Symposium, Parade to Celebrate Cross Town Contemporary Art Exhibit

The XTCA (Cross Town Contemporary Art) Symposium and Art Parade, celebrating the “town-gown” bridge of public art that since June has enlivened North Pleasant Street from the Fine Arts Center (FAC) to Kendrick Park, will be Saturday, Sept. 22.

The symposium will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the John Olver Design Building. Seats are free to the public, but registration is required. Visit the UMCA website to register.

The parade, which is open to all, begins immediately following the symposium. Led by professional theater artists, dancers and musicians, it will follow the route of the XCTA exhibition, kicking off from Haigis Mall in front of the Fine Arts Center.

XTCA features work by 13 nationally recognized artists, local artists and members of the academic community. The goal of this project is to generate a robust public dialogue about the value of art and culture in building community.

The symposium will be introduced by XTCA co-curators Loretta Yarlow, director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA), and Sandy Litchfield, assistant professor in the department of architecture.

The keynote speaker is Jennifer Delos Reyes, associate director of the School of Art & Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her talk, “We Need to Know Where We Have Been to Know Where We Are Going,” will focus on the interest in socially engaged art in the contemporary art world and will lay out a parallel history of social art and social movements, propose methodologies, and speculate on the future of the field – including the impact of the XTCA exhibition.

The following panel discussions feature artists and architects from the XTCA exhibition in conversation with local artists, organizers, cultural producers and community leaders about the challenges and potential of art to activate community – using examples from the artists’ previous projects and XTCA.

The symposium’s final panel will examine the possibilities that exist in Amherst specifically for including art as a vital part of our communities’ future.

The purpose is intended to connect with the mission of XTCA to reimagine the North Pleasant Street corridor as a celebratory and connective space.

Parade artists include Double Edge Theater, Michi Wiancko, Contemporary Dance with Terre Vandale, The Lily’s Revenge Flowers, Katherine Adler and Joe Deluth, Small Puppet Theater, Mr Arron Musical Accordian, Emily Dickinson Squared, Theatre Truck, among others.

Symposium attendees, Amherst residents, Five College students and faculty, and community groups from across our region are invited to join the artists in creating this participatory event.

Participants are encouraged to come in costume and carry flags, balloons and other colorful visual props.

Prior to the parade, UMCA will host free, public flag making workshops led by Rory Valentine in the FAC Atrium from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. All materials will be provided. The participants of this workshop are encouraged to join the parade and carry their flag high.

The XTCA Artists and their works are:

Collective-LOK: Framing
Rob Swainston: Free the Press
Naomi Darling and Darrel Petit: Solar Time
Josephine Halvorson: Tree Measure (Amherst)
Pamela Matsuda-Dunn: Bridging Our Community
Roberley Bell: A Visitor and One Other
Tom Friedman: Ghost Shed
Benjamin S. Jones: All the Time in the World
Erika Zekos: Common Sounding
Sarah Braman: Day Trip
Gary Orlinsky: Gioco
Harold Grinspoon: Family Reunion
Joseph Kruczynski: Building Bridges

For a map and more details about the XTCA Exhibition, visit the UMCA website. The exhibit will be in place until Nov. 1.