Access to premiere arts entertainment is now a short drive away for North Quabbin residents.
This season, from November 2019 through February 2020, the libraries of New Salem, Wendell, Athol and Orange will each have complimentary community tickets for performances at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Fine Arts Center available for check-out. The pilot program was organized with help from Amy Fagin, a local artist who sits on the Fine Arts Center’s board of directors.
Notably, the initiative is available to anyone who has a CW Mars library card, not just those who live in the four towns. If it’s a success this season, Fagin says she expects that other libraries in the region will also receive tickets in the future.
“We are, no question, an underserved community,” Fagin said Monday. “I’m sure, as long as people use them, they’ll expand it.”
For more information, contact the New Salem Puplic Library at 23 South Main St. at 978-544-6334; reach the Wendell Free Library on Wendell Depot Road at 978-544-3559; the Athol Public Library on Main Street at 978-249-9515; and the Wheeler Memorial Library on East Main Street in Orange at 978-544-2495.
A full list of this year’s performances at the Fine Art Center is as follows.
Jen Shyu: Nine Doors:
Brasil Guitar Duo:
Melissa Aldana Quartet:
Rubberbandance Group: Ever So Slightly:
Avery Sharpe Sextet:
Natalie MacMaster: A Celtic Family Christmas:
We Shall Overcome: Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Philandanco:
GuGu Drum Group:
Michael Barenboim West-Eastern Divan Ensemble:
Cirque Flip Fabrique: Blizzard:
Roman Diaz Rumba Ensemble:
SFJazz Collective:
Leyla McCalla:
Diary of a Wombat:
Indigenous Mind Hamid Drake, Joshua Abrams, Jason Adasiewicz and Jeb Bishop:
Four tickets are available for each event listed. For more information on the events visit fac.umass.edu.
Andy Castillo is the features editor at the Greenfield Recorder. He can be reached at acastillo@recorder.com.