From the banks of the fog-shrouded Connecticut River to the multicolored glow of the , the Dartmouth community came together for a joyful, and at times transcendent, weekend celebrating a renovation and expansion designed to take the arts on campus through the 21st century.
Internationally acclaimed performers and national arts leaders joined students, faculty, and alumni to dedicate the new 15,000-square-foot Daryl and Steven Roth Wing at the Hop on Friday, Oct. 17, heralding the reopening of the 63-year-old arts center.
Bright fanfares played by members of the set the tone for the outdoor ceremony, where and shared their gratitude for those who helped make the multiyear project possible, especially Steven Roth ’62, Tuck ’63, and Daryl Roth, a Tony award-winning producer.
“Let me be the first to officially say: Welcome to a new era of the arts at Dartmouth,” told the enthusiastic crowd of current and former Dartmouth leaders, alumni, students, faculty, staff, and other supporters gathered on the Hop Plaza. “Today as we dedicate this Daryl and Steven Roth Wing, the gateway to our reimagined Arts District, we are making the heart and soul of Dartmouth more alive, more accessible, and more resonant than it has ever been.”
The new performance venues, versatile laboratories for creation, and social spaces make the Hop an anchor to the Arts District on campus, enriching learning, strengthening community, and driving innovation in the arts.
President Beilock said students will use the flexible spaces to tell stories in new ways; faculty will have room to create, research, and drive excellence; and acclaimed artists will “create alongside us, and bring their own perspectives, using art as a focal point to talk about how we see the world, find connection, and common ground. Above all, these spaces will be laboratories of leadership where young people learn what it truly means to be part of something bigger than yourself.”
Driving that point home was award-winning writer, actor, and producer Mindy Kaling ’01, who as a student “discovered my people” at the Hop, she said, including “my a cappella group, The Rockapellas, where I met my closest friends to this day; my beloved improv troupe, The Dog Day Players; the drama department, where I learned how to write for the stage.”
Kaling said the Hop was where she experienced both creative rejection and validation, which were critical to her development as an artist.
“I know it was those early failures, those quiet moments of disappointment that taught me how to get back up. It’s so important to have a place to try things and to get better,” she said.
A gift from Kaling led to the , and she was later surrounded by students seeking photos with her outside the new theater space, just one of several major new elements in the Roth Wing.
The arts center, which is at the same time a center of community life, is “uniquely Dartmouth,” said , the Howard Gilman ’44 Executive Director of the Hop, her voice at times breaking with emotion during the dedication. “Yet its purpose is in service to the world.”
Board of Trustees Chair , said that, for her, the Hop personified the liberal arts. She thanked her fellow trustees, town and campus partners, and other supporters for their work, including the Roth family.
“Of course I’d like to add the board’s thanks to Steve and Daryl Roth, a true power couple that dazzle us in everything they do,” Lempres said.
Music professor , director of the Master of Fine Arts in Sonic Practice program, called the Hop “a building whose flexible power compels us to imagine our worlds anew.”
“As arts faculty, we know the new Hop is not a cruise ship, it’s a crucible,” Fure said. “It’s not eye candy, though it is beautiful, but it’s a jet engine, a place where culture can be forged and launched into the world to change it.”
‘We Are Water’ Premiere
The included student and star performances, talks, and workshops with major artists who returned to Hanover for the occasion, showcasing new and refurbished .
A centerpiece was the Saturday, Oct. 18, world premiere of , which was commissioned for the Hopkins Center reopening and featured Indigenous songs and stories about connections formed by the Kwenitekw, aka the Connecticut River, and water in general.
The sold-out concert on the David A. Graves Stage in Spaulding Auditorium featured legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, ; tenor and Tobique First Nation member Jeremy Dutcher; bassist and composer Mali Obomsawin ’18, an Abenaki from Odanak First Nation; Chris Newell ’96, a member of the Mystic River singers and a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe; Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason; and other artists.
“Like water, like nature, we humans are also both destructive and creative. Only when we choose creativity do we become stronger, more resilient, more collaborative. Only then can we treat every human being with dignity,” Ma said during the performance. “And remember that our survival cannot be separated from that of the planet that gives us life.”
More than 250 people watched a simulcast of the concert on the Green, then joined in square dancing with artists and audience members on the Hop Plaza after the concert.
Duanduan Wang, MED ’28, said the performance was “fantastic,” and she also appreciated the emphasis on ties to future generations. “It was very, very inspiring,” Wang said.
The We Are Water artists, and hundreds of listeners, started the day with a on the banks of the Connecticut at the Kendal Riverfront Park in Hanover. Ma rode on a canoe to the riverbank, where he was welcomed with blessings and songs by Indigenous artists and students.
