News 2023: CVPA first-years embark on Envision Resilience Challenge

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

This year, the College of Visual & Performing Arts (CVPA) is participating in the Envision Resilience Challenge, a coastal resilience initiative that connects academia, local leadership, and community members, and inspires coastal communities to envision innovative approaches to the impacts of climate change.

As part of the challenge, multiple CVPA faculty members are embedding projects into their courses that bring awareness to sustainability issues facing New Bedford and Fairhaven including climate change, rising sea levels, and affordable housing.

"The overarching goal of CVPA's participation in the Envision Resilience Challenge is to be a bridge between the community and the conversation around resilience by highlighting the design process through a variety of creative, compelling, and interactive art mediums," said Ann Kim, associate dean of UMass Dartmouth's College of Visual & Performing Arts.

Thanks to generous funding from Envision Resilience, the New Bedford Co-Creative Center, DATMA, the New Bedford Art Museum, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, almost 40 CVPA first-years spent their Mental Health Day on Oct. 25 venturing off campus and interacting with local art on their day off from class

Students were led on tours that explored the prestigious art collection housed in the Free Public Library and exhibitions in the New Bedford Art Museum. They ended the day learning about New Bedford's whaling history and observing the art collection at the Whaling Museum.

What's next

All are invited to an on-campus event, "Harbor of Hope," Thursday, Dec. 7 from 4:45-5:45pm in the CVPA Atrium. The event, which aims to display New Bedford's resilience and connections across the seas, will include a marionette performance by MFA students. Music students taking creative sound arts will perform an original musical composition, involvong electronic and acoustic components to accompany projected animations of the SouthCoast's cultural origins. 

In January, the New Bedford Art Museum will showcase each university team participating in the Envision Resilience Challenge.

"The overarching goal of CVPA's participation in the Envision Resilience Challenge is to be a bridge between the community and the conversation around resilience by highlighting the design process through a variety of creative, compelling, and interactive art mediums."