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Boston College’s artistic talents will once again be in the spotlight when the University holds its 17th annual Arts Festival April 23-25.
The festival, which showcases and celebrates campus arts and highlights the achievements of accomplished alumni arts professionals, faculty, students and other BC community members, will also welcome to campus special guest Chris Doyle ’81, an acclaimed interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn who has exhibited widely at venues across the United States and internationally.
Open to the public, the three-day festival includes a variety of programming for all ages. This year’s theme, “Make it Pop,” was inspired by the 20th-century pop art movement, known for explosive, infectious creativity, vibrant colors, and imagery drawn from popular culture. “Make It Pop,” according to organizers, invites the audience to challenge previous conceptions and revitalize their spirits with the snap, flash and pop of BC’s best-yet weekend of the arts.
Some 1,000 BC students, faculty and administrators participate in the festival, which includes more than 80 events – most of which are free – that feature artists with diverse talents and highlights performing, visual, and literary arts programs. The schedule includes music, dance, exhibits and demonstrations – some encouraging participation from attendees.
Among the activities for children and families, on April 25 from noon to 5 p.m., will be arts and crafts, story hour, sidewalk chalk and an instrument petting zoo. A children’s play, “The Princess Bride,” will be performed by students in BC Theatre Department faculty member Luke Jorgensen’s class.
Details and updates on festival events and locations are available at www.bc.edu/artsfestival or (617) 552-2787.
“It is time to celebrate the wealth, breadth, depth, and joy that the arts bring to Boston College,” said Theatre Department Chair and Associate Professor Crystal Tiala, chair of Boston College’s Arts Council, which organizes the festival. “There are few other times in our lives when we come together to celebrate our humanity on such a massive scale. Come and join the community of artists within all of us.”
Doyle, who received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from BC and a master’s in architecture from Harvard University, will be honored with the Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement and participate in special festival programming in the Art Tent by Stokes Hall – the site of the award presentation and reception, on April 24 from 4-6 p.m. These free, public events include: a career-related interview program titled “Inside the BC Studio” (April 24, 2:15 p.m.) and an “Insider Industry Panel,” to discuss the relationship between the artist and the museum, with curators from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and from MassMoCA (April 25, 2 p.m.).
Known for his innovative use of watercolor, urban installation art and sculpture, Doyle has amassed a body of work that includes temporary and permanent projects in the public sphere such as “Leap,” “Commutable,” and “50,000 Beds,” a large-scale collaborative video installation involving 45 artists. In July 2014, his short film “Bright Canyon” transformed the concrete jungle of Times Square video screens into a flourishing canyon landscape as part of Midnight Moment, an initiative between The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts.
Doyle is the recipient of a 2014 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and The Borusan Contemporary Art Collection Prize for his 2011 animation, “Waste_Generation,” which examines the tension between creative and destructive impulses, seen through the waste produced in the transition from an industrial to a digital society. [For more on Chris Doyle, see chrisdoylestudio.com]
Others being recognized for their artistic achievement include Faculty Award winner Professor of English Elizabeth Graver, author of four acclaimed novels, including The End of the Point (2013).
“Whether I’m interacting with students, colleagues, or the quite astonishing range of artists of every stripe that we host on campus each year, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by people for whom making art matters. I love to bring those people together—in classrooms, lecture halls, over meals, and by spreading the word about good work. The award is a gratifying reminder that my efforts have had an effect.”
Awards will also be presented to several BC students: Kenya Danino ’15, Adisa Duke ’15, Peter Julian ’17, Ramsey Khabbaz ’17, Sarah Krantz ’15, Sanjay Pamaar ’16, Aryn Pryor ’16 and Elizabeth Wilson ’15. Keith Lebel ’15 will receive the Jeffery Howe Art History Award, named for the BC Fine Arts professor.
BC Arts Festival sponsors include the offices of the President and the Provost, the College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Student Formation, Student Affairs and Carroll School of Management, with support from the Alumni Association and Bookstore.