FARMINGTON — For the seventh year in a row, a competitive selection of original student video and animation will be one of the highlights of the University of Maine at Farmington’s annual spring arts celebration. UMF’s Pixel Hunter Festival provides students with an opportunity to design creative storytelling through video and animation and to exhibit their work to a wider audience.
Pixel Hunter starts at 8 p.m. Monday, April 28, in the Performance Space in the Emery Community Arts Center. All arts celebration events are free and open to the public.
A mix of student projects from UMF video and animation classes, Pixel Hunter presents a one-and-a-half to two-hour long showcase of animated and video shorts. These foundational classes provide students with the tools they need to pursue their interests in new media and to help them promote their skills in the real world.
“A number of students who have gone through the new media classes at UMF have the Pixel Hunter Festival as their first professional experience on their resume,” said Dawn Nye, UMF associate professor of art. “There are so many business and artistic directions that our media savvy students can take their skills in today’s world. Exhibits like this give them the experience and feedback that helps make that connection.”
According to Nye, many of UMF’s new media students go on to show their work at other exhibitions and find creative opportunities in the field. Markeith Chavous, a UMF art major and 2011 graduate, is finishing his master’s in fine arts in film and video at California Institute of the Arts and has been invited to submit one of his works to the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab.
Following the Pixel Hunter Festival, UMF Arts Night will offer a rich collection of creative events on Tuesday, April 29, as an exciting prelude to UMF’s University-wide Symposium.
“Project III Arts Night” features back-to-back artistic, musical, cultural and theatrical presentations throughout the Emery Community Arts Center beginning at 4 p.m., and continuing into the evening.
Mallory Smith, a senior arts administration major from South Berwick, will give an artist talk at 6:10 p.m., in the UMF Art Gallery on “Objects of Consumption” an exhibit she curated for her senior thesis project. Smith received works for the show on display from artists across Maine and the northeast. In addition, senior art students are presenting their senior thesis projects entitled “Pardon My Tartle!” at the UMF Art Gallery and the Emery Center.
Daniel Dempsey, visual and performing arts major and senior from Gray, will share a performance entitled “Fear of Decisions or Decisions in Fear” in Alumni Theater at 6:10 p.m.
“Cranes of Wishes,” an art installation by Erin Zuidema, UMF senior and visual and performing arts major from Oxford, Mass., will be presented at the Mantor Library lobby beginning at 6:10 p.m. Based on a Japanese legend, the display features over 1,000 carefully crafted cranes, each containing a wish Zuidema has received from members of the campus and Farmington community.
All spring arts celebration events are sponsored by the UMF Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry and the Emery Community Arts Center.
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