The USM Art Gallery on the Gorham campus is currently featuring “Life Forms: Grow” which is a collective exhibit by four Maine based sculptural artists who are members of a twelve-artist group also known as Life Forms. This current exhibit includes works by Elaine K. Ng, Leah Gauthier, Jackie Brown, and Ashley Page, and the exhibit is open until Feb. 15. The art gallery’s open hours are Tuesday through Friday, from 11a.m. until 4 p.m.

Ng’s works are textiles featuring her own designs (some contemporary, some influenced by tradition) which make use of the complex, laborious Mughal Indian fabric process known as kalamkari, or chintz, which originated in India during the 17th Century.

Many of Page’s works feature modified depictions seed pod clusters and flowers. She includes depictions of some of the external influences which affect seed dispersal and germination, such as wind, water, and fire.

Brown’s ceramic works are influenced by her interest in geological timeframes and their effects on soil and rocks. Many works are created through her experiments with a ceramic 3D printer. Her large works are described as “fragile stacked plateaus,” while the smaller ones “drip, lean, coil, and crawl.”

Gauthier’s works include tapestry disks, as well as smaller fabric and felt tower constructions (which utilize living succulent plants). Both types of works are intended to symbolize various daily atmospheric influences (such as wind) as well as longer-term climatic changes and their effects on humans.

Both of the spring semester’s theatrical productions feature recent adaptations based on classic novels.

The Theatre Department will be presenting “The Birds” (based on the novel by Rebecca DuMaurier) on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in late February and early March. “The Birds” opens Friday, Feb 21, with the closing performance on the afternoon of Sunday, March 2.

Theatre will also present musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” in April. It will open on Friday, April 4, with the closing performance on Sunday, April 13.

All theatre performances are in Russell Hall.

The Osher School of Music has scheduled a full slate of performances for the first two months of the spring semester. It should be noted that the school of music is scheduled to move to a new performance space on the Portland Campus during the summer of this year. Most USM musical performances will take place in Portland beginning in the fall of 2025.

The Osher School of Music’s first faculty performance of the semester will take place on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. “Bold as Brass” features William Dietz and the Faculty Brass Quintet.

The following faculty concert has a Valentine’s Day theme. It will take place on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. featuring Laura Kargul on piano and Callie Brennan on violin.

The Faculty Concert Series continues on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. It is part of the “Women in Music” series. “The Influencers: Streisand to Schuman, Boulanger to Browning” features sopranos Malinda Haslett and Mary Bastoni.

“Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds and Percussion” is the first concert in the student ensemble series, and is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m.

On Friday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. the Faculty Concert Series continues with “Regnier, Sonenberg, and Brahms,” featuring Robert Lehmann, Kimberly Lehmann, Bill Rounds, and Thomas Parchman. The Regnier and Sonenberg pieces are world premieres.

The 48th Annual School of Music Honors Recital takes place on Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.

The School of Music also has a number of end-of-semester concerts planned for the month of April. See https://usm.maine.edu/calendar-of-events/location/corthell-hall/ for details. All concerts listed are in Corthell Hall.

Please note: Parking at USM is not free. All visitors who park on campus need to pay for parking in advance through one of the on-campus kiosks. The use of a smart phone (along with a credit or debit card) is required for on-campus parking. Annual parking passes are available.