This academic year, UMBC launched a bold new initiative, Arts+, designed to celebrate our academic excellence in the arts, to elevate the visibility of our arts public programs, and to deepen audience engagement. We marked the 30th anniversary of the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, invited internationally known artists to campus, and have seen a robust increase in audience growth.
As the school year comes to a close, a flurry of events across the disciplines—including dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts—offers delightful opportunities to enjoy the work of guest artists and UMBC students and faculty. We’ve picked out just a few of the many happenings, for you to consider attending.
1. Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81
Explore an exhibition of photography that’s at once beautiful and disturbing. Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81, on display at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery through May 22, showcases work by American photographer Mary Ellen Mark and sociologist Karen Folger Jacobs, who spent thirty-six days living in the Oregon State Hospital, where they photographed the residents of Ward 81, the hospital’s all-female, high-security psychiatric unit. Their unprecedented access allowed them to create a deeply nuanced portrayal of women navigating psychiatric care in the mid-1970s. Ward 81 brings together Mark’s photographs, Jacobs’s newly uncovered audio recordings, and rare archival materials, offering an intimate and expanded view of this landmark documentary project.
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Get ready to head down the yellow brick road as UMBC Theatre presents The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, adapted by Jacqueline Lawton and directed by Joseph W. Ritsch. This family friendly production, featuring the work of both students and faculty, will grace the Proscenium Theatre stage from April 2 through 12. And the plot will sound familiar! Life in modern day Baltimore has been a bit boring for Dorothy and her little dog Toto. Until one day, when a cyclone swoops in and takes them “over the rainbow” to the wonderful and magical land of Oz. With the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy sets off on the adventure of a lifetime down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. These new friends brave witches, flying monkeys, and a Haunted Forest, all to meet the Wizard of Oz, who promises to make their dreams come true.
3. Step Back in Time: An Immersive Medieval Banquet
On Saturday, April 11, step back in time—the year 1161, to be precise—to a 12th century banquet that features the best in medieval food (yes, it’s really a banquet), music, and dance. Transport yourself to the Klopp Castle in the Rhine Valley, where you will dine (a three course feast!) in the presence of visionary nun, composer, and artist Hildegard of Bingen and the newly appointed Archbishop of Mainz, Conrad of Wittelsbach. This isn’t just a dinner, though—it’s a living art installation meticulously crafted by the students of an interdisciplinary arts course created just for this event.
4. Inscape Chamber Orchestra
Journey with the acclaimed Inscape Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, April 19, as they explore Aaron Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring, a masterwork of American music that captures the spare beauty of the frontier spirit and the warmth of community gathering. The program also features Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, and Béla Bártok’s Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring soloist Airi Yoshioka, UMBC professor of music. The Strauss and Bartók are presented in rare chamber orchestra arrangements inspired by Arnold Schoenberg’s visionary Society for Private Musical Performance. In early 20th-century Vienna, Schoenberg’s Society brought monumental orchestral scores into salon-sized venues, revealing intricate details often lost in larger halls and making essential works accessible to new audiences.
5. The Polar Ice Museum
Tucked away in the ITE Building, UMBC’s Imaging Research Center is a hidden gem—but you get a chance to take a deep dive into the IRC on April 30, when the doors open for The Polar Ice Museum, a series of eye-popping artworks and immersive, data-driven installations that transform polar data into meaningful public engagement experiences on sea level, climate, and related environmental issues. With support from the National Science Foundation, the project draws on climate data from NASA and research conducted in Greenland. Visitors encounter a wall of videos depicting an ice cave and are invited to participate by altering visualizations of glaciers and sea-level change, both within the polar ice cave and at a South Baltimore landmark affected by flooding. Water-filled relief sculptures, interactive sound objects, VR climate games, and relevant information will all be on display.
6. Orange Grove Dance: Site / Unseen
As the weather warms, it’s the perfect time for an outdoor performance. Gather on April 30 – May 2 as guest artists Orange Grove Dance bring 10 performers into dynamic partnership with sidewalks, stairways, and the UMBC amphitheatre. Through shared weight, timing, and physical negotiation, bodies and architecture collide and collaborate, revealing the unseen choreography woven into the spaces we pass through every day. The immersive performance, entitled Site / Unseen, will travel a short distance across campus, beginning at the Performing Arts and Humanities Building and concluding at the Fine Arts Building Amphitheatre.
Even more awaits …
This short list of six events only scratches the surface. Join us for lots of other happenings, ranging from an MFA art exhibition, to the Andrist-Daglar-Falkner chamber music trio, to an exhibition that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bartleby, UMBC’s undergraduate literary arts publication. All these and more are on UMBC’s Arts and Culture Calendar, where you can also sign up to receive a weekly email that highlights upcoming events.
Top image: Mary Ellen Mark, Laurie in the Bathtub, Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, USA, 1976. © Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation.
Tags: AOK Library Gallery, Arts, Arts Plus, CAHSS, Dance, IRC, Music, Theatre, visual arts