“The Weight of Air,” a cross-disciplinary multi-media exhibit by photographer, videographer and imaging specialist James Gehrt, will be on view Sunday through Oct. 6 in Hampden Gallery in the Southwest Residential Area at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
There will be a reception Sept. 18 from 2 to 4 p.m., at which John Nolan will perform an original score.
Gehrt, who lives in western Massachusetts, received his BFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1991. He began his career by assisting and printing for commercial and fine art photographers.
In 2007, he became the digitization coordinator at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. He has been awarded a 2009 and 2010 NITLE Technology Fellow, concentrating on new digitization technologies.
He continues to carry a camera with him, and has built a library of thousands of images from everyday life that document the objects and locations he visits.
“About Face,” an eclectic mix of portraiture from a range of stylistically different artists, will open with a reception Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. and will remain on view through Sept. 28 at the Augusta Savage Gallery, 103 New Africa House, 180 Infirmary Way at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The featured artists are Donald Boudreaux, Donna Cota, Colleen Kiely, Michael Lewis, Lorna Ritz, of Amherst, and Susan Wexler. What the artist have in common are the unique skill sets and their devoted attention to faces.
There will be demonstrations of portrait painting by Cota Sept. 13-16 from 1 to 4 p.m. Cota, who comes from a long line of painters, has taught art ranging from pre-K crayon copies of Superman to college charcoal quick sketch portraits of classmates.
For information, call 545-5177.
“Brown Bear Turns 50,” an exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, the book that launched Eric Carle’s picture-book career, will be on view Tuesday through March 19 at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst.
Artwork from every page of the book will be on display. One of only two surviving collages from the 1967 edition — Brown Bear himself — has been restored and will be on view for the first time.
The exhibit also includes a medley of Carle’s collages from the three additional “bear” books he worked on with Martin: “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” (1991); “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” (2003); and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?” (2007).
On Sept. 17, there will be gallery talks with chief curator, Ellen Keiter and 11 a.m. and noon; a presentation, “A Look Back at Brown Bear” at 2 p.m.; and refreshments in the Great Hall at 3 p.m.
For more information, visit www.carlemuseum.org or call 559-6315.
There will be an opening faculty concert Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Bezanson Recital Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The performers will be Elizabeth Chang, violin; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Salvatore Macchia, double bass; Nadine Shank, piano; Cobus du Toit, flute; Frederic T. Cohen, oboe; Joshua Michal, horn; Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, saxophone; and Stephen Walt, bassoon. Arron and du Toit are new to the UMass faculty.
On the program: music by Johannes Brahms, William Grant Still, Julius Rontgen and faculty members Macchia and Charles Koechlin.
Tickets cost $10; $3 for UMass students; $5 for other students, children and seniors. To reserve, visit www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance or call 545-2511.
Tala Rasa Percussion will perform Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall.
The musicians are James Beauton, Brendan Betyn and Steven Wulff.
On the program: works written for Tala Rasa Percussion, including Alejandro Vinao’s “Relative Riffs” and George N. Gianopoulos’ “Clockwork.”
Members of the group will offer a master class Sept. 15 from noon to 2:15 p.m. in Room 36of the Fine Arts Center.
The class and concert are free.
“Human Animals: The Art of Cobra and Its Legacy,” curated by Karen Kurczynski, will open with a reception Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through Nov. 20 at the University Museum of Contemporary Art in the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center.
Cobra — a transnational European avant-garde movement named after its home cities, Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam — was a unique meeting of young painters and poets who possessed an optimistic determination to start over after World War II. The exhibit includes work by Cobra artists Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky and Karel Appel, and works by present-day painters Albert Oehlen, Jacqueline de Jong, Nicole Eisenman and Herbert Gentry.
There will be a symposium Sept. 16. For more details, visit umass.edu/umca.
At Amherst Cinema
“Moonrise Kingdom” will be shown Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst.
The film was chosen as a film favorite during a summer audience poll.
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, the film tells the story of two 12 year olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. Rated PG-13.
Regular admission. To reserve, visit amherstcinema.org.
Steve Swell’s “Kende Dreams” will be presented by Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hampshire College Music Recital Hall in Amherst.
Performing will be Swell, trombone, compositions; Rob Brown, alto saxophone; William Parker, bass; and Gerald Cleaver, drums.
Swell has been an active member of the New York music community since 1975, when he began playing in top-40 bands, salsa bands, big bands (most notably those of Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton) and performing on Broadway in Bob Fosse’s ‘Dancin’. ”
Swell joined Jaki Byard and the Apollo Stompers, and made his recording debut in 1984 for the Soul Note label. He became a member of the Makanda Ken McIntyre’s band, which led to tours and recordings with Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Herb Robertson, Jemeel Moondoc, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, Joghn Zom, Dave Burrell, Elliot Sharp, Rob Mazurek, Perry Robinson and Ken Vandemark. He has more than 40 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than 100 other releases.
Swell runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the New York City public schools, focusing on children with special needs.
“His playing reflects great attention to timbre and color.” writes musician and writer Grego Applegate Edwards. “He in his own way channels the trombone jazz tradition encompassing the early tailgaters, the big-band innovators, boppers and afterboppers, all of it, and gives his own spin as an important stylist in his own right.”
Tickets, which cost $15, are available online at www.jazzshares.org and at the door.
Amherst Leisure Services will hold auditions for “Shrek: The Musical” Sept. 15 and 16 from 6 to 9:15 p.m., and Sept. 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and from 2 to 5:15 p.m. at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst.
Tap dancers will audition Sept. 17 and 18 at 11 a.m. (bring tap shoes).
To reserve an audition time, call 259-3065.
For more information, visit www.alsct.org.
The Amherst Poetry Fest and Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon will take place Sept. 15-17 at the Emily Dickinson Museum, 280 Main St. in Amherst.
The festival kicks off during the Amherst Block Party Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. with “Doughnuts and Death: A Baker’s Dozen of Emily Dickinson’s Most Depressing Poems,” in West Cemetery, where the poet is buried. This walking tour explores Amherst and Dickinson history by using some of her darkest poems. Free gingerbread doughnut (based on Dickinson’s recipe) included.
An open mic will follow at 9 p.m. (location TBA).
From 5 to 9, the festival will host “Poemkemon: Gotta Read ’Em All Scavenger Hunt.” Poems by Dickinson, Amherst poet James Tate and other poets will be hidden throughout downtown Amherst. Maps with clues for the hunt can be picked up at the Amherst PoetryFestival/Emily Dickinson Museum tent that night.
From 7 to 8:30, at the museum, there will be a poetry reading.
At 9 p.m., Northampton poetry will host a four-team poetry slam at Bistro 63 at 63 North Pleasant St.
On Sept. 17, it’s marathon day: Between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., all 1,789 poems by Dickinson will be read aloud in the parlor and on the grounds of the Dickinson Homestead. Volunteer readers are welcome.
Poetry workshops will be offered during the day.
At 8:30 p.m., the work of James Tate and his impact on the UMass MFA program and the western Massachusetts writing community will be celebrated. Kaveh Akbar, founder and editor of the poetry interview site “Divedapper, will moderate a panel of Tate’s former students and friends.
The festival wraps up with a music party in the museum’s garden from 10 p.m. to midnight.
For a full schedule and other information, visit www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org/amherstpoetryfestival.
