Trinity Campus Served as Filming Location for New Series Starring Mandy Patinkin

The Trinity College community will see some familiar locations in the new streaming series The Artist, premiering on The Network on November 27. The series was filmed last year at various sites in Connecticut, including Trinity’s distinctive campus.

Created by director Aram Rappaport, the limited series stars Mandy Patinkin, Janet McTeer, Patti LuPone, Danny Huston, Ever Anderson, Hank Azaria, Clark Gregg, and Zachary Quinto. Set in the twilight of the Gilded Age, The Artist is a mystery series that brings together an ensemble of the era’s celebrities—including Thomas Edison, Edgar Degas, and Evelyn Nesbit—who meet at the house of an eccentric and failing tycoon before events turn deadly.

The Artist filmed on campus for two full days in fall 2024, when most students, staff, and faculty were away during the Thanksgiving break. Scenes were shot on the Main Quad and the Long Walk, as well as in Hamlin Hall, Seabury Hall, Williams Memorial, the Chapel cloisters, and Raether Library and Information Technology Center, among other campus locales. Many of these structures are part of the Trinity College Long Walk Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in spring 2024.

With its iconic Gothic Revival-style buildings that date back to the 1870s, the Trinity campus has become a popular filming location. The cast and crew of the upcoming Telugu romantic comedy film Visa: Vintara Saradaga spent several days filming on campus last year, and even invited members of the Trinity community to participate in group dance scenes. The 2022 film Call Jane—starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver—scouted locations at Trinity, filmed in the Hartford area, and held its local premiere at Cinestudio, the not-for-profit independent film theater located in the Clement Chemistry Building at the heart of campus.

Trinity’s film and media locations director, John Michael Mason ’12, M’14—assistant professor of physical education and director of cross country and track and field—works with location scouts and production crews who are interested in filming at the College. “It was great to have the team from The Network on campus last November filming The Artist,” Mason said. “Seeing Trinity come to life through the lens of a film camera is always a rewarding experience.”

Mason founded the student-led Trinity Film Festival as an undergraduate in 2011 and continues to serve as its advisor. He contributes to Trinity’s Film Studies Program and is the former chair of the Board of Directors for Cinestudio. Mason said that with the support and guidance of Trinity staff, production crews from around the world have access to one of the most visually stunning campuses in the country. In 2025, Trinity was again named by Architectural Digest as one of the most beautiful college campuses in America. More information about filming and photography opportunities at Trinity is available here.

Len Murach, the location manager and assistant production manager for The Artist, grew up in Southington, Connecticut, and has scouted Trinity as a possible filming location for various projects in the Hartford area since 2020. “The scheduling worked because our filming days coincided with the Thanksgiving break,” he said. “We had the two days just before Thanksgiving and, in those two days, we were able to shoot 30 scenes in 11 locations with little to no disruption to the students.”

Murach added that the production’s filming schedule was extremely ambitious, with only 28 shooting days to film a six-episode series set in the late 1800s. “Trinity was vital to the success of the project because we had our filming locations and production support spaces within walking distance,” Murach said. “John Michael has been a constant proponent of filming in Connecticut and he made it all happen. I can speak on behalf of the entire crew and thank everyone at Trinity College for being so welcoming.”

In addition to Trinity’s campus, other filming locations for The Artist included the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, the Palace Theater in downtown Waterbury, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford.

Episodes of The Artist will be released on The Network in two groups: Part 1 premieres on Thanksgiving (November 27); Part 2 premieres on Christmas (December 25).

See behind-the-scenes photos and view the trailer below—and keep an eye out for Trinity campus cameos!