The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents the exhibition Sonya Clark: Hair/Craft, on display from October 31 through March 12. Clark's multidisciplinary work explores issues of identity, race, cultural heritage, and collective memory. This exhibition presents five works in which Clark applies fiber-art techniques to the medium of hair, a material laden with cultural and metaphorical significance.
The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents the exhibition Aaron Siskind: Formations, on display from October 31 through March 12. Aaron Siskind (1903–1991) was one of the most influential figures in the development of photography as an art form during the twentieth century. This exhibition, drawn from UMBC’s Photography Collections, traces the formation of this artist’s unique photographic vision from early documentary works made in Harlem as a member of the New York Film and Photo League in the 1930s to his breakthrough explorations of abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s, which led to a sustained investigation of the camera’s capacity to frame new visual forms.
The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) presents Tahir Hemphill: Rap Research Lab, opening on January 31 and continuing through March 18. The exhibition, which fosters experimentation and learning through visual and material explorations of geographies of hip hop, showcases an artist who occupies a hybrid space that intersects art, technology, social engagement, and interdisciplinary research.
In conjunction with the exhibition Tahir Hemphill: Rap Research Lab, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) presents a conversation between Foad Hamidi, assistant professor in information systems and a specialist in human-centered computing, and Tahir Hemphill, who will discuss their shared interests in participatory digital research of media and cultural systems.
The Humanities Forum presents Sami Schalk, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who will speak on 504 & Beyond: Disability Politics and the Black Panther Party. Drawing from the book Black Disability Politics, this talk will detail the Black Panther Party’s involvement in the 1977 504 Sit-in, in which protesters around the country picketed and occupied government offices to urge passage of delayed regulations related to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The Social Sciences Forum presents the Geography & Environmental Systems Distinguished Lecture, featuring Katherine McKittrick, who will speak on Black Methodologies, Still. McKittrick will offer a confession and a reflection about geography, geographic knowledge, and race, considering how alternative spatial practices and black geographies are obscured by prevailing knowledge systems, and will also exploreher ongoing preoccupation with methodology and how radical methodologies are connected to practices of liberation, highlighting what black studies teaches us about sharing and creating ideas.
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Faculty Jazz Ensemble in concert, performing modern interpretations of classic and recent jazz compositions. The ensemble features trumpeter Tom Williams, saxophonist Matt Belzer, guitarist Tom Lagana, pianist Harry Appelman, bassist Tom Baldwin, and drummer Mark Merella.
The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) presents When Public Art Is More Than Sculpture, a discussion between four leading voices in the Baltimore arts community — painter and environmental engineer Se Jong Cho; poet and educator Sylvia Jones; public artist Graham Coreil-Allen; and Teri Henderson, arts and culture editor of Baltimore Beat, facilitated by Rahne Alexander, MFA ’21.
The Maryland Music Educators Association presents the All State Senior Jazz Band Concert, featuring students selected by audition to present their creative work. The ensemble will be directed by Matt Belzer, director of jazz studies at UMBC.
Harpsichordist Paula Maust will perform selections from Elizabeth Turner’s 1756 Lessons for Harpsichord, one of the earliest published collections of music by an Englishwoman. Be part of one of the first audiences to hear these pieces in the 21st century!
The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents The Amish Project: International Collaboration During the Pandemic, in which Lou Binder, Nikki Hartman, and Adam Mendelson will discuss the unique collaborative process that unfolded while working on a production of Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project, in Munich, Germany, during the pandemic years 2020–22.
The Human Context of Science and Technology Program presents Mary Fissell, professor, Department of the History of Medicine, with appointments in the History of Science and the History Departments, Johns Hopkins University , who will speak on Abortion & the Reformation: Women, Witchcraft, & Repression.
The Department of Music presents the annual Brass Bash, featuring internationally acclaimed tuba soloist Velvet Brown. The evening will include a solo set by Brown, faculty and student chamber music, and Brown displaying some of her virtuosity as soloist and collaborator with a large UMBC student/faculty brass ensemble.
The Department of Music presents alumna Sarah Kane, a Philadelphia-based, self-taught artist who seamlessly combines art and music, giving audiences the opportunity to see her artwork unfold while listening to music she has written and performed. She is fond of calling this process the delivery of an “art bomb.”
The Department of Music presents the UMBC Jazz Ensemble with Jonathan Barber, and international recording artist, composer, educator and bandleader who was voted the #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer of 2018 in Modern Drummer magazine.
