Smith College presents free lecture ‘Learning How to Desire’
Rooted in Smith College Museum of Art’s exhibition of “Don’t mind if I do,” which is expanded to include drawings from architect Phyllis Birkby’s archives, artist Finnegan Shannon will give a talk on March 26 about where fantasy lives in their practice. They’ll touch on sensory pleasures, the luxury of options and the ways that Birkby’s notion of the “messiness of life” makes fantasies richer and more potent.
The lecture will take place at 5 p.m. at the Alumnae House, 33 Elm St. in Northampton. A conversation will follow with curator Lauren Leving, moderated by Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art Emma Chubb.
The Miller Lecture in Art and Art History is an endowed program established by Dr. Michael Miller in memory of his wife, Dulcy Blume Miller, who was a member of the class of 1946. Each year, SCMA invites a distinguished artist, art historian or curator to deliver a public lecture.
This event is free and open to the public.
‘Déjà Vu: The Cycles That Haunt Us’ on display at UMass
The Annual Eva Fierst Student Curatorial Exhibition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Museum of Contemporary Art features the current exhibit: “Déjà Vu: The Cycles That Haunt Us.” The exhibit will be on display until May 8.
Celebrating 20 years of the museum’s curatorial program, this exhibition looks back to two decades of student-curated exhibitions, all drawn from the museum’s permanent collection. “Déjà Vu: The Cycles That Haunt Us” traces recurring cycles of thought that echo through earlier iterations of the exhibition program. Like specters, enduring sociopolitical concerns persist from the program’s earliest exhibitions to its most recent.
Featuring works from the museum’s collection, the exhibition engages visitors through participatory activities that prompt reflection on the past and invite them to envision new, liberated futures.
Déjà Vu was co-curated by Suzanne Bagia and Caelen Trujillo. This exhibition is supported by the Eva Fierst Curatorial Exhibition Fund, the History of Art and Architecture Department and the Department of English.
The museum is open Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday noon–4 p.m.
Improv group takes the stage at Happier Valley Comedy
Happier Valley Comedy in Hadley will host NYC-based hip-hop improv group North Coast on Saturday, March 28 at 7 p.m.
According to the event listing, the group’s “seamless melding of comedic timing and freestyle rapping abilities” “frequently blurs the line between comedy show and concert, drawing audiences from the comedy, hip-hop, and theater communities for an experience that has been hailed as ‘mind-blowing’ and ‘next level’ by critics and audiences alike.”
Tickets are $20 via crowdwork.com/e/north-coast-nyc-march-2026.
Theater company hosts auditions at UMass
Greenfield-based Silverthorne Theater Company will hold auditions for its 2026 summer season from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, March 27 in Room 413 at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The season will include “Sanctuary City” by Martyna Majok and “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler.
All actors should prepare a two-minute contemporary monologue.
Callbacks will be on Saturday, March 28, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., in the same location.
To sign up for an audition slot or for more information about the shows and characters, visit tinyurl.com/STCAuditions26. If you have any questions or aren’t available to audition at the listed times, email Ezekiel Baskin at silverthornetheater@gmail.com.
Holyoke Community College Jazz Festival returns
Holyoke Community College Jazz Festival will return this year on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28.
On Friday at 8 p.m. in the college’s Leslie Phillips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts building, vocalist and composer Dominique Eade will perform with the Amherst Jazz Orchestra and members of the HCC jazz faculty.
On Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., Eade, festival organizer Bob Ferrier and HCC music professor Ellen Cogen will lead demonstrations, workshops and jam sessions for musicians. Participate is free and open to the public.
Tickets to the Friday concert are $10 for the general public at the door and free for HCC students, faculty and staff.
Arcadia Players to perform at Mount Holyoke College
The historical music performance group Arcadia Players will perform a concert called “Consolation in the Shadows: Music for Good Friday by Capricornus and Colonna” on Saturday, March 28 at 5 p.m. at Mount Holyoke College’s Abbey Chapel in South Hadley.
The concert will present Holy Week-inspired music by 17th-century composers Samuel Capricornus and Giovanni Paolo Colonna, plus preludes by Johann Pachelbel and Johann Jacob Froberger — pieces that, according to a press release, are “profound and moving” and “touch the listener’s emotional core while offering messages of comfort and faith.”
The performers include sopranos Agnes Coakley Cox and Teresa Wakim; Nathaniel Cox, theorbo; the Arcadia Viols Jane Hershey, Alice Robbins, Anne Legene, Douglas Kelley and Robert Eisenstein; and keyboardist and director Andrus Madsen.
Tickets are $40 general admission or $10 for students with ID and Card to Culture participants via arcadiaplayers.org/next-concert.html.
Dan Kane and Friends to present free concert March 29
The singing group Dan Kane and Friends will perform a concert of inspirational songs and lead the audience in a singalong of hymns at First Lutheran Church in Holyoke on Sunday, March 29 at 2 p.m.
Admission is free and open to the public.