2026-27 Visual and Performing Arts Season Brochure

carthage studio art, photography, animation, and film student thesis exhibitions and screenings

Fall Thesis Exhibition 1: November 13-19

Nov. 14 | 1-3 p.m. Opening Reception

Fall Thesis Exhibition 2: December 4-10

Dec. 5 | 1-3 p.m. Opening Reception

Spring Thesis Exhibition 1: April 9-17

April 10 | 1-3 p.m. Opening Reception

Spring Thesis Exhibition 2: April 23 - May 1

April 24 | 1-3 p.m. Opening Reception

Spring Thesis Exhibition 3: May 7-15

May 8 | 1-3 p.m. Opening Reception

annual juried student art show

March 24 - April 3

April 1 | 3:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception

12th

annual art walk

May 8 | 1-3 p.m. Reception at the H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art

Join us for the 12th annual Art Walk at various venues across our beautiful, flowering lakeside campus. Stroll along Lake Michigan and admire the capstone thesis projects of Carthage studio art, photography, animation & film, and graphic design majors, using many different forms of media.

h.f. johnson gallery of art

The H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage displays work by established and emerging artists from Chicago, Milwaukee, and beyond.

everything all at once: contemporary printmaking in two parts

August 27 – October 3 Exhibition

September 3 | 3:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception

September 16 | 6:15-7:30 p.m. Artist Talk

In today’s printmaking circles, witty conceptual approaches to the medium are deployed alongside centuries-old techniques. What happens when these disparate approaches to print are displayed together? This group exhibition invites today’s printmakers, spanning process and approach, to show up and show out. We’ll get to see everything all at once.

fragments becoming

October 8 – November 21 Exhibition

October 8 | 3:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception

October 28 | 6:15-7:30 p.m. Artist Talk

Like pieces to a puzzle, small fragments work together to solve problems, complete missions, and build sum totals. In “Fragments Becoming”, structure and rhythm are created through artistic labor and material exploration. Artists in this exhibition work in a variety of media, and use small components to construct larger worlds.

February 11 – March 5 Exhibition

February 11 | 3:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception

February 24 | 6:15-7:30 p.m. Artist Talk

Emerging from the still water, we reverberate our presence. Nostalgia, experience, identity and memory play an important role in how the mind perceives space and depth. Shapes play with domesticity, stacking, and vibrating unoccupied space. Repetition, whether in mark making, movement, breath, material or routine- surrounds our presence and dictates our reality.

image / object

March 18 – April 17 Exhibition

March 18 | 3:30-6:30 p.m. Opening Reception March 31 | 6:15-7:30 p.m. Artist Talk

“Image / Object” bridges a relationship between photography and sculpture by exploring the limits of materiality, embodiment, and perception, through alternative processes. Artists in the exhibition ask how images can be developed into dimensional beings that occupy space, by reassembling and recontextualizing everyday materials. Organized by curator Alex Feim.

christmas festival

the 152nd annual carthage christmas festival

December 4-5 | 7:30 p.m.

December 6 | 4 p.m.

A. F. Siebert Chapel | Tickets Required | Tickets available for purchase Oct. 1

Artistic direction by: Margaret Burk

Production direction by: Matthew Hougland

Our annual celebration of the Christmas season continues with the 152nd edition, “Hope of Salvation,” featuring the Carthage choral ensembles, Wind Orchestra, and Philharmonic. Step into the magic of the season with the return of Wassail Wonderland, a festive pre-concert experience featuring unlimited holiday food and drinks, cozy ambience, and keepsake gifts available before each Carthage Christmas Festival performance.

theatre and dance

November 13-14 | 7:30 p.m.

November 15 | 3 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre

“Find What Flows” brings embodied experience to the stage through new and legacy dance works shared by Carthage dancers. The program features works created by regional guest artists, Carthage’s very own emerging choreographers, and iconic American choreographers included in the Dancing Legacy Repertory Etudes Collection.

May 7-8 | 7:30 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre

In our annual student dance concert, Carthage’s emerging artists are provided the platform to develop and shape their own dances, share in the development of their own production, and engage in community discourse about their work.

WALDEN

February 25-27 | 7:30 p.m.

Studio Theatre

Written by: Amy Berryman

Directed by: Owen Holecko

Cassie, a prominent NASA astronaut, returns from a year on the moon to mend her relationship with her sister Stella, a former NASA engineer who now lives in the wilderness with her climate activist fiancé, Bryan. Set in the not-too-distant future, “Walden” asks us what to do when both relationships and Earth feel beyond saving.

SPRING MUSICAL

Directed by: Herschel Kruger | Music Direction by: Yu-Mei Chang

April 23-24, 29-30 | 7:30 p.m.

May 1 | 7:30 p.m.

April 25 at 3 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre | Tickets required

We can’t announce the name of our Spring musical yet — but we’re excited to be able to present one of the greatest musicals of all time. Since its Broadway opening, it has been produced in multiple revivals starring no less than eight of the most famous stars of the last century. We can’t wait for you to let us entertain you with this masterpiece!