Second Annual UMass Amherst Spring Arts Festival to Include Inaugural ‘HFA Days’ and Outdoor Performances from the Fine Arts Center
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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. This year’s festival will include HFA Days, a two-day, open invitation to the university community to experience different facets of college. The Fine Arts Center will present a slate of innovative programming, including free outdoor concerts.
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 take place April 11-12, inviting the UMass community and public to experience different facets of teaching and learning, creative and scholarly work, and outreach by HFA students, staff and faculty. HFA Days will include open classrooms, faculty lightning talks, interdisciplinary and public initiatives, and special programs that encompass additional events hosted by departments and communities. All are free and open to the public.
“The Spring Arts Festival not only underscores an important partnership between HFA and the Fine Arts Center, but it also showcases the immense talent of students, faculty, and staff in our community,” says Joye Bowman, interim dean for the College of Humanities & Fine Arts. “I’m thrilled that this year’s festival will expand beyond the arts to highlight the breadth of research and interdisciplinary collaboration happening in the humanities and arts with its inaugural HFA Days. Through a series of open classrooms and faculty talks, we hope to illustrate the vibrancy and innovation you can find in HFA classrooms, art and performance spaces, and labs on any given day.”
Fine Arts Center programming during 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.
In addition to HFA Days and the FAC outdoor concert series, this year's Spring Arts Festival events will include:
- Twelfth Night, a multi-night performance of William Shakespeare’s classic play about mistaken identity and unrequited love on April 26-27, and May 2-4;
- UMass Symphony Orchestra and Choirs, led by choir director emeritus E. Wayne Abercrombie and acting orchestra director Gonzalo Hidalgo Ardila, featuring Mozart's epic Requiem and other works on May 4;
- and HFA Creative Student Showcase Spring 2024, a pop-up gallery of students' visual, written, and performance artwork, on April 17.