Celebrating National Arts & Humanities Month
The Libraries, the Fine Arts Center, and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts celebrate the significance of the arts, humanities, and museum and library services to our nation
In step with this nation’s leading cultural agencies, the Libraries, the Fine Arts Center and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA) celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month.
You can celebrate the arts and humanities by attending a Fine Arts Center performance, visual arts exhibition, or campus art walk or by joining us for a musical performance or author talk hosted by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. You can also find inspiration and learn how to use multimedia to explore your creative side at one of many Libraries’ skill-building workshops or programs.
The UMass celebration is spurred by President Biden’s recently-announced new Executive Order seeking to integrate the arts, humanities, and museum and library services into policies, programs, and partnerships throughout the Federal government to tackle the greatest challenges of our time.
From the order: “We take inspiration from the contributions of artists, historians, authors, entertainers, designers, philosophers, curators, scholars, filmmakers, archivists, librarians, administrators, and others who make up our creative sector and document and preserve our history. Their efforts help lift up new voices and shine a light on previously untold stories. Artists and thinkers enrich our experiences by encouraging us to live artful lives, find and create pathways to connection and empathy, improve our well-being, and create and maintain the balance and beauty of the world around us.”
We couldn’t agree more! We hope to see you in our spaces.
Wishing you a culturally rich and creative National Arts & Humanities Month,
Nandita Mani PhD
Dean of Libraries
Jamilla Deria
Director, Fine Arts Center
Barbara Krauthamer
Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts
The UMass Amherst Libraries is the largest state-supported academic library system in New England. With more than 8 million distinct items that span print and digital media, much of it is available online to the campus community and the wider world around the clock, from virtually anywhere. As a key partner in teaching, learning, and research at UMass Amherst and beyond, the Libraries foster a diverse, inclusive, and user-centered environment in which to engage with ideas and acquire the skills necessary for independent learning and critical thinking.
The Fine Arts Center seeks to engage and inspire the campus and regional communities in the arts through a broad array of exemplary performances, exhibitions, and educational programs. Since its founding in 1975, the UMass Fine Arts Center has been a central force in the cultural, social and academic life of the University, the Five College campuses, and the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. Its combination of educational, visual, and performing arts programs is vital to meeting the diverse needs of scholars, faculty, students, alumni and the broader community.
As the creative heart of UMass Amherst, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts brings together scholars and artists from a wide range of disciplines, offers exceptional opportunities for students to broaden their perspectives, apply their knowledge, and prepare to make contributions to their communities, to the workplace, and to the world. By encouraging students to think, to express themselves, to engage the world in a reflective manner, the humanities and arts prepare students for life in a world of change. The College’s departments include the core disciplines of the humanities: philosophy, history, literature, modern and classical languages and linguistics; the visual and performing arts; and interdisciplinary units that bring together scholars from Afro-American Studies, Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.
