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Arts
Fine Arts Center and HFA to Host Second Annual UMass Amherst Spring Arts Festival
The second annual UMass Amherst Spring Arts Festival — created in partnership between College of Humanities & Fine Arts and the Fine Arts Center — will kick off April 2. For this year’s festival, the Fine Arts Center will present a slate of innovative programming, including free outdoor concerts, which will compliment HFA Days, a two-day, open invitation to the university community to experience different facets of the college.
The Spring Arts Festival, which runs through the end of the semester, reaffirms the university’s commitment to the arts through a series of high-caliber events, theater and musical performances, art exhibitions, conferences, open classrooms and more. It also features upcoming arts programming and a retrospective look at creative works and research from throughout the academic year.
HFA Days will include Open Classrooms, Faculty Lightning Talks, an Interdisciplinary and Public Initiatives Panel and special programs that encompass additional events hosted by departments and communities, all of which are open to the public.
Fine Arts Center programming during the Spring Arts Festival includes ticketed performances – including an April 6 concert by the jazz ensemble Mingus Dynasty, presented in collaboration with the Department of Music and Dance’s annual High School Jazz Festival – visual arts events and talks, and a series of free lunchtime concerts staged outside Worcester Dining Commons. The free concert series will feature performances by Lexi Weege & JJ Slater, Sona Jobarteh, Brown Rice Family and Blaque Dynamite.
“We are delighted to announce the second annual Spring Arts Festival, celebrating our lively and creative campus,” says Jamilla Deria, director of the Fine Arts Center. “The festival will highlight the works and creative processes of our vibrant community, and showcase art and culture's essential roles to discovery, innovation, and shared understanding.”
In addition to HFA Days and the Fine Arts Center’s 2023-2024 main stage season closer featuring the acclaimed dance company Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, this year’s Spring Arts Festival events will include:
- Twelfth Night, April 26-27 and May 2-4 – A multi-night performance of William Shakespeare’s classic play about mistaken identity and unrequited love
- UMass Symphony Orchestra and Choirs, May 4 – Led by choir director emeritus E. Wayne Abercrombie and acting orchestra director Gonzalo Hidalgo Ardila, featuring Mozart's epic Requiem and other works
- HFA Creative Student Showcase Spring 2024, April 17 – A pop-up gallery of students’ visual, written, and performance artwork
- FAINT/HIDDEN/SHROUDED: Contemplating Obscurity, on view through May 10 – The University Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual student curatorial exhibition
- The Fine Arts Center’s Spring Artwalk, April 19 – Featuring hands-on art activities, live performances, visual art and fun
A full list of Spring Arts Festival events can be found here. For more information, visit www.umassfineartscenter.org/springartsfest24 or www.umass.edu/humanities-arts/spring-arts-festival.