Building Bridges Virtual Showcase Launches on June 30

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Building Bridges Virtual Event logo

This year’s Building Bridges Virtual Showcase provides a variety of opportunities to come together online and participate in one of several live sessions and to view digital galleries beginning Tuesday, June 30. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to participate and celebrate the work done by members of the campus community. This will include art and demonstrations by UMass worker artists, participatory action research projects by participants in the Our Immigrant Voices courses and live performances, including spoken word and original music. A full schedule will be posted soon on the Building Bridges website.


At a Building Bridges virtual community forum in April, a group of participants came together to discuss our wishes for this year’s showcase. The group hopes that these virtual events and spaces will create solidarity, awareness, the breaking down of isolation, spaces of calm, togetherness, kindness, resilience, a sense of hope, a deepening of relationships and more.


In spring 2018, the university launched Building Bridges, an initiative designed to foster connections among UMass community members who come from myriad backgrounds and hold differing perspectives. Building Bridges draws on the power of solidarity and creative expression to bring people together and create a bridge across difference. Activities under the umbrella of Building Bridges include art installations, enrichment courses for staff, efforts to amplify the voices of immigrant workers on campus and other events.

Building Bridges is an ongoing collaboration between the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Partnership for Worker Education, Office of Human Resources, and Civic Engagement and Service-Learning.

For more information, contact project director Jacob Carter at jacarter@umass.edu