This semester's arts program covers all the bases, from visual art to theater, film, music and, at the end of the semester, the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.Three exhibitions will run from Jan. 23 through April 13 at the Rose Art Museum. An opening reception will take place Jan. 23 from 6 to 8 pm.

"Empires and Environments" features works from the Rose's permanent collection as well as from emerging artists. According to a press release, this exhibition examines the dynamic between cultural, psychological and natural environments and the "structuring of 'empires' in symbolic, imaginary, and real terms." Paintings by such artists as Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock will come out of the Rose's storied vault to accompany works by contemporary artists like Rudd Van Empel, John Powers and Nathalie Frank. The exhibition is curated by Dominique Nahas, an independent curator and art critic from New York City, and Margaret Evangeline, a painter who works with such materials as gunshot and mirror-polished stainless steel.

"Broken Home, 1997/2007" is a recreation of an influential 1997 exhibition in the Greene Naftali Gallery in New York and is curated by Meg O'Rourke and Caroline Schneider. The Rose's exhibit is the first example of a museum recreating a commercial gallery's exhibit, though galleries often present museum-quality shows, crossing the line between commercialism and the sanctity of the museum.

"Arp to Reinhardt: Rose Geometries" also features modern and contemporary works from the Rose's permanent collection. The exhibit, curated by Adelina Jedrzejczak, the Ann Tanenbaum Assistant Curator at the Rose, investigates the prominence of geometrical abstraction in American art of the 1950s and 1960s by exploring the presence of said phenomenon in the European art of the 1920s and 1930s. The main focus of the exhibit is two paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, an American artist of the 1960s, influenced by Jean Arp. Ellsworth's work serves as a bridge between early geometric abstraction and the minimalism and reductive art of later years.

The Women's Studies and Research Center will also put on a couple of art exhibits: "Healing, Community and Transformation: Student Visions from Johannesburg" from Jan. 16 through Feb. 26 (opening reception will be Jan. 23 at 5 p.m.) as well as an installation by Lynne Avadenka. The former features photographs by Naomi Safran-Hon '08 and linocuts by South African students. Safran-Hon worked with AIDS orphans at the Art Therapy Centre in Johannesburg in 2006 as an Ethics Center Student Fellow; the students who made the linocuts come from The Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, a socially active art school in South Africa. The event is part of the yearlong celebration of the Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life's 10th anniversary and encompasses a showing of A Ripple in the Water: Healing Through Art, a documentary film about The Artist Proof Studio to take place on Feb. 7 at 4 p.m. at the WSRC as well as a panel discussion of "HIV/AIDS and the Gendered Politics of Care in South Africa," Feb. 12 at noon in Olin-Sang 101.

Not to be outdone by a bunch of pictures on a wall, the Brandeis Theater Company stays busy this semester with Shakespeare's As You Like It, directed by Prof. Adrianne Krstansky (THA), opening Feb. 17, and The Orphan of Zhao, directed by Prof. Eric Hill (THA) and Naya Chang (Grad) with an original score by Prof. Yu-hi Chang (MUS). Chang's score will be performed by guest performer Jiebing Chen, who plays the traditional Chinese erhu, and Yangqin Zhao, who plays the hammered dulcimer. Both artists will visit Brandeis through the MusicUnitesUS program. The play is an adaptation of a Chinese folktale that follows events in the town of Jin after the emperor kills many of the Zhao Clan. The responsibility for revenge and renewal is bestowed upon an orphaned Zhao boy who is adopted by Cheng Ying. The Orphan of Zhao opens March 27.

The Music Department's Marquee Series, which brings performers in the American tradition to Brandeis, continues this semester with a performance by Chris Smither. The New Orleans, LA-born blues guitarist and songwriter got his start on the Boston club circuit in the 1960s with friend and collaborator Bonnie Raitt. His concert, March 21 , in the Slosberg Recital Hall comes soon after the release of his upcoming concert DVD, One More Night, part of which was filmed at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.

The MusicUnitesUS series also continues this semester with a program that acts as the yin to last semester's yang. The fall semester's featured artist was Ologunda, a Brazilian dance and ritual performance group; this semester's artists, Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao, are traditional Chinese musicians whose repertoire includes both traditional Chinese works as well as cross-cultural experimental pieces. Chen's specialty is the erhu, China's traditional two-stringed violin. (If you've ever been to Harvard Square, you've probably seen this instrument in action.) Chen is highly renowned in China, having won first prize in the National Competition of Traditional Instruments in Beijing and other honors from the government and other organizations. Zhao, who performs on the hammered dulcimer, is likewise a winner of a number of competitions for traditional music in China.

The schedule for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts hasn't been released yet, but events planned for the weekend include a concert of music by Irving Fine, the founder of the School of Creative Arts at Brandeis, premiered by Brandeis composers and the Irving Fine Society, as well as a photography exhibit by Safran-Hon.