UMKC Conservatory students challenged attendees to look deeper into the story behind three fine art photos at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art on Oct. 24.
The three student performers engaged in tableau vivant, or living pictures, for the Night/Shift: Floating Worlds event. They showcased their talents in opera, dance and theater as physical manifestations of images in the museum’s photography exhibit.
Senior dance major Christian Lunn represented a piece from photographer Gregory Crewdson’s ‘Twilight’ collection. The image represented Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring a modern-day version of the character Ophelia lying in a room flooding with water.
Ophelia’s story revolves around the bonds with her romantic interest Hamlet. She slowly enters a state of madness due to Hamlet’s actions, ultimately drowning in the play’s fourth act.
Lunn portrayed Ophelia’s descent into madness as complex, with sudden switches of emotions. She skipped barefoot across the floors and handed flowers out to the audience, before anxiously running around the museum seconds later.
“Ophelia loves Hamlet, but he killed her father. Not only that, but she’s going mad. She’s overwhelmed with a lot of different emotions that I wanted to execute,” said Lunn.
UMKC Musicology Professor Dr. Jane Sylvester worked alongside UMKC and Nelson Atkins staff to plan this event.
“Being in tune to the special exhibits the Nelson has is one of the strategies that we’ll continue to develop, especially in the spring of 2025,” said Sylvester.
Sylvester served as project director for Sight X Sound, a series of collaborative performances between UMKC and the Nelson Atkins. She hopes to continue the partnership with the museum in future years, along with new future collaborations.
“We are collaborating with the Charlotte Street Foundation involving student composers, some of their curatorial fellows, as well as some of their composers in residence. That will be some of our threads spreading the Conservatory to other artistic and creative institutions in the city,” said Sylvester.
The Charlotte Street Foundation is an organization supporting Kansas City artists by providing free studio space and project grants to assist creatives in pursuing their work.
Sylvester plans to spread the Conservatory’s reach even further across Kansas City’s artistic spaces, bringing students’ talents to venues across the city.
To stay up to date on the Conservatory’s performances, click here.
