Boston, MA – Monday, January 31, 2022 – Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) announces its roster of free public programs for the month of February. MassArt, a publicly funded college of art and design, is a resource to the Commonwealth and beyond and offers a wide variety of free art-making activities, lecture series, and exhibitions for all ages and backgrounds through the MassArt Art Museum, the College’s on-campus contemporary art museum; MassArt x SoWa, the off-campus gallery run by the graduate program; as well as its undergraduate and graduate academic departments.

The MassArt Art Museum

Currently on view through Spring 2022: Joana Vasconcelos: Valkyrie Mumbet; Game Changers: Video Games & Contemporary Art; and Ghost Of A Dream: Yesterday Is Here. Admission and programs are always free. Advance registration is required. Visit maam.massart.edu for more information about museum hours and COVID-19 policies.

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Big Idea Saturdays (in-person)  
Saturdays February 5, 12, 19, 26; 12:00pm-4:00pm 
Connect with your inner artist, and with big ideas, in the Barkan Family Big Ideas Studio every Saturday. At this drop-in event, honor your hero—find inspiration in the story of Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman and draw a portrait of, or share a story about, someone who has impacted your life. 

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Papermaking Remix (in-person)
Sunday, February 13, 2-4pm 
Bring new life to old materials in this free papermaking workshop led by Museum Attendant and Student Educator Mikaela Murphy ’22. During the workshop, create your own handmade paper from recycled scraps and explore and connect with the exhibition, Yesterday Is Here, by the artist collective Ghost of a Dream. Participants are invited to bring paper scraps from home to reuse during the workshop.

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Drawing Together (in-person)
Thursday, February 17; 6:30-8pm 
Get creative in the company of friends (or make new ones!) during this free, drop-in figure drawing session featuring live music by Fabiola M. Mendez, Puerto Rican cuatro player, educator and composer taking part in a musical movement, crossing over lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz, and Latin. All are welcome and drawing materials will be provided. Basic drawing instruction will be offered for those interested. 

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February Vacation Week: Patterns of Our Present (in-person)
Wednesday February 23, Thursday 24, Friday 25; 12pm-4pm
Connect with your inner artist, and with big ideas, in the Barkan Family Big Ideas Studio. This February Vacation Week, explore drop-in art-making projects developed in collaboration with MassArt student educators and find inspiration in the large-scale installation, Valkyrie Mumbet, by artist Joana Vasconcelos. 

MassArt x SoWa

MassArt x SoWa is MassArt’s offsite gallery space, operated by the graduate program, in Boston’s South End neighborhood. The space features rotating temporary exhibitions of work by the MassArt community. Admission and programs are always free. Visit sowa.massart.edu for more information about gallery hours and COVID-19 policies.

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Triple Oscillation
On view through March 6, 2022
Triple Oscillation, curated by Loretta Park, is a mixed media and multimedia show featuring works by three Korean artists: YoAhn Han (MFA ‘14 FA2D), Youjin Moon (MFA ’15 Film/Video + MFA ’13 FA2D), and Loretta Park (MFA ‘16 FA3D). Over the years, the artists have discovered how their works are continuously diverging and overlapping: At one moment, their works come together and resonate at the same visual frequency. But soon the works drift away from one another, each work firmly expressing their own point of view. Triple Oscillation aims to show how the artworks by the three artists sway between distinctive to kindred.

Triple Oscillation Opening Reception (in-person)
Friday, February 4, 5-9pm 
Join artists YoAhn Han, Youjin Moon, and Loretta Park for an opening reception during SoWa First Fridays.

MassArt Spring 2022 Creative Writing Minor Online Reading Series

MassArt Creative Writing Minor Online Reading Series: Daphne Strassman (virtual)
Thursday, February 3, 7-8pm 
The Spring 2022 Creative Writing Minor Online Reading Series begins on February 3 with MassArt professor Daphne Strassman. Strassman is a memoirist who writes about the intangible spaces between her LatinX heritage and her American life. Her work has been featured in Creative NonFiction, Grub Writes, Tex{t}Mex, and several textbooks. She’s a proud Macondista, a member of the Macondo Writer’s Workshop, founded by Sandra Cisneros. She’s also an instructor at GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing. Daphne’s memoir “Infinite Possibilities of Suspended Animation” is near completion and ready to be shared with the world. She runs generative writing seminars every month in the Boston area, leads a group of memoirists at MIT, and she coaches organizations with big-scale story-telling projects. 

MassArt Creative Writing Minor Online Reading Series: Marjan Kamali (virtual)
Thursday, February 17, 7-8pm
Novelist Marjan Kamali, born in Turkey to Iranian parents, spent her childhood in Kenya, Germany, Turkey, Iran, and the United States. She studied English Literature at UC Berkeley and received her MBA from Columbia University and her MFA from New York University. She is the author of two novels: The Stationery Shop(Gallery/Simon&Schuster) and Together Tea (Ecco/HarperCollins). The Stationery Shop, a national best-seller, was one of NPR’s best books of the year, a Real Simple magazine Top Editor’s Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and an excerpt was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It is being translated into over a dozen languages and adapted into a series for HBO. Marjan’s debut novel, Together Tea, was a Massachusetts Book Award Finalist, an NPR WBUR Good Read, and a Target Emerging Author Selection. It has been translated into several languages and adapted for the stage. Marjan’s work has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in two anthologies. Marjan teaches writing at GrubStreet and lives with her family in the Boston area.

MassArt Spring 2022 Photography Lecture Series

MassArt Photo Lecture Series: Diana Markosian (virtual)
Tuesday, February 1, 2pm
The Spring 2022 Photography Lecture Series begins on February 1 with visiting artist Diana Markosian. Diana Markosian (born in Moscow, 1989) takes an intimate approach to her photography and video storytelling, in work that is both conceptual and documentary. Her projects have taken her to some of the remotest corners of the world, and have been featured in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue Magazine. She holds a Masters of Science degree from Columbia University in New York. Her work is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, France and Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, California.

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About MassArt

Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) is a public, independent institution that prepares artists, designers, and educators to shape communities, economies, and cultures for the common good. Since 1873, MassArt has built a legacy of leadership as the first freestanding public college of art and design in the country, and the nation’s first art school to grant a degree. MassArt offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, design, and art education, taught by world-class faculty.