Sea Island Gullah music by Ranky Tanky will be featured on Thursday, September 7 at 6 p.m. outside on the Weis Center Plaza. The family-friendly performance is free and tickets are not required. The rain location is the Weis Center Atrium Lobby. Patrons are encouraged to bring a lawn chair, blanket and picnic. A free pre-performance lecture and demonstration with the artists will take place the same day from 5:15-5:45 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium Lobby. The performance is sponsored, in part, by the Bucknell Community Engagement Fund. Gullah comes from the West African language and means a people […]

Zydeco innovator Corey Ledet and his Zydeco Band will kick-off the Weis Center’s 30th Anniversary season on Friday, August 25 at 6 p.m. outside on the Weis Center Plaza. The family-friendly performance is free and tickets are not required. The rain location is the Weis Center Atrium Lobby. Patrons are encouraged to bring a lawn chair, blanket and picnic. A free pre-performance lecture and demonstration with the artist will take place the same day at 12 noon in the Weis Center Atrium Lobby. The performance is sponsored, in part, by Evangelical Community Hospital. Backed by a full band, Grammy-nominated zydeco […]

Image:  Les Paul, Ralph Gibson, 2000, Gelatin Silver Print on Paper. Gift of Douglas Smith, Class of 1984   The Weis Center for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Samek Art Museum at Bucknell University, will host a free guitar-themed photography exhibit now through Friday, June 22, 2018 in its Atrium Lobby. Entitled State of the Axe, the exhibit includes 30 photographs which were drawn from the collection of the Samek Art Museum by photographer Ralph Gibson. The images depict guitar masters and the intimate relationship they have with their instrument. Richard Rinehart, Samek Art Museum Director and curator of the […]

The 30th Anniversary season at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts at Bucknell University features 33 events from across the United States and around the globe and includes Americana/roots, bluegrass, zydeco, classical, jazz, blues, world music, dance, and Family Discovery performances. Ten performances are free. Performances begin in late August 2017 and continue through April 2018. The season will kick-off on Friday, August 25 at 6 p.m. with a free outdoor concert on the Weis Center Plaza by Grammy-nominated Zydeco innovator Corey Ledet & His Zydeco Band. A second free outdoor concert will be offered on Thursday, September 7 […]

Our 30th Anniversary brochure is at the printer! Check out the gorgeous cover – we hope you like it as much as we do. Once again, we will offer 30+ professional performances.   The brochure will be available to the public (for free!) in late July. Patrons and subscribers will receive it in mid-July.

On Saturday, April 1st, Julia Wolfe, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bucknell University Camerata and Lycoming College Chamber Choir conducted by Dr. Beth Willer will come together to present Anthracite Fields — the next performance installment of Coal Collections: Local, National, and International Stories. Anthracite Fields is an oratorio — a large-scale musical piece consisting of orchestra and voices with a narrative theme performed without costumes or scenery. The show follows the lives of early 20th century coal miners in Pennsylvania, using music to illustrate the hardships and triumphs of the coal mining community. According to Wolfe’s website, Anthracite Fields “draws on […]

From up-close portraits of coal miners and their families to landscapes of Pennsylvania’s coal region, Jack Delano’s photographs provide a retrospective of life in rural Pennsylvania during the 1930s. This photo series, Dust and Light, is currently on display at the Weis Center in partnership with the Samek Art Museum as part of the University’s year-long Coal Collections series. The black and white photos are presented in twos, as if they were pages in a scrapbook, giving a rustic, familiar feel to the exhibition. Delano, who came to the United States from Russia as a child in 1923, used his […]

The Color of Sound exhibition has been livening up the Weis Center’s lobby since the fall, although soon a new exhibit will greet guests whenever they pay a visit to the Weis Center beginning March 20th and running through September 10th. As part of Art at the Weis Center, a partnership with the Samek Art Museum, the exhibition Dust & Light: Images of PA Coal Communities will debut, featuring a collection of photographs from artist Jack Delano. The exhibition is also part of Bucknell’s Coal Collections series, a yearlong collaboration between the Weis Center and the Place Studies program of the Bucknell Center for […]

Silencio Blanco, a touring group of puppeteers who use their puppets to tell stories, will perform twice at Bucknell on Friday, Feb. 17 (2 p.m. and 7 p.m.). As part of the Weis Center’s ongoing series, Coal Collections: Local, National, and International Stories, the ensemble will perform with marionettes made from a newspaper base in order to share stories about the significance of coal mining in Chilean culture. In what is likely a first for the Weis Center, patrons will be seated on-stage with the puppeteers and puppets, gaining intimate access to this unique performance. As the group’s name suggests, […]

How much do you know about the Weis Center? Sure, it’s a beautiful space. The Atrium Lobby’s winding staircase and the theater’s high ceilings, wood paneling, and signature light fixtures are immediately recognizable to any student, staff, faculty or alumnus. It’s ranked as one of the country’s most beautiful university performing arts centers for a reason. However, when you dig a little deeper, there are many facts and eccentricities that make the Weis Center even more unique. Here are a few did you know?’s about Bucknell’s home for all things performing arts. The center has a “shoe box” shape. With […]