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Group of student on a tour of New Bedford

Community Engagement

The College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMass Dartmouth has a long history of engagement with local communities. Since its inception the college’s art, design, and curatorial projects have brought together cutting-edge practices from students, faculty, and community partners and stakeholders in four areas of design & practice, curation & collaboration, social practice & community-engaged art, and heritage & history. These projects have cultivated responsible pedagogy and expanded learning for UMass Dartmouth students as well as our community partners.

How can you get involved?

CVPA in the community

CVPA's engagement with the SouthCoast community and beyond.

Winners of the Universal Design Symposium
CVPA students win awards at "Design-athon"

Universal Design Symposium event focused on accessibility and universal design

Group photo of students with Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan
College of Engineering and College of Visual and Performing Arts students join forces to revitalize Fall River waterfront

Students in civil engineering and interior architecture and design work together to benefit the city's future and leave their mark on the SouthCoast.

Illustration student Chloe Canterbury paints an electrical box alongside Route 18
CVPA students bring captivating color to New Bedford

Illustration and fashion design students bring life to electrical boxes

CVPA students pictured in downtown New Bedford
CVPA first-years embark on Envision Resilience Challenge

Visual & Performing Arts students explore historical public art collections in New Bedford

One-of-a-kind handmade bowls for Empty Bowls fundraiser in New Bedford
Ceramics students produce 220 bowls to raise money for hunger alleviation in New Bedford

$11,000 raised for New Bedford Salvation Army Food Pantry

Samples of Dylan’s branding solutions for the Cambodian Community of Fall River. Courtesy of Dylan Kaplowitz.
Dylan Kaplowitz Receives the 2023 Art & Civic Engagement Award

Branding solutions for the Cambodian Community of Fall River

View of the exhibition, “Sound in Space, Sound in Place.” at the New Bedford Art Museum. Photo courtesy of Walker Downey.
Sound in Space, Sound in Place

Art History Featured in Celebrated “Sound Art” Exhibition at the New Bedford Art Museum

IAD 302: Institutional Design students pose at a presentation of their designs for renovations to CO-OP
Institutional design class partners with CO-OP for service-learning experience

IAD 302 class redesigns local nonprofit's facility for practical learning experience

Katie (bass) and Vanessa (violin) are adding their instrumental expertise to a hip-hop song that the sound production class is creating.
Music Majors Partner with Our Sisters’ Middle School

CVPA Music Majors volunteer with area middle school music program

Lara Henderson's fall 2022 motion graphics class pictured outside the amphitheater at UMass Dartmouth.
CVPA graphic design class partners with DATMA

Students gain real-world experience promoting non-profit artwork

Collaborative project by students in Social Practice Topics I (AXD 217) and City Life: Introduction to Urban Studies (URB 201).
Exploring Justice on Campus

A collaboration with Crime and Justice Studies convened students in discussions about local justice issues on the UMass campus.

Professor Hutchinson's students at work on the empty bowls project in the ceramics studio at the Star Store (spring 2021)
CVPA Ceramics in Public Service

CVPA Ceramics Professor Rebecca Hutchinson continues her longstanding commitment to art in public service.

Mockup of painted electrical box
New Bedford Electrical Boxes Become Artist Canvases

Students of CVPA Foundations classes bring new color to New Bedford with painted electrical boxes!

Part of an architectural tour of New Bedford. The style shown here is the Second Empire. Photograph courtesy of Pamela Karimi.
CVPA Student Awarded Fellowship

Art History major Kayla Rausch is the 2022 recipient of the New Bedford Art Museum/Artworks! Fellowship.

Dr. Sherwin leads the group in an outdoor performance in Bridgewater, April 2021.
Music with “a message of change”

Community choral group’s work goes beyond the recital hall

Students in Professor Pamela Karimi's class, Modern Architecture: A Global History, on a tour of architectural styles of New Bedford. Tour was spearheaded by Karimi and the New Bedford Historical Society.
Architectural Styles of New Bedford

Travel through history with an architectural walking tour of New Bedford led by Prof. Pamela Karimi and the New Bedford Preservation Society!

Graphic design students worked with curator Jamie Uretsky to design branding and identity for the exhibition Uncommon Threads: The Works of Ruth E. Carter at the New Bedford Art Museum (Spring 2021)
CVPA Graphic Design learns through community engagement

AXD451 has a long history of working with community partners

Untitled photograph by Mary Roberts
Labor Education Center Artist Residencies

CVPA Community Engagement Initiatives is pleased to collaborate with the Labor Education Center (LEC) on two new CVPA student artist in residence fellowships!