Zofia Ahmad ’19 of Palo Alto, Calif., and bandmates perform an encore during a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Steel Pan Orchestra concert in December 2015. The orchestra makes its Arts Crawl debut on Jan. 29. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

A revamped format for the sixth annual ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Arts Crawl this week will make it easier for audiences to savor the full spectrum of student work in the performing, visual, and literary arts.

See the full schedule for the Jan. 29 event below.

“This year the Arts Crawl features several art forms that have not figured strongly in our past presentations,” says James Parakilas, who chairs the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative and is the James L. Moody Jr. Family Professor of Performing Arts.

“These include film screenings, a photography exhibit, and a wish tree just outside Chase Hall,” he explains.

To be shown in a Chase Hall space called the Arts Commons, the films will have an environmental theme as part of a greater involvement with the Arts Crawl this year by students in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ environmental studies program.

In other innovations, Parakilas says, the college’s Steel Pan Orchestra will make its first Arts Crawl appearance, and visitors will have an opportunity to try playing the instruments of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra.

The event begins at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, with performances and exhibitions at Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave. From 5:30 to 7 p.m., the focus shifts across campus to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. Starting at 5 p.m., ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ popular a cappella groups will sing in the Fireplace Lounge, Commons, 136 Central Ave.

At 7:30 p.m., the popular Sangai Asia Night showcase of performance and fashions from Asia begins in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St. This year’s theme is “Color of Asia.”

The Bollywood Team energizes the Schaeffer Theatre stage during Asