AMHERST — How do we confront climate change? At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the thinking goes, one idea is to make the arts a vehicle for drawing together people from different fields to build a more sustainable future.
What’s called the “Art.Sustainabilty.Activism” (ASA) series will offer mostly free events from March 26 to March 28 that highlight different ways of addressing climate change. Music, literature, poetry and science are on the agenda, and the ultimate goal of the forums is to connect artists, scientists and activists in the battle.
The series is a collaboration among the UMass Fine Arts Center, the MFA program for Poets and Writers, and the university’s School of Earth and Sustainability, a division of the College of Natural Sciences.
This year’s programming includes readings by numerous writers and poets whose work addresses climate problems; a performance by members of Small Island Big Song, a music/dance/multimedia ensemble from Pacific island and Indian Ocean nations; and a panel discussion including authors, scientists, activists and performers.
“We intend for this annual art, science and humanities partnership to reflect society’s best efforts to address the climate crisis,” Michael Sakamoto, performing arts curator at the Fine Arts Center, said in a statement. “We want to show creativity at the center of any solution.”
“It is clear that science alone will not provide the solutions,” said Curt Griffin, co-director for the School of Earth and Sustainability. “It will take fostering new partnerships and assembling creative teams that fuse together arts, sciences, humanities, innovation and culture.”
The series begins Saturday, March 26, at 1 p.m. at the Augusta Savage Gallery with readings by contributors to Paperback magazine, an interdisciplinary UMass journal, and new issues of The Massachusetts Review, both of which consider climate change.
At 6 p.m. on March 26, Indigenous writer and scholar Kimberly Blaeser, a former poet laureate of Wisconsin, will do a reading at the John W. Olver Design Building. Santee Frazier, a visiting faculty member in the MFA program for Poets and Writers, will then moderate a question and answer session with Blaeser.
Small Island Big Song performs at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 27, in the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall (tickets are $20), and some members of the group will join other panelists on Monday, March 28, at 7 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium for a varied discussion on climate change.
Related is an opening reception on March 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Augusta Savage Gallery for an exhibit of paintings by Kabu MBII, whose work is inspired by social, political and world events, including environmental crises.
To register for these events and to get more information, visit fac.umass.edu/Online.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.