IMFA Open House, Exhibit, Campus Walk Planned Thursday

The University of Maine Intermedia MFA program will hold its annual open house exhibition, titled this year “Converging Paths: Intermedia MFA Art Walk” on Thursday, Dec. 15 from 5-7 p.m., beginning at Lord Hall.

The event is intended to educate the public and college-age students about the UMaine IMFA program.

During guided tours along a path illuminated by 288 luminaries placed by MFA student Dee Clark to three other campus buildings, guests can see and experience a wide range of Intermedia MFA student work, including video installation, painting and drawing, wall stencils, radio broadcasts, live performance, sculpture and music. Tours guided by master of fine arts students will leave Lord Hall at 5:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. to Crossland, Holmes and Carnegie halls. Maps with information on the artists featured at each of the locations will be provided.

The schedule of start times for live performances during the art walk is:

Lord Hall, Room 100: 5 p.m., Sarah Cottrell, research assistant to IMFA Program Director Owen Smith, and Smith will give an opening address; 5 p.m., Aaron Boothroyd will perform live music in the lobby; 5:15 p.m., Jennifer Hooper will read from her original short story, “Begin”; 5:45 p.m., Sean George will perform “Correction”; and at 6:45 p.m., Oren Darling will present a paper, “Printing the Next Economy: The Return of the Artist-Inventor”

Holmes Hall, Room 105: 5 p.m., an Amy Pierce performance titled “Alter/ation”

On WMEB 91.9 FM: 6 p.m., Kat Johnson, an audio broadcast, “Experiments for Thesis Intermedia Score: Audio and Text Prototypes

The Intermedia MFA Program and the Intermedia Student Organization are cosponsors. For more information on the Intermedia MFA program, visit www.intermediamfa.org. For more information on the exhibition, contact Sarah Cottrell by email at sarah.cottrell@umit.maine.edu.

In conjunction, graduating IMFA student Allison Melton is holding a CD release party Friday, Dec. 16, from 8:45-9:15 p.m. at the Bear Brew in Orono. As part of her thesis work, Melton, who competes professionally as a “lumberjill,” created a CD of music titled “Anna Log Stumped,” written and performed by Melton in a variety of musical styles to playfully explore gender roles and being a lumber jack/jill.

Contact: Owen Smith, (207) 581-4389; Sarah Cottrell, sarah.cottrell@umit.maine.edu