Events for: 2014-2015

An amazing eye popping brilliant physical performance from the internationally trained duo known as The Red Trouser Show, will leave you in awe! This physical comedy team made up of Tobin Renwick and David Graham will take your breath away! Do not miss this show

Join Parents Choice Award Winner Karen K & the Jitterbugs as they perform selections from their new album 'Big Ol' Truck' which won a won a Parents Choice "Fun Stuff" Award in Fall 2013.Magazine'. Karen has been featured on "CBS This Morning" and has been a Critics' Pick, in 'Time Out New York Kids' & the 'New York Magazine'. You'll find yourself singing and dancing along without even trying.

Sculptural knitter and fiber artist Adrienne Sloane traces the historical roots of knitting and politics from American wartime knitting to more recent more recent youth-driven knit revival called "yarn bombing.” The presentation focuses on how sculptural knitters address contemporary issues of war, climate change, and species preservation by bringing fiber arts into public view.

Shade plants are not created equal!” Shade Revealed, a talk abundantly illustrated with beautiful photography, focuses on what makes some shade plants belter performers than others. She also presents a clear approach to designing your shade garden for the best chances of long term success. Download the Handout: "Recommended Plants"

Fiber artist Rebecca Siemering discusses how discarded items, particularly lottery tickets, were used to create refined clothing pieces. Struck by the sense of bad luck, lost dreams, and wishes for fortune that the left over tickets reflected, she repurposed them into uplifting, colorful fashions, infusing them with a positive sense of hope and possibilities.

Throughout her career in public health and health care, Ms. Bartlett has been a voice for promoting positive change in health outcomes for Massachusetts residents. As Commissioner Ms. Bartlett chairs the newly appointed Prevention and Wellness Advisory Board, which oversees a $60 million Prevention Trust Fund – the first of its kind in the nation. Recently she was recognized in HealthLeaders magazine as one of twenty individuals making a difference in healthcare in the U.S. Co-sponsored by the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas. The program begins at 11:45 a.m. with a light buffet lunch. Reservations are required(seating is limited). To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu or CALL 978-934-3107.

Multimedia artist Samantha Fields discusses her recent work utilizing salvage, handmade afghan yarns. By unraveling the pieces, Samantha explores the nostalgic sense of these works, which have, at times, been considered “garish” in color, but which remain important reflections of the domestic sentiment in which they were created.

One of Boston's most engaging anchors and reporters, Susan Wornick spent 34 years at Boston's number one television station, WCVB-TV. She rose from street reporter, to investigative and consumer reporter winning a cache of awards along the way. Susan's commitment to keeping her sources almost landed her in jail. The veteran reporter, now retired, will talk about the issue of a Shield Law for journalists, the non-stop 24-hour news cycle, how technology has changed broadcast and all media, and what careers will look like for aspiring journalists as we move deeper into the 21st Century. Co-sponsored by the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas. The program begins at 11:45 a.m. with a light buffet lunch. Reservations are required (seating is limited). To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu or CALL 978-934-3107.

Greg Flemming will discuss his new book, At the Point of a Cutlass, which tells the incredible true story of a Massachusetts fisherman who was captured by pirates in 1722 and then escaped and lived as a castaway on an uninhabited Caribbean island for nearly two years. Robinson Crusoe meets Tom Hanks.

Steve Dalachinsky is a widely published New York City poet, lecturer, and educator. He has published 10 volumes of poetry including "And the Beat Goes On" and "The Superintendent's Eye." In a more scholarly vein he has published "Logos and Language: A Post Jazz Metaphorical Dialogue. Part of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.

Barely 20-years old, fresh out of Harvard, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. accepted a commission as first lieutenant in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment. By mid-October, the regiment was fighting in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, where Holmes sustained a potentially life-threatening chest wound. After recovery he served with the regiment until mid-1864, sustaining two more serious wounds and experiencing an exposure to war’s suffering and heroism, particularly that of his close friend. Lowell’s own Henry L. Abbott, that affected the rest of his long life. (Although Holmes never served under General Benjamin F. Butler, the controversial Democrat played a significant, if largely unrecognized role in Holmes’ appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court.)

A highly original collection that explores the impact of Asian and Indian Ocean trade on the art and aesthetic sensibilities of New England port towns in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Examining a wide variety of commodities and forms including ceramics, textiles, architecture, and gardens, the contributors highlight New Englanders’ imperial ambitions in a wider world.

Using images taken by Dr. Phillips with microscopes and cameras he will illustrate the intricate architecture of insects, and how the ability of these little creatures to sense and react to their surroundings has enabled them to become the predominate land animals on earth. You will never look at insects in the same way again.

Harmonie Transverse, which means flute wind band, is celebrating its thirteenth season. It was formed by flutists who performed with the New England Conservatory’s Metropolitan Flute Orchestra. These include the piccolo, C Flute, G Alto Flute, Bass Flute and Contra Bass Flute, which provide a six octave range nearly covering the full range of a piano and an orchestra. Harmonie Transverse is under the umbrella of the Wachusett Regional High School’s Artist in Residence program: TEMPO (To Encourage Musical Performance Opportunities).

Ted Reinstein is best known around New England as a longtime correspondent for "Chronicle," the equally longtime and celebrated nightly newsmagazine which airs on Boston's ABC affiliate, WCVB-TV Ted joined the show in 1995 as a reporter and producer. In 2013, Globe Pequot Press published his first book, "A New England Notebook: Six States, One Reporter, Uncommon Stories." The book, in an unusual encyclopedic style, recounts many of Ted's favorite people and stories from his many travels around New England."

The acclaimed documentary "Finding Vivian Maier" reveals the story of a mysterious nanny who secretly took 150,000 photographs. In 2007, two years before her death, her riveting images & home movies were discovered in Chicago, instantly transforming Maier into one of the 20th century’s great photographers. Experience her eclectic life & art through photos, films & interviews. Co-sponsored by the Lowell Film Collaborative and UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas.

Improving sustainability in fashion manufacturing, a growing movement aims to increase awareness among consumers and work towards improving manufacturing practices around the globe. Over the years the fashion industry has taken manufacturing out of the USA and into developing countries with low environmental protection standards and little to no labor laws protecting factory workers. The industry currently produces over 12 million tons of waste annually. Over 1200 lives have been lost in two tragic incidents in India and Bangladesh. Ms. Coluntino is the Founder/Creative Director of New Vestures, Lowell Ma.

The attack on the 6th Regiment is remembered today for the deaths of four men: Luther Ladd & Addison Whitney of Lowell, Sumner Needham of Lawrence, and Charles Taylor, attributed to Lowell. However, an additional forty-five men were wounded, some severely, and those, fifteen were in Lowell companies. This is part of the story of those fifteen, and the Baltimore woman responsible for saving two of them.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was the birthplace of the burgeoning "night lunch wagon" manufacturing industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These horse-drawn food carts eventually evolved into classic American diners. For many years, diner builders like the Worcester Lunch Car Company and J.B. Judkins Company operated in the Bay State, while few new diners opened for business after 1960. This left the state with a high concentration of some of the best-preserved diners built during the early to mid-twentieth century, including the Capitol Diner in Lynn, the Route 66 Diner in Springfield and Buddy's Diner in Somerville.