and West.” Panel includes Patricia Fortini Brown of Princeton, Larry Wolff of NYU, Molly Greene of Princeton, and Daphne Lappa of the University of Crete. – Free registration, here
• An Organized System of Instructions | Martin Beck, 6:30 PM, Wood Auditorium in Avery Hall – “Martin Beck will speak about his two-year exhibition project, titled Program, that manifested through a sequence of interventions, installations, events, and displays at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University between 2014 and 2016. Program focused on the institution’s modes, formats, and sites of communication with its various constituencies and drew upon the exhibition histories, academic pursuits, and institutional development of the Carpenter Center during its founding period in the 1960s. Beck’s exhibition pulled that history into the present, and then reflected the institution’s aspirations back onto its contemporary self.” – Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, February 14th

• Pop-Up Concert: Prom Night with Genghis Barbie, 6:00 PM, Miller Theatre – “Love is in the air as Miller Theatre cordially invites you to its Valentine’s Day extravaganza. The dynamic all-female French horn quartet Genghis Barbie will serenade you with a visceral and unadulterated musical adventure, ranging from Bizet to Queen. Bring your sweetheart, or make a new one, under the lights at Miller Theatre.” – Free, open to the public, but admission is first come, first served.

Wednesday, February 15th

• The Pussycat Project, 6:30 PM, Diana Event Oval – “Meet the Barnard alumna who inspired the sea of hand–knit pink hats at the historic Women’s Marches that took place around the country and world on January 21. Krista Suh ’09, co-founder of the Pussyhat Project, will share her story with her Barnard teacher and mentor Joan Snitzer, Artist and Director of the Visual Arts program, Department of Art History. . . They will be joined by two of the women who mobilized the grassroots movement, Pearl Chin, founder of the Upper West Side’s beloved Knitty City and Brittney Bailey manager of Purl Soho, the legendary New York City yarn store. ” – Free admission

Thursday, February 16th

• Silent Matinees: Art Films 1.0, 12:00 PM, Room 511 in Dodge Hall – “Professor Vito Adriaensens presents a five-part silent cinema matinee series with live music by Belgian jazz musician Adriaan Campo and friends. Come and explore the first wave of art films in this second part dedicated to European cinema’s first forays into what we now know as arthouse cinema. In the sensationalist Danish The Last Victim of the White Slave Trade, a wholesome young woman falls prey to white slave traders; and in the French short drama The Heart and the Money, an arranged marriage tears apart the youthful protagonist.” – Free admission

Friday, February 17th

• Performing History, 1:00 PM, Wood Auditorium in Avery Hall – “Performing History addresses performance as a medium for critically engaging cultural history. While permanent monuments can idealize and cement historical narratives, performances can render visceral the complexities of social histories. All of these speakers experiment with inserting history into everyday life, creating public experiences that slip between past and present.” – Free and open to the public
• Pteropod, 8:00 PM, Glicker-Milstein Theatre in the Diana Center – “The MaMa Project is an evening length, student-choreographed dance work. . . This work uses the imagery of the pteropod to explore the fragility and gloriousness of existence in a rapidly changing world. What do we hold onto, and what keeps us buoyant, when the very conditions for our existence are fundamentally shifting? What is the tipping point for dissolution? What does it feel like to be completely out of control? Ultimately, this work will explore how the only way to make sense of getting the rug swept out from under our feet is simply to live in the marvelous now.” – Tickets here, additional shows on Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM