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Fine Arts Center
The Fine Arts Center is a regional cultural center which serves the campus
community and western Massachusetts with internationally recognized performing
and visual arts events, and multicultural and educational programs. The
Center's Performing Arts Series annually features national and international
artists in classical music, dance, theater, Broadway, jazz, and popular
events. University, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith college
students may purchase tickets to Performing Arts Series events for reduced
prices. The Center is one of the University's premiere cultural and educational
programs.
Serving as a forum for American arts, the Center has
a long history of designing and implementing programs which present a
world view of the arts. The New WORLD Theater has a national reputation
as a presenter and producer of works by playwrights of color. Performing
arts at the Center also include Jazz in July, Residential Arts Asian Dance
and Music Program, Magic Triangle Jazz series, the summer Bright Moments
Festival, and the Performances Plus series which brings 8,000 school age
children annually to campus.
The University Gallery is nationally recognized for
its contemporary art installations. Exhibitions specialize in sculptural
installations and works of art on paper. The Gallery frequently tours
its shows nationally and produces professional catalogues which are exchanged
with peer institutions. It houses a permanent collection of 2,500 works
of art on paper. Hampden and Wheeler
Galleries exhibit emerging and established artists from New England
and New York. Augusta Savage Gallery is a multicultural, multi-arts
facility, promoting the work of artists of color and encouraging artistic
expression of issues of culture and identity.
Fine Arts Center educational programs provide opportunities
for student enrichment in the arts. Performances and exhibitions are integrated
wherever possible with workshops, master classes and residencies
at the University and on the campuses of Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire,
and Smith colleges. Jazz in July offers
summer workshops in improvisation with contemporary jazz artists.
The interdisciplinary general education course, The Lively Arts, integrates
classroom experience with performances and exhibitions for 500 students
annually.
The University Arts Council awards grants to subsidize
innovative and culturally diverse programs presented by student groups,
academic departments, and arts organizations. The Council is funded primarily
through the student Arts Fee and administered by an appointed representative
body that includes six undergraduate students, three graduate students,
one alumnus, six faculty members, and two staff members. The Council maintains
many of the public art sites on campus in collaboration with Physical
Plant and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.
The Fine Arts Center complex houses the 2,000-seat
Concert Hall, the University Gallery, the Frank Prentice Rand Theater,
Bezanson Recital Hall and the academic departments of Art, Music and Dance,
and Theater. Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall is administered by
the Fine Arts Center.
The Department of Music and Dance, Theater Department,
University Productions and Concerts, and various Registered Student Organizations
present each year their own diverse programs of concerts and performances.
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