This year, the Samek Art Museum and the Weis Center for the Performing Arts have cometogether under one unifying theme: trees. It is more than coincidence, more than a sharedimage. It is a collaboration that asks us to think about growth, process, and connection acrossart forms, and to experience how these lessons move between the museum and the stage. At the Samek, Gina Siepel’s exhibition To Understand a Tree anchors the season. The project,created over six years in communion with a single tree, blends ecology, queer experience, andenvironmental philosophy into a living portrait of interconnection. But the exhibition does notstand […]

On Monday, September 29, Nalini Nadkarni, National Geographic Explorer at Large, met and interacted with more than 100 Bucknell University students through the Residential College Common Hour program. She met with students from the Discovery Res College, Society and Technology Res College, and Nature and Innovation Res College. Nalini will present her multimedia presentation “From Roots to Canopy” at the Weis Center on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. Professor Chris Martine will introduce Nalini and facilitate a post-show Q&A. Nalini talked about growing up in Bethesda, MD and climbing the eight trees lining her parents’ […]

After several years, the Weis Center opened its Atrium once more for performance, and for that moment there could not have been a better choice than the André Mehmari Trio. Some concerts are made for grandeur and scale, but others are meant for closeness, for stillness, for intimacy. This was the latter, a performance that felt less like spectacle and more like a bud slowly opening, quiet, delicate, and full of promise. André has lived for over twenty five years in the Atlantic Forest, the vast tropical rainforest along Brazil’s coast, and his music carried that landscape within it. The […]

The Weis Center will welcome modern dance company Ailey II, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, on Thursday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. A free pre-performance talk will take place in the Atrium from 6:45-7:15 p.m. The performance is sponsored, in part, by The Standard Journal.    For more than five decades, Ailey II has merged the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and artistry of today’s most outstanding and emerging choreographers. Founded in 1974 as a bridge between The Ailey School and the professional dance […]

The Weis Center will host a multimedia presentation, National Geographic Live: From Roots to Canopy, on Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. This engagement is part of the Weis Center’s year-long Trees Series.  Patrons are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 p.m. for a free Environmental Expo in the Atrium featuring: DCNR, Linn Conservancy, Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Seven Mountains Audubon, and Susquehanna Greenway Partnership. Climb into the clouds with tree canopy ecologist Nalini Nadkarni to experience the worlds hidden in the treetops above our heads. The performance is sponsored, in part, by The Daily Item and WellSpan […]

Some nights feel like a spark. Others, like a flame. And then there are nights that feel like a seed planted, something that roots itself quietly, grows inward before it grows outward, and promises to linger long after the final note. Kings Return gave us that seed. It could not have been more fitting that their performance marked not only their long-awaited return to Bucknell but also the beginning of a new year for the Weis Center, itself reborn through a complete renovation. With its theme of trees, an image both simple and immense, ordinary and eternal, this season began […]

c A Night of Communion and Celebration: Ruthie Foster Closes the Weis Center Season There are evenings that entertain, and then there are evenings that stay with you quietly, completely, without asking for permission. Ruthie Foster gave us the latter. From the moment she walked onto the stage, there was a shift in the air. The audience, already pulsing with anticipation, rose to meet her energy, and she returned it with something even greater: presence. Ruthie wasn’t just here to perform; she was here to connect. And from her very first note, that intention carried the room. There was no […]

The Weis Center will end its spring 2025 season with Grammy Award-winning blues artist Ruthie Foster on Friday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Weis Center Concert Hall. The performance is sponsored, in part, by Clayton and David Lightman and family. Collection for UCCYS: Patrons are encouraged to bring canned food items and/or toiletries to benefit local families; items will be distributed by Union County Children and Youth Services (UCCYS). ABOUT THE ARTISTIn January 2025, Ruthie Foster received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for her new release, Mileage. Ruthie’s musical journey is as eclectic and vibrant […]

My First Classical Music Experience After a long and stressful week of classes, attending the Neave Trio’s performance at the Weis Center on a Sunday afternoon was exactly what I needed. The music was deeply relaxing, and as someone who had never attended a classical concert before, this was an unforgettable introduction to the genre. The trio’s performance was elegant and moving, filling the hall with melodies that felt both powerful and soothing. It was the perfect way to step away from the rush of college life and simply be present in the music. Listening to the Neave Trio, especially […]

A Night of Daring Beauty: DakhaBrakha at the Weis Center From the moment DakhaBrakha took the stage at the Weis Center, the air shifted. There was no need for words, no need for introductions—the setting itself, drenched in shadow and sound, was invitation enough. The audience sat in quiet anticipation, not yet standing, but utterly alert. It felt like the prologue to a myth—grand, majestic, yet deeply personal. You weren’t just watching a performance. You were being summoned into something larger. DakhaBrakha didn’t play music. They conjured it. Each piece unfolded like a self-contained story, rooted in folk tradition but […]