The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents West Baltimore Ruins, featuring photography by Shae McCoy, opening March 1 and closing on March 31. As described by the artist, West Baltimore Ruins is “a visual story told by West Baltimore’s daughter.” McCoy created the series between 2018 and 2020 as a means of documenting the architectural landscape of the neighborhood in which she was raised, where an estimated one third of buildings are now abandoned.
The Gallery at OCA Mocha presents presents Art & Identity, an exhibition featuring works by area artists, opening on March 16 and continuing through April 16. We all have a reason for making art, This exhibition aims to expand on the reasons why artists choose to make art and explore the artists identity. Through this exhibit we want to offer artists the opportunity to present pieces that express what art means to them, art that tells their story, or pieces that reflect the identity of the artist.
The Social Sciences Forum presents the Low Lecture, a discussion on Slavery, Warfare, and Rebellion in the Caribbean between Vincent Brown, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, and Marjoleine Kars, Associate Professor of History, UMBC. The conversation will be moderated by Sharika Crawford, Associate Professor of History, U.S. Naval Academy.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents an artist talk by Pamela Z. Through video and audio examples and live demonstration, composer/performer and interdisciplinary artist Pamela Z will share her work and her process and will discuss the increasingly blurred lines between disciplines in her practice.
The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents End of the Road, featuring photography by Brea Sounders and poetry by Lia Purpura, opening on April 1 and closing April 30. Souders began making the photographs that comprise End of the Road in March 2020 after relocating from Brooklyn to rural upstate New York. The black-and-white photographs capture candid glimpses of visitors walking to the cul-de-sac at the end of a gravel road viewed through the mesh of Souders’ screen door or through curtains of leaves and branches. Her subjects variously walk, rest, hold hands, kiss, and stop to reflect, completing a series of ordinary actions during an extraordinary year. The images are presented alongside writing by UMBC writer-in-residence Lia Purpura from her book It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful.
The Department of Education at UMBC, in collaboration with Arts Education in Maryland Schools (AEMS), is proud to offer the 15th Annual Arts Integration Conference as a reflection of our commitment to support all teachers to optimize instructions through arts integration. This year, the conference has transitioned to a free and virtual series with eight events, beginning on March 4 and continuing through May 20. On April 1, the conference continues with a special Community Event, in which Nancy Holter and Alisha Marchewka will explore Baltimore murals.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Pamela Z, who will perform Other Rooms, a program consisting of short solo works for voice, real-time electronic processing, sampled sounds, wireless gesture controllers. The performance, which will combine composed works with a few improvisational pieces, will include stand-alone concert-works as well as excerpts from her larger intermedia performance works.
The Social Sciences Forum presents Candace S. Brown, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who will speak on “The Motivation to Exercise in Age.”
CompWire, a festival of new music and UMBC student composers, features composer-in residence Sofia Kamayianni, the Strata and Voyager ensembles, the Frisof/Pesca Duo, eight senior recitals in one weekend, and more than 25 premiere performances.
The Medieval and Early Modern Studies minor of UMBC's Department of History hosts Elizabeth Randell Upton, associate professor of musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, whose primary research area is medieval music. Her recent work examines late fourteenth and early fifteenth century vocal music to discover evidence for the experiences of performers and listeners in the medieval past, recorded in surviving musical notation.
The Humanities Forum presents Aimi Hamraie, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society and American Studies, and Director of the Critical Design Lab, Vanderbilt University, who will speak on Critical Access Studies: Humanities Methods and Approaches.
The Department of Music presents the Strata ensemble in the first of two performance, featuring works by Béla Bartók, Carl Reinecke, Rebecca Clarke, and John B. Hedges. A second performance on April 9 will highlight works by UMBC student composers.
The Department of Music presents the Strata ensemble in the second of two performances, featuring works by UMBC student composers. (The first performance on April 8 features works by Béla Bartók, Carl Reinecke, Rebecca Clarke, and John Hedges.)
