Arts Congregation Suspended

This year, for the first time since 1963, the College will not offer the Congregation of the Arts summer programs in music and theater. Instead the summer months will be devoted to an intensive study of many aspects of the College's work in the arts and particularly the Hopkins Center's summer activities. However, the studio art program, the visit by a distinguished artistin-residence, and the schedule of gallery exhibitions will be continued this summer as before. In addition, the Dartmouth Film Society will present its usual summer season, and arrangements are being made for a series of concerts and recitals similar to those offered during the academic year.

In announcing the decision Dean Leonard M. Rieser '44, Provost of the College, explained that the plans for this summer had developed from full discussions involving officers and Trustees of the College and members of the Hopkins Center staff. Although the stringency of the College budget had been a major factor in the decision, the necessity to consider the long-term development of the Center's role in the cultural, artistic, and educational life of the College had also been of great concern.

"Activity in the arts at Dartmouth," Dean Rieser observed, "has expanded and intensified greatly since the opening of the Hopkins Center in 1962; the summer Congregations of the Arts have grown in size and scope into something much greater than was foreseen when they were first conceived. Along with great achievements, the expansion and diversification of activities have brought problems. The long-range financing of this activity, for example, must receive high priority attention. And because the Center's year-around program has made it difficult for its staff to devote any systematic attention to these problems and the long-range future of the summer programs, we need a substantial period of time when contemplation and planning can take the place of performance."

In commenting on the action taken, Peter Smith, the General Administrator of the Hopkins Center, emphasized that this break will enable the staff "to examine a number of matters with the kind of thoroughness that the situation calls for. Our expectation is that the work we can do in the summer of 1970 will enable us to look forward to the summer of 1971 with confidence and with a sense of excitement."