HCC to Showcase Fine, Performing Arts During Arts in Action Event on April 10

HOLYOKE — Fine and performing arts will take center stage on Wednesday, April 10 as Holyoke Community College (HCC) hosts its first-ever Arts in Action event, showcasing the talents of students and faculty from its Visual Art, Music, and Theater departments.

HCC will welcome more than 100 students from area high schools that day to visit the annual HCC student art show in the college art gallery, listen to live musical performances, observe demonstrations in the ceramics studio, and attend a full performance of HCC’s spring theater production of The Great Gatsby in Leslie Phillips Theater.

So far, participating high schools include Easthampton, Holyoke, West Springfield, and Libertas Academy Charter School in Springfield.

“This is going to be a wonderful event because it brings all of us in fine and performing arts together,” said Felice Caivano, chair of the HCC Visual Art department. “We’re excited to have 100-plus high-school art students, possibly prospective students, coming, and for the community to see what we’re doing in each of our departments.”

Most of Arts in Action takes place in the college’s Fine and Performing Arts building. HCC music students will perform in the lobby outside the theater on the second floor. On the third floor, in art studio 325, Visual Art Professor Margie Rothermich will be sitting at the throwing wheel demonstrating pottery making.

The event coincides with the opening of the annual Student Art Exhibition in the Taber Art Gallery inside the HCC Library on the second floor of the adjacent Donahue Building. The show runs through May 1.

Following the ceramics demonstrations and tours of the gallery, students will enter the theater to watch an 11 a.m. dress rehearsal of The Great Gatsby, which starts its three-day run the following night, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. The play, a stage adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, features a live jazz band on stage led by Music Professor Bob Ferrier, a jazz guitarist who is also the musical director for the show.

“Bob Ferrier is a genius,” said Theater Professor Pat Sandoval, director of the play. “We want people to see the great work being done at HCC. We’ve got great departments here with incredibly talented and committed individuals. Just come and see what we do.”