Fries Arts Building Opening Celebration

Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 2:00pm
Fries Arts Building, 56 Hamlin Street, Middletown, Connecticut

Free and open to the public.

Celebrate the opening of the new Fries Arts Building (FAB) at Wesleyan University with an afternoon of arts events and activities. Programmed by the Director’s Council, a student team led by CFA Director Joshua Lubin-Levy '06, the afternoon will feature a range of activities, performances, and exhibitions that bring out the artist in all of us. A full event schedule and list of activities will be published in August 2025.

Named in honor of Mike Fries ’85, a longtime supporter of Wesleyan, the FAB houses new performance, teaching, practice, and studio facilities, designed to combine formal and informal areas that will encourage students to collaborate across the arts.

The afternoon will include novice-friendly “Make As You Are” arts activities, an exhibition of artwork by Wesleyan faculty, concerts, and a cupcake toast to the new building. The afternoon culminates in a WesGrooves dance party featuring a West African dance lesson with Associate Professor of Dance Iddi Saaka, part of a new series of social dance events hosted by the CFA that create community connection through rigorous play and creative movement.

All events are free and open to the public.

Read more about the Fries Arts Building in The Wesleyan Connection.

The Director’s Council is a student collective, advised by the Director of the CFA, that participates in setting the vision for the CFA of the future. Working to reach new audiences and integrate arts across the campus, council members serve as ambassadors and agents of arts engagement that draw together different disciplines and various forms of study at Wesleyan University through creative making. The Council is governed and operated by the students who, each year, set the collective’s agenda. Students interested in joining the council will apply through Handshake and may direct questions to Joshua Lubin-Levy at jlubinlevy@wesleyan.edu.