Opening Nights Records, 1999-2011

Summary

Extent:: 16 Linear Feet
Language:: English
Preferred citation:: Opening Nights Records, HUA 2016-126, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/HPUA-2016-126

Background

Biographical / historical:

Opening Nights at Florida State University is an annual series of performances in music, theater, dance, film, spoken word, and visual arts. Its goal is to provide exposure for students and the larger community to arts and performances.

The Florida State College for Women Artist Series began in 1921, which brought high-profile performers to the university. This was transformed in 1968 into the Florida State University Fine Arts Festival which paired professional performances with those by faculty and students, and took place during the month of February. The tradition continued annually in some capacity until the 1991 Spring Semester. This performance series was revived by FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte in February 1999. The success of the festival led to the "Seven Days of Opening Nights Festival," initially a week-long festival in February, which developed into a series of events spanning several months beginning in 2009. By 2010-2011, the festival had transitioned to an annual series of performances and events lasting from fall to spring. The name was shortened to "Opening Nights" in 2014 to reflect this expansion of the program beyond the original week-long performances.

After the performance series was initially approved by President D'Alemberte, a planning committee was established to solicit performances from nationally recognized talent along with those from the schools of Music, Theater, Visual Arts and Dance. After the first festival in 1999, Margo Bindhardt was appointed by D'Alemberte as chairman of the Volunteer Executive Committee. In 2001, leadership was transferred to Jennifer Fields, the first full-time director of the festival and Opening Nights has been overseen by a director since this time. As of 2023, the director of Opening Nights reports to the University President's Office.

Opening Nights was conceived as a festival that would unite the FSU campus with a broader public. This is reflected in the location of the performances, which eventually expanded to include both university and Tallahassee community venues, as well as Panama City beginning in 2005.

Opening Nights Directors:

Margo Bindhardt (1999-2001) Jennifer Fields (2001) Carmen Braswell-Butler (2002) Diane Greer (2003-2008) Steve McQueen (2008-2012) Chris Heacox (2012-2017) Michael Blachly (2017-2022) Jennifer Wright-Allen (2022-)

Administrative History by Alex Challenger, July 2023

Physical / technical requirements:

Content of audiovisual media may not be immediately accessible to researchers. For more information, please contact Special Collections & Archives staff at lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Collection