Check Out Our Incredible 2026-2027 Season!
Our performing arts season will be headlined by Audra McDonald, the Tony Award winningest performer in Broadway history. Our visual arts season features the work of one of America's most celebrated conceptual artists, Hank Willis Thomas. And, as always, we'll introduce you to rising stars, bring you exciting innovators, and invite you to join us in remembering and celebrating great artists of the recent past.
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Visual Arts
Explore sixteen exhibitions across our three galleries this season, featuring emerging and internationally acclaimed artists whose work examines landscape, identity, memory, history, and legacy. From Athena LaTocha and Dianne Smith this fall to a major career survey by Hank Willis Thomas in the spring, there's something to discover all year long. View the full exhibition calendar and plan your visit.
Visual Arts Events
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Insun Park brings Korean mask dance to UMass Asian American Feminism class
Before their phenomenal performance at The Drake on October 1, South Korea’s Insun Park & Generals visited UMass’s Asian American Feminism class to talk about Gangnyeong Talchum mask dance as both a traditional art form and a way to question gender expectations. Park introduced the class to the dance’s characters and stories and explained how the masks’ colors, shapes, and expressions influence the portrayal of gendered characters in the art form.
Richard Gere brings ‘Wisdom of Happiness’ and message of compassion to UMass
On Wednesday, September 9, UMass alumnus Richard Gere returned to campus for a free screening of his 2024 documentary “Wisdom of Happiness,” bringing a sold-out audience together around a message of compassion and shared humanity.
Co-presented by the UMass Fine Arts Center, UMass Student Affairs and Campus Life, and the International Campaign for Tibet, the event included a screening of the film, followed by a conversation about compassion, human connection, social division, and the role individuals can play in creating a more caring world.
Art for the Common Good: A statewide convening on arts, health, and wellness
The evidence is clear: The arts don’t merely inspire; they heal. A growing body of research proves that participating in the arts lowers depression and pain, strengthens social connection, and even decreases early mortality risk.
On April 10, the Fine Arts Center hosted more than 300 policymakers, health practitioners, artists, and researchers from across Massachusetts for Art for the Common Good, a statewide convening on arts, health, and wellbeing. The convening marked the beginning of the Fine Arts Center’s expanded focus on arts and wellbeing, and a deeper commitment to integrating the arts into public health conversations.
UMass art students turn the museum into a classroom for K-12 learners
On April 10, the University Museum of Contemporary Art bustled with nearly sixty fifth graders from Amherst’s Wildwood Elementary School. In one gallery, students searched Tammy Nguyen’s paintings in The Political Uses of Madness for symbols and imagery. In another, they sketched responses to a contemporary work in Deja Vu: The Cycles That Haunt Us. Down the hall, a group connected themes from Camille Turner’s exhibition, Land of the Free, to their own lives.
The students were following a lesson plan developed by UMass students in Art History 327, a service-learning course in which undergraduate students teach local K-12 students by bringing them directly into the museum for hands-on engagement with contemporary art.
Soweto Gospel Choir: A joyful exchange with UMass students
For nearly every performance, the Fine Arts Center and visiting artists host engagement activities, including class visits and workshops with UMass students and the Five College community.
In November, the three-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble Soweto Gospel Choir brought their joy-filled music and dance to a special workshop with UMass choir students.
“At a personal level, it’s really about getting to interact with people and sharing what they won’t find in any book — or even on the internet,” said choir member Bongani Ncube. “The best way to exchange culture is to be in the midst of the people you’re sharing it with.”
Bringing Students Backstage: Tech Talk with The Carpenters Songbook
Before The Carpenters Songbook took the stage at the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall last Friday, UMass theater students went behind the scenes with the production team's head lighting designer Max Wurtz. During a backstage tour and tech talk, students had a special opportunity to learn about life on the road and the technical and personal realities of touring theater.
Engagement events like Fridays' tech talk are a regular part of the Fine Arts Center's efforts to connect students directly with visiting artists and professionals. Throughout the season, students have opportunities to engage directly with artists through talks, masterclasses, workshops, mini-performances, backstage experiences, and other programs that offer a closer look at the creative and technical work behind the performances they see onstage.