The weekend also included a jazz happy hour with alumni and faculty musicians; performances by Renée Elise Goldsberry, the Tony Award-winning star of Hamilton; Pilobolus dance company; the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir; alt-pop artist hemlocke springs, Guarini ’23; and student dancers and a cappella groups.
Workshops With Alumni Stars
Hundreds of students flocked to free with Dartmouth alumni, including with award-winning producer and writer about the 10th anniversary edition of her memoir Year of Yes. Other workshops were led by actor Connie Britton ’89, twin DJs Angel Coleman ’13 and Dren Coleman ’13, choreographer and dancer Jamey Hampton ’76, and author and producer Kabir Sehgal ’05.
A writing workshop with Kaling and an improv session with comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Rachel Dratch ’88 and filmmaker, actor, and Olympic runner Alexi Pappas ’12 were also big hits.
In front of a packed , Rhimes and , chair of , chatted on Thursday, Oct. 16, about the book, followed by a Q&A. But first, Rhimes admired the room.
“I spent so much of my Dartmouth years in this space, especially in the wintertime, up here writing and reading and meeting with friends,” Rhimes said. “I love being here and seeing it reborn.”
Rhimes later participated in a with Kaling, talking with moderator about their writing processes, Dartmouth experiences, and journeys to what Tapper called “the thrones” upon which they currently reside.
Among the challenges was making the leap from writer to showrunner.
“I spent a lot of time with my production team saying, ‘I don’t know anything about post-production, so can somebody teach me?’” said Rhimes, describing the early days of Grey’s Anatomy. “I took the time to let the people who I worked with who were experts at their particular job teach me what they were doing.”
A Building for Creativity and Community
The Hop first opened in 1962, and the architecture firm Snøhetta was hired to design what turned into a $123.8 million expansion and modernization.
The Roth Wing includes the Jack 1953 and Mac 2011 Morris Recital Hall, featuring flexible performance space, state-of-the-art acoustics, and sweeping views across the Green. Next to it is a revitalized Top of the Hop, designed for more programming and social conversations—it includes a Top of the Hop Bar—but also remaining a place for relaxing or studying.
New performance spaces also include the Daryl Roth Studio Theater, the Mindy Kaling Theater Lab, and the Hodgson Family Dance Studio, the first-ever space dedicated to movement in the Hop. Other improvements include upgrades to Spaulding Auditorium and other spaces and a focus on sustainability, such as energy-efficient lighting.
Faculty, along with students, are enthusiastic about what the Hop has to offer.
“The new spaces and renovations are remarkable. The Roth black-box theater enables us, for the first time, to determine the architecture of the space based on the production rather than the other way around,” said Professor of Theater . “The Mindy Kaling Theater Lab is a gem—almost three times larger than the old rehearsal hall and large enough to accommodate the ground plan of a show in The Moore Theater—the perfect rehearsal space. And it is exciting to have dance in the Hopkins Center where it belongs!”
Along with a celebration of the building, the weekend also included an discussion on Saturday with Aleskie, the Hop executive director, and alumni artists Dratch, Newell, Pappas, and actor Sharon Washington ’81, exploring why the arts are not only desirable, but necessary.
A on Saturday with music by student band Day Drooler and Vermont singer-songwriter Hans Williams attracted more than 5,000 people.
And on Sunday, Oct. 19, about 250 people joined members of Pilobolus, the pioneering dance company that got its start at Dartmouth, and the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble for the weekend’s grand finale: a that included a playful and moving mashup as the performers made their way around the Hop, stopping for short dances in some of the new spaces.
events also drew visitors to all corners of Dartmouth’s vibrant Arts District, from the Hop to the neighboring and , to the new just across the street.
Throughout the weekend, community members shared their excitement as they explored the Hop.
Hannah Krueger ’26, a member of the Fusion Dance Ensemble, the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra, and Dartmouth College Marching Band, said she appreciates the increased community space in the new building, including the opportunity to enjoy drinks and entertainment at Top of the Hop. The Hop also includes Lessow Student Commons, a sun-filled gathering area with comfortable seating.
“It’s more of a space to gather in, as opposed to only go to when there’s a concert going on,” said Krueger.
Axel Schulz ’28 immersed himself in the reopening with his parents and younger brother, who traveled to Hanover from Arizona to experience it.
Schulz, who is studying film modified with music, said he’s looking forward to watching films at Spaulding and having “great musical experiences.”
“It’s really nice to know how much Dartmouth cares about arts, not only as a supplement to a liberal arts experience, but as an essential part of it.”
