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Date: 7/27/2022
AMHERST – The Fine Arts Center (FAC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) opened ticket sales for the 2022-23 season with over 20 unique performers and events taking place from September 2022 to April 2023.
The current lineup begins with the southern traditional gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama on Sept. 16. It ends with three performances by STOMP on April 28 and 29. In its first fully in-person season since 2019, the FAC has also managed to book singer-songwriter NIKI on Oct. 1, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are showcased on Oct. 12, and a “high-velocity set of Afro-Cuban jazz” with pianist Alfredo Rodríguez and drummer Pedrito Martinez takes over on Oct. 20.
The price of tickets varies by show and most shows have different price points depending on the seat, as well as offer discounts for Five College students or youth under 17 years of age. Most non-discounted tickets range from $15 to $45. A full schedule and tickets can be found online at https://fac.umass.edu/Online.
FAC Director Jamilla Deria said in an interview with Reminder Publishing that she has always aligned with the values of the FAC, crediting the first longstanding director, the late Frederick Tullis, with setting the rubric and path for how to operate while placing equity and inclusion at the core of its mission nearly 50 years ago.
“I think you see that in our season building, that what we’re trying to do is as best as we can is not only reflect and sing America’s story, but to do that through bringing as many different perspectives, experiences, expressions and forms to the table,” Deria said. “If we’re going to create belonging, if we’re going to reflect, authentically, the varied experience that is the American experience, then we have to continue to be a platform for diverse voices and diverse expression.”
Hired in 2019, Deria described navigating COVID-19 as a “baptism by fire.” She said the one positive of that experience was it opened the floodgates for discussion and questions to be asked across the entire theater and performing arts world about how to build mutually beneficial systems for artists, venues and audiences while broadening accessibility and presenting a variety of content.
Deria said introducing livestreams during their 18-month hiatus of in-person shows has made directors consider how to have more hybrid events and think about the presentation in a more diverse way to meet the equally diverse needs of the community with varying levels of comfort about returning.
“I think whether I sat in this role for 30 years or 30 days, I think the unique challenges that COVID[-19] presented the world but specifically our field, a field that is all about large-group gatherings, it upended everything,” Deria said. “That was also kind of helpful. The tiny silver lining – if there was silver lining amongst all the destruction of COVID[-19] – was that it allowed for our organization, which was and is still a very well-oiled machine, it gave us 18 months of reflection and to question and reimagine how we operate, how we can improve processes.”
Deria is a first-generation American and said that she felt the pressure of the “conservative doctrine” to become a lawyer or doctor from her parents. She attended Williams College with a plan to go through pre-law but began taking theater classes and quickly discovered her passion. She said Sabrina Hamilton, co-founder and artistic director of Ko Festival, was one of her professors at the time and played an integral role in mentoring her as she discovered her love for art. Hamilton told Reminder Publishing earlier this month that she finds the success of shows to be how “sticky” the show is, and how it is something that you keep coming back to and thinking about.
“I think that a compelling season can’t work if it’s not chasing this guise of the moment,” Deria said. “It has to help create moments where the audiences can have space to talk about issues and experiences that are relevant to their present life and I think to really create sticky content, experiences, I think it should not just be purely immure, it should be about opening up the perspectives so if someone comes in with a really clear idea on the topic and to walk away a little bit less clear, I think actually that’s the success. To create less certainty around the world that we occupy because it is such a complex place, and our role is to kind of muddy people’s truths a little bit.”
Deria added, “I’m still taken by all of the Webb telescope photos. For that light to hit the telescope it had to have traveled for hundreds of millions of light years. You compare that to human life; we are here for just a minute. To be here for such a short amount of time and to spend your time being so certain about who you are and what the world is, I think you’ve missed the point. I think our role is to say, ‘And here is the adjacent possibility next to your truth, and here’s another one, and here’s another one.’”
Deria said it was important for readers to remember that the FAC is a multi-disciplinary arts organization and has much more to it than the Performance Hall and Bowker Auditorium. She said there is also the University Museum of Contemporary Art and the Augusta Savage and Hampden galleries with upcoming seasons drawing attention to mass incarceration in the U.S. and the missing and murdered indigenous women phenomenon.