Whether through clubs, ensembles or academic departments, Dartmouth students are given several outlets to engage with the arts. Despite some perceptions of a corporate focus on campus, several creative students continue to pursue art — both professionally and personally — after graduation.
Daniel Heyman ’85 graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in studio art — then called visual studies — and earned an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania. Since earning his MFA, Heyman’s career has taken him to teaching. He currently teaches art at Princeton University and teaches in the print department at the Rhode Island School of Design.
According to his website, Heyman has worked in multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking and scroll-craft, among others. His earlier projects often focused on violence and war, particularly the effects of World War II and the United States’s involvement in Iraq, he said.
Heyman is now moving away from these “political and very pointed” projects, he said.
“Now, I’m trying to focus more on visual metaphors as a way to communicate through art that goes beyond the specific and more to the general,” Heyman said. “Right now I’m thinking a lot about the interaction between extreme climate change and animal life.”
Heyman has won multiple awards for his work, including the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts and the 2009 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. His pieces have been showcased at museums and galleries across the country, including Dartmouth’s own Hood Museum of Art.
Scott Listfield ’98, another studio art alumnus, said he did not originally plan on majoring in the subject but fell in love with art as a student.
“I didn’t show up to Dartmouth knowing I was going to study art,” Listfield said. “I just liked art, but I wasn’t especially good at it. My first semester I took an Intro to Drawing class and … something clicked in me.”
During Listfield’s senior year at Dartmouth, he studied art abroad in Florence, Italy before working on his art for six months in Sydney, Australia after graduation. After returning home from those trips, Listfield said he “felt really disconnected from the contemporary world” — almost like a “lone traveler,” he added. This experience — coupled with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 film “A Space Odyssey” — inspired Listfield to create a series of paintings featuring a lone astronaut. He has since become known for these works, according to his website.
Listfield said he created the astronaut paintings while working as a graphic designer for various companies, including X, then known as Twitter. He explained that these positions gave him the financial freedom to pursue his art. Despite facing challenges in the art world — such as the 2008 financial recession — Listfield said he persevered and established himself as a full-time artist, a role he continues to embrace today.
The astronaut series has now been running for 25 years and spans “700-something” works of art, according to Listfield. When he was first contacted for an interview, the call went to voicemail because he was working on the newest addition to the collection — the second mural in a series of three at a building complex in El Segundo, Calif., he said.
“I [was] 40 feet in the air painting a wall outside, which is not what I normally do,” Listfield added.
Several young alumni are also pursuing the arts beyond Dartmouth. Ronnie Ahlborn ’22 said she first became interested in computer and digital arts during her time at Dartmouth, where she studied studio art and human-centered design.
After graduation, Ahlborn worked for the fashion brand Bobblehaus, managing their gallery and organizing events in New York City. She also did some design freelancing, including work on music album art and animations, she said.
Ahlborn is currently working on a project in which she uses her dreams as a starting point for her next works. She began visualizing the project while developing her exhibition “Make Yourself at Home,” which debuted at Dartmouth last August.
After waking up each morning, Ahlborn “record[s]” her dream into her phone, she explained. From there, she sketches, watercolors and eventually 3D models the “main motifs” of each dream, she said.
Ahlborn is also beginning the “long process” of a master’s thesis in computer arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York, she said.
Another recent graduate, Alice Crow ’22, first began working in galleries while she was still at Dartmouth. After graduation, she traded the Hood Museum for the modern art gallery Greene Naftali in New York City before transitioning to a position with contemporary artist Donald Sultan. With Sultan, Crow works on the administrative side of art, managing inventory, personnel and schedules.
Crow said she appreciates the opportunities her jobs have given her to connect with artists whose work she admires. She noted that gaining insight into “the commercial side” of art — such as learning how to market art and create a gallery space — has been “exciting.” Crow added that she has enjoyed “get[ting] closer to the art making process.” Looking ahead, she said she hopes to continue balancing her own artistic pursuits, mainly painting, with supporting other artists.
“[I hope to have] a mix of working art-related jobs and balancing making my own art as well,” Crow said.
While alumni affiliated with the studio art department often pursue creative careers, many Dartmouth graduates with degrees unrelated to art have also pursued artistic endeavors after graduation.
Maria Roodnitsky ’22 — who majored in computer science and mathematical data science — said she brought her guitar to campus during the summer of 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck several months later, Roodnitsky said she used music to “keep in touch” with her best friend. During their “eight hours a day” Zoom calls, Roodnitsky would often pick up her guitar and play songs, she explained.
“There’s a huge difference between singing for 100 people versus singing for one,” Roodnitsky said. “One is weirdly way scarier than 100, so I got really good at the intimate indie concert vibe.”
These Zoom sessions kickstarted her love of music performance, which she continued to pursue after leaving Hanover, she said.
After graduation, Roodnitsky moved to San Francisco and eventually performed a few paid gigs at a local unitarian universalist church. There, she met a member of the congregation who owned a recording studio and allowed her to use it.
Though she has a separate full-time job as a software engineer at Meta, Roodnitsky recorded and released two songs on her Spotify in 2024 — which she said was a “huge moment” for her.
While several alumni have pursued the arts, Listfield expressed a desire for stronger connections among Dartmouth graduates in the field. He emphasized the need for more pathways at Dartmouth to support aspiring professional artists, suggesting that art professors “actively encourage” students to engage with the arts alumni network.
“I’m happy to extend my area of expertise and help younger people,” he added. “I just don’t get the opportunity to do it all that much.”
