UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center Expands Programming Reach in 2024-25 Season with Mullins Center and Downtown Amherst Events
The UMass Fine Arts Center (FAC) will expand its physical presence on campus and in the community in the 2024-25 season, presenting concerts at the Mullins Center and with new venue partnerships with The Drake and Amherst Cinema in downtown Amherst.
The FAC performing arts programming will continue at its two campus theaters: the 1,800-seat Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall in the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts, and the 700-seat Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall. Additionally, the FAC will also hold arena programming in the Mullins Center and smaller venue programming at The Drake, located at 44 N. Pleasant St., which will enable the FAC to engage performers whose work is best suited to spaces at both large and more intimate ends of the venue spectrum.
Partnerships with The Drake and Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., also meets UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes’ initiative to increase the university’s presence in the broader community. All changes are being undertaken in a manner that holds true to the FAC’s goals and mission.
“One of our strategic goals is to add more high impact, high profile moments into our seasons,” says Fine Arts Center Director Jamilla Deria. “Although the audiences may vary in scale, the underlying curatorial vision for our performance series remains consistent: to showcase artists and activists who confront the critical issues that shape our world today.
This fall, the FAC will present Boston’s Celtic punk superstars Dropkick Murphys at the Mullins Center on Sunday, Oct. 27. Dropkick Murphys, who have staked out a position as champions of the working class, will host support acts Pennywise and The Scratch at its only New England concert and final stop on its fall tour. Tickets for the show are on sale now.
Fall programming will also include a series of concerts at The Drake featuring artist-activists, including: Brazilian singer-songwriter Bia Ferreira whose songs address topics including LGBTQ+ rights and anticolonialism; Ukrainian-Canadian art punk band Balaklava Blues, which takes on subjects related to Ukrainian identity and sovereignty; and Julian Saporiti of No-No Boy, who pairs classic Americana sounds learned during his upbringing in Nashville with unflinchingly honest lyrical examinations of the Asian-American experience.
In spring 2025, the Fine Arts Center will present a live performance by actor, writer and director John Cameron Mitchell, and Amherst Cinema will host a screening of Mitchell’s cult film sensation “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” with live commentary from the director/star. Mitchell will perform on the Bowker Auditorium stage along with cabaret star Amber Martin April 11, presenting an evening of songs, stories and humor. The following evening, April 12, he will offer live commentary during a screening of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at Amherst Cinema.
Tickets to The Drake performances and Mitchell’s Bowker Auditorium event will be made available to the public along with the rest of the Fine Arts Center’s 2024-25 season in late July.
The Fine Arts Center will announce its full season shortly before tickets are offered. Some of the highlights of the season will include performances by Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a pre-election speaking engagement by satirist Fran Lebowitz, and a spectacular jazz series that includes star-studded tributes to the late UMass Amherst-affiliated scholar-artists Max Roach and James Baldwin.