UMass Amherst Presents A Weekend of Arts and Sustainability Conversations that Complement Philip Glass Performance

UMass logo

The UMass Fine Arts Center, School of Earth and Sustainability and MFA for Poets and Writers have designed Philip Glass at UMass: Arts and Sustainability Responding to Life Out of Balance – a weekend of thought-provoking events Sept. 20-22, leading up to the live performance by Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble of Koyaanisqatsi, a 1983 experimental film of spectacular images. Free and open to the public, these events use the film’s exploration of the disconnections between the natural world and the human-built environment as a starting point to discuss how science and the arts can address the threats to our natural world, including climate change.

  • We’re Doomed. Now What? Reading and Conversation with Roy Scranton
    Friday, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.
    John W. Olver Design Building, 551 N. Pleasant St.

The author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Roy Scranton teaches creative writing at the University of Notre Dame. A Q & A will follow his presentation.

  • In Conversation with Philip Glass: The Power of the Arts and Sciences Working Together
    Saturday, Sept. 21, 7 p.m.
    Bowker Auditorium, 100 Holdsworth Way

Join Philip Glass and the UMass School of Earth and Sustainability for an engaging discussion with scholars and artists about pressing environmental issues, promising solutions and the power of creative arts and communication to inspire collective action. Reservations are encouraged; doors open at 6:30 p.m. Along with Glass, panelists include Mark Hamin, director, master of regional planning program; Carolina Aragón, public artist and assistant professor, landscape architecture and regional planning; Alison Bates, graduate program director of the MS sustainability science (MS3) program and a clean energy professor in environmental conservation; Toni Lyn Morelli, research ecologist with the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center and adjunct professor in environmental conservation; Roy Scranton, author and English professor at Notre Dame. Moderator: Curt Griffin, executive co-director of the School of Earth and Sustainability and department head of environmental conservation.

  • Reading: Art in the Anthropocene
    Sunday, Sept. 22, 1-2:30 p.m.
    Old Chapel, 144 Hicks Way

Hosted by the UMass MFA for Poets and Writers, this event celebrates the launch of Paperbark Literary Magazine’s Issue 2: Resilience with selected readings from the magazine’s contributors, followed by a Q & A. Paperbark’s content is inspired by a desire to trace the connections among science, culture and sustainability.