Meet the face of The Arts at Wellesley

Jennifer Hughes '06 became Wellesley's director of publicity and coordination for the arts last year, but she has worked for the College for more than three years. Prior to her current position, Hughes ran the music department's concert series. In fact, apart from a brief stint as the Development Associate at the Boston Early Music Festival, Hughes has been at Wellesley for nearly eight years altogether—she first came to Wellesley as a student in the fall of 2002. Last year's graduating class, the class of 2010, was the first that she never had classes with.

Hughes graduated in 2006 with honors in her music major and is a true Wendy Wellesley. As a student, she belonged to the Chamber Music Society and Zeta Alpha, Wellesley's Literary Society. She is currently president of ZA's Alumna Board and  is studying part-time at Brandeis for her masters in musicology.

Despite these claims on her time, over the past year Hughes has helped to reinvent the way Wellesley College does arts. The changes, most of which stem from increased collaboration and centralization, have proven cost-effective and coincided with a promising "uptick in attendance and coverage of events." She mused that her experience as a Wellesley student has helped her do her job because, as a recent graduate, she can still "put on [her] student hat." She remembers what was relevant, important and appealing to her during her time as a Wellesley undergraduate. She also claimed that Wellesley alumnae are very well represented in the world of arts administration, which has provided her with an extensive network.

Though she described her job as "overseeing coordination and promotion, putting together the arts calendar" as well as liaising with and facilitating communication between the various departments that fall under the heading of the arts, Hughes modestly stressed that she's really a team player. She works closely with both the public affairs team and the individual departments. She recycled an apt description that someone else once applied to her: "quarterback." She elaborated, "A quarterback tells people where to throw the ball, and I tell them who to call." 

The most visible and immediate sign of the increased collaboration in which Hughes has led her team is the new Wellesley Arts Calendar, a handy pamphlet that details the dates, times and descriptions of Wellesley-sponsored arts events for the semester that can be found on specially designed and distributed racks across campus or online in the form of a PDF file. In previous years, the Newhouse Center, Davis Museum, Multifaith Center and art, music and theater departments each released their own brochure. The new method is cheaper and increases event awareness, because it introduces regular attendees of plays or patrons of the Davis Museum to, say, the music department's concert series. Another benefit of the new, centralized system is increased collaboration between departments. The results of this development aren't as tangible as the Arts Calendar, but it has led to exciting new projects. One notable example is the music and theater Departments' cooperative effort: an original musical based on Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," which is scheduled to premiere in April.

Big events that Hughes has deemed "can't-miss" includes "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which runs from Sept. 23 to 25, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) concert in December. "A Midsummer Night's Dream," to be performed by the inestimable Actors from the London Stage ("These actors are brilliant," Hughes, gushed), will be the inaugural performance on the stage in the newly renovated Alumnae Hall. Hughes called BMOP, which is Wellesley College's resident performing group this year, "one of the biggest and most well-known orchestras for new music in the country." Their first concert of the year is especially exciting because one of the pieces will be a premiere of Wellesley's Assistant Professor of Music and Composition Jenny Olivia Johnson's new work. Hughes also encouraged students to visit and revisit Calculated Risks, which opened on Wednesday, Sept. 15. "It's such a big exhibit—there's so much there that you can't really take it all in one visit."

Hughes is enthusiastic in her love of arts, Wellesley and her job. One of her remarks in the beginning of the interview said it all: "I think I have the best job ever. I get to bring the arts to the college!"