1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, Maryland 21250
United States
T +1 410 455 1744
circa@umbc.edu
The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is an interdisciplinary center that supports and promotes innovative project-based research in the Arts at UMBC, encompassing Dance, Music, Theatre, and the Visual Arts. Each semester CIRCA hosts lectures, performances, and screenings by world-renowned visual and performing artists, designers, and scholars that are open to the public. This spring, events will be in person and virtual. Click on each event title below for more information and to register to attend. Live captioning will be provided for all virtual events and other accommodations are available upon request.
Seth Parker Woods: Difficult Grace, A Performative Rebirth
Wednesday, February 9, 1–2pm EST, Zoom
Internationally acclaimed cellist Seth Parker Woods will give us a behind the scenes view of Difficult Grace, a genre-bending and theatrical multimedia concert tour de force conceived by and featuring Seth in the triple role of cellist, narrator/guide, and movement artist, performing music written for and with him.
Speculative Histories and Futures
Friday, March 4, 12–1:30pm EST, Zoom
Four international artists and scholars, Dr. Tiffany E. Barber, Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (ayo), Kite, and Jonas Staal, will discuss this panel’s titular terms in relation to their own work, expanding the terms however they desire, with moderator Safiyah Cheatam.
Beauty Pill
Thursday, March 10, 4–5pm EST, UMBC Performing Arts and Humanities Building 337
Beauty Pill is a Washington, D.C. based band/art collective that began in 2001. Band members Chad Clark and Erin Nelson will discuss the creation of Pardon Our Dust, an interdisciplinary collaboration, bridging music, poetry, dance, and film from Please Advise.
Graham Coreil-Allen: Making Place Happen
Friday, April 1, 12:30–1:30pm EST, UMBC Performing Arts and Humanities Building 105
Graham Coreil-Allen is a Baltimore-based public artist making places more inclusive and livable through public art, placemaking, and civic engagement. From artistic crosswalks and creative wayfinding to immersive sculptures and participatory urban design, Coreil-Allen infuses public space with play and intrigue.
Legacies: Maurice Berger and Fred Wilson
Tuesday, April 19, 6:30–8pm EST, UMBC Fine Arts Recital Hall and streamed live via YouTube
This program is a celebration of the life and work of Maurice Berger (1956 - 2020) upon the 20th anniversary of his curation of the exhibition Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 1979 – 2000, and the 30th anniversary of Berger’s appointment as curator of the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The program also celebrates the 30th anniversary of Fred Wilson’s groundbreaking installation Mining the Museum with The Contemporary Museum and the Maryland Historical Society. Curator George Ciscle will moderate an intergenerational panel with Fred Wilson, Lee Boot, Symmes Gardner, Christopher Kojzar, and Ashley Minner.
Colette Searls: A Galaxy of Things
Wednesday, April 27, 12–1pm EST, UMBC Performing Arts and Humanities Building 216
UMBC Associate Professor of Theatre Colette Searls will present research for her forthcoming book, A Galaxy of Things: The Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond (Routledge Press, 2022).
Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South
Wednesday, May 4, 5–6pm EST, Zoom
This virtual program will include a screening of the short documentary film Exploring Presence: Ed Love from the docuseries Exploring Presence: African American Artists in the Upper South, followed by a conversation with filmmaker and curator Angela N. Carroll and nia love and Scott Love about the legacy of their father, sculptor Ed Love. An exhibition of the same name will be on view at the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University, May 26–July 15, 2022.
