By WKTV Staff
joanne@wktv.org
Grand Valley State University is resuming its community arts celebration with a revamped timetable that will feature free art-related events throughout the year.
The GVSU Arts Celebration, formerly known as the Fall Arts Celebration, in 2021-2022 is set to feature art, music, poetry and an academic lecture in events that start in August with a GVSU Art Gallery exhibition and finish with a lecture in April.
Organizers said that spreading the events throughout the year will allow more people to access them, said Amorak Huey, chair of the GVSU Arts Celebration’s steering committee. He noted that commitment to wide community participation is important to the celebration.
Huey also said a central theme for this year’s celebration is relevance and a reflection of the current climate, one dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the holiday concert will focus on music from countries that are particularly affected by the pandemic.
“It seems like it’s important for the events we have to feel timely and have contemporary urgency,” Huey said.
Responses to those current issues are prominently displayed in the Art Gallery exhibition, “Honest and Unrefined: Art Outside the Academy.” It runs from through Nov. 5 at the GVSU Art Gallery in the Haas Center for Performing Arts on the Allendale Campus.
The exhibition is the culmination of a nearly five-year effort to collect pieces that reflect the work of artists who ignore convention and tell their stories without the constraints of what others might think, said Nathan Kemler, director of GVSU Galleries and Collections.
“These are true voices coming through very directly,” Kemler said. “Art tells a story, and the story that this kind of artwork tells is usually more immediate and unfiltered.”
The rest of the celebration’s schedule is below. For more information, visit the GVSU Arts Celebration website.
Belated Birthday Party: Tesla String Quartet Performs Music by Beethoven
Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Cook-DeWitt Center
Allendale Campus
“Coming Together to Celebrate the Holidays,” featuring multiple choirs and orchestras
Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Fountain Street Church
24 Fountain St NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Poetry Night: an evening with Danez Smith, Ericka “Kyd Kane” Thompson and Marcel “Fable the Poet” Price, all of whom also perform their work
Mar. 14, 2022 at 7 p.m.
Eberhard Center, second floor
Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Lecture: Hanif Abdurraqib with Louis Moore, associate professor of history, to moderate an interview/conversation. Abdurraqib is author of the book, “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance.”
April 5, 2022, 7 p.m.
Eberhard Center, second floor
Pew Grand Rapids Campus