The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents Home Bodies: 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition, featuring works by this year's graduates in Intermedia & Digital Arts — Rahne Alexander, Safiyah Cheatam, Danielle Damico, Lindsay T. D’Andelet, Elijah Davis, Maksym Prykhodko, and Amelia Voos.
A College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) Spotlight Event will present "Amidst Great Change: Why a Career in the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences is Rewarding and Valuable." This conversation, moderated by Charles "Tot" Woolston, will feature Ana Maria Schwartz Caballero, Vin Grabill, Nancy Miller, Derek Musgrove, and Jason Schiffman.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Alternative Venues in the Visual and Performing Arts: Innovative ways to bring art to audiences. The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating for the arts in many ways, leading to postponements, cancellations, and the closing of arts venues. But it has also inspired ingenious alternative ways to bring art to audiences. This panel brings together the people behind four compelling examples, encompassing dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts.
The Voyager Ensemble returns to UMBC with The Japanese Connection, featuring musicians and music from Japan! The program celebrates old and new works from Japan, with timeless classic A Way a Lone for string quartet by Toru Takemitsu as well as a world-premiere by Yuriko Hase Kojima, a string quartet based on landscape installation Sunken Garden by the legendary Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. A special guest artist, James Nyoraku Schlefer, will join the ensemble on shakuhachi (Japanese wooden flute), bringing his own composition 2 Blue for shakuhachi and viola.
The Frisof/Pesca Duo, featuring flutist Sarah Frisof and pianist Daniel Pesca, present Beauty Crying Forth: Flute Music by Women Across Time, featuring repertoire spanning one and half centuries for flute by female composers, including music by Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger, Tania León, Shulamit Ran, and Amy Williams. Frisof and Pesca will chart two parallel lineages: the evolution of flute repertoire from the Romantic era to the current day, and the overlooked role of female composers in shaping that repertoire.
The Humanities Forum presents DaMaris B. Hill, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, English, and African American Studies, University of Kentucky, who will read from and speak about her poetry collection, A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, a narrative-in-verse that bears witness to American women of color burdened by incarceration. For her talk, Hill will be in conversation with Keegan Cook Finberg, assistant professor of English, and affiliate faculty in Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies and Language, Literacy & Culture.
In conjunction with the exhibition End of the Road, the Library Gallery presents a Virtual Artist’s Talk: Brea Souders and Lia Purpura in Conversation. Brea Souders, whose work is on display, is a visual artist working primarily with photography; Lia Purpura is writer in residence at UMBC.
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Marnie Ellen Hertzler and Corey Hughes. Hertzler is a video artist, animator and filmmaker working in experimental narrative and hybrid documentary; Hughes is director and cinematographer traversing narrative, documentary and experimental realms. The two will discuss their individual work as well as their director-cinematographer collaborations.
The Social Sciences Forum presents Tracey Osborne, associate professor and endowed Presidential Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department and the Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology (MIST) Program at UC Merced, who will speak on "Playbook for Climate Justice: Our Best Hope for Solving the Climate Crisis."
UMBC and Towson University present the fourth installment of the collaborative SPARK pop-up exhibition — SPARK IV: A New World? — in partnership with Maryland Art Place (MAP) and through the generous sponsorship of PNC Bank. The exhibition will be held in MAP's main gallery space from April 29 through June 26, with opportunities to experience the exhibition and programs virtually.
The Humanities Forum presents the Annual Daphne Harrison Lecture, featuring Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, the Graduate Center, City University of New York, who will speak on Making Abolition Geographies: Social Justice Organizing for Vulnerable Households, Workers, and Communities.
UMBC's Department of Theatre presents Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Eve Muson with Sierra Young. This modern riff on the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman follows Everybody as they journey through life’s greatest mystery — the meaning of living. As passionate as ever about new ways of making theatre, UMBC Theatre dives into the streaming space with this audacious production that celebrates life, love, and community.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Chamber Players under the direction of Airi Yoshioka. Students in the Chamber Players perform a wide variety of instrumental chamber works, ranging from Baroque, Classical, Romantic to contemporary repertoire.
