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Arts & Entertainment

Northwestern’s Institute for New Music organizes workshops, symposia and residencies for visiting composers and ensembles and gives students opportunities to interact with and learn from prominent figures in the new music world.

Learn about the institute

Alan Pierson stands on stage in front of a pianist and other musicians with his arms poised to conduct while an audience looks on behind him.
André Crump ’91 MBA founded the World Dog Surfing Championships, which brings thousands of canine lovers to the shore of Linda Mar Beach outside San Francisco to watch the world’s best four-legged surfers catch some waves each summer.

Adorable dogs this way

Two dogs, one sporting a red life vest and one in a green life vest and reflective goggles, catch a wave on side-by-side surf boards.
Anamaria Sayre ’21 is co-host of NPR Music’s Alt.Latino, where she celebrates Latinx culture as NPR’s youngest-ever full-time host. She also produces El Tiny, the Latin music version of Tiny Desk Concerts.

Get to know Sayre

Anamaria Sayre wears a white tank top and jeans and sits on a magenta ottoman while looking away from the camera and smiling. The background of the image is a deep yellow-orange.
Hillary Simms, doctor of musical arts student in Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music and the first woman trombonist on the faculty at the Juilliard School, explains her love-hate relationship with the trombone.

Get to know Simms

Hillary Simms, wearing a black blouse and jeans, smiles at the camera while holding a trombone in a grassy landscape.
The Block of Museum of Art’s Woven Being exhibit showcases Chicagoland’s many Indigenous art histories, with more than 80 works of various materials — including painting, basket weaving, bead work, sculpture, photography and mixed media.

Read the story

An acrylic painting of humanoid creatures, painted in blue, red, green and tan.
In 2024 interdisciplinary artist Lilli Carré ’16 MFA won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in the film-video category. Northwestern Magazine asked Carré about the inspiration behind her artwork and what she’s exploring next.

Learn about her art

Lilli Carré wears a red sweater and leans over a workbench in her artist studio, working with clay.
Susan Avery ’90 MS founded the Pacemakers, a dance team fighting stigma around aging. The group has developed a worldwide following.

Read the story

Susan Avery, wearing her blue and black Pacemakers uniform and a yellow hat, stands smiling with her hands on her hips in front of a black mural with colorful hearts.
Matt Houchin is breaking records by wearing a Hard Rock Café T-shirt every day in 2024, all in the name of charity. His Hard Rock Shirt-a-thon is raising money for the nonprofit Free Guitars 4 Kids.

Follow Houchin’s journey

Matt Houchin, wearing a white bathrobe, stands at a table covered in Hard Rock Café T-shirts, ironing one of the shirts.
Harris Forbes ’19 serves as associate producer and postproduction supervisor for America in Black. Produced by CBS News in partnership with BET News, the show airs monthly and covers a range of stories about Black America, from profiles of prominent movers and shakers to deep dives into the Black maternal health crisis and the fight to teach Black history in schools.

Read about Forbes’ work

The words BET News Presents America in Black are displayed on a black background.
Our alumni will travel the world for a scoop. Meet the foreign correspondents, filmmakers and producers who are shining lights on stories from India, Colombia, Israel, Ukraine and elsewhere.

Learn about their work

Josh Lederman stands in a desert landscape in Gaza. He is wearing a blue denim shirt, black pants, and a black bulletproof vest labeled ‘PRESS’ on the front.