Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA)
Founded in Fall 2022, the Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA) is a new office at Smith focused on unifying arts planning and programming on campus through collaboration and co-creation of programs and initiatives designed to support the creative work of students, staff and faculty. The Office for the Arts will ultimately act as a hub of information about arts activities and events, operating as a central resource for elevating the role the arts can play within the campus landscape. Through developing sustained partnerships, SOFA aims to provide more resources and opportunities for students in curricular, co-curricular and informal arts participation. It will strengthen the presence and visibility of the arts and artists at Smith, providing the capacity to deepen the impact of the arts on campus and in the community.
About Us
Recent projects include Carrie Mae Weems: A Land of Broken Dreams; Hypocrisy of Justice: Sights and Sounds from the Black Metropolis; Jenny Holzer’s YOU BE MY ALLY; CinéVardaExpo - Agnès Varda in Chicago, What is an Artistic Practice of Human Rights?, Centennial Brooks, Envisioning China, a Philip Glass Residency, and Let’s Get Working: Chicago Celebrates Studs Terkel. Leigh also curated the Logan: On Display exhibitions program. During her tenure she launched the Logan Center Bluesfest and the Blues programming initiative, the Logan Collaboration Grant and the Arts & Innovation Series in collaboration with the Polsky Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was acting Program Director of eXp, the Experimental Performance Initiative. In 2017, she oversaw the strategic planning process for the Logan Center as part of the five-year anniversary.
Prior to UChicago, Leigh worked at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, where she oversaw the DanceBridge Residency program, helped launch Chicago Artists Resource and coordinated Chicago Artists Month, which included over 220 visual arts events every year across the city. She has previously worked at MASS MoCA, The Kitchen, Performing Arts Chicago, Lucky Plush and Young Audiences/New York. She has a masters in art education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a degree in art history from Wellesley College.
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Contact Office for the Arts
Leigh Fagin
Jean and David W. Wallace Foundation Director of the Office for the Arts
Sage Hall 105
Northampton, MA 01063
Email: sofa@smith.edu