AMHERST, Mass. — The UMass Fine Arts Center in 2024-2025 will expand its physical presence on campus and in the community, presenting concerts at the Mullins Center and The Drake, and partnering with Amherst Cinema on a two-night performance and film screening engagement.
The Fine Arts Center will present Boston’s Celtic punk superstars Dropkick Murphys at the Mullins Center on Sunday, October 27. Its fall programming also will include a series of concerts featuring artist-activists Bia Ferreira, Balaklava Blues, and No-No Boy presented at The Drake in downtown Amherst. And in spring 2025, the Fine Arts Center will present a live performance by actor, writer and director John Cameron Mitchell, and Amherst Cinema will host a screening of Mitchell’s cult film sensation Hedwig and the Angry Inch with live commentary from the director/star.
The preponderance of Fine Arts Center performing arts programming will continue to be presented in two campus theaters, the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall located in the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts, and Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall. The addition of arena programming in the Mullins Center, and small venue programming at The Drake enables the Fine Arts Center engage performers whose work is best suited to spaces at both the very large and more intimate ends of the venue spectrum. The Fine Arts Center hopes both to attract new patrons and to offer new and existing patrons alike a chance to see acts that don’t fit the 1,800-seat Tillis Hall or 700-seat Bowker Auditorium. Partnership with The Drake and Amherst Cinema also answer UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes’ call to increase the university’s presence in the broader community. All changes are being undertaken in a manner that holds true to the Fine Arts Center’s goals and mission.
“One of our strategic goals is to add more high impact, high profile moments into our seasons,” said Fine Arts Center Director Jamilla Deria. “Although the audiences may vary in scale, the underlying curatorial vision for our performance series remains consistent: to showcase artists and activists who confront the critical issues that shape our world today.”
Dropkick Murphys have staked out a position as champions of the working class. Brazilian singer-songwriter Ferreira’s songs address topics including LGBTQ+ rights and anticolonialism. Ukrainian-Canadian art punk band Balaklava Blues take on subjects related to Ukrainian identity and sovereignty. And No-No Boy’s Julian Saporiti pairs classic Americana sounds learned during his upbringing in Nashville with unflinchingly honest lyrical examinations of the Asian-American experience.
Mitchell will perform on the Bowker Auditorium stage along with cabaret star Amber Martin April 11, presenting an evening of songs, stories, and laughs. And on April 12, he will offer live commentary during a screening of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Amherst Cinema.
Dropkick Murphys’ Mullins Center performance was announced as part of the Boston band’s fall tour on Tuesday, May 21. (See tour release attached.) Tickets for the event go on sale to the general public on Friday, May 24. The October 27 concert, which will feature support acts Pennywise and The Scratch, will be the final stop and only New England concert in Dropkick Murphys fall tour.
Tickets to the Drake performances and Mitchell’s Bowker Auditorium event will be made available to the public along with the rest of the Fine Arts Center’s 2024-2025 season in late July. The Fine Arts Center will announce its full season shortly before tickets are offered. Highlights of the season include performances by Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a pre-election speaking engagement by satirist Fran Lebowitz, and a spectacular jazz series that includes star-studded tributes to the late UMass-affiliated scholar-artists Max Roach and James Baldwin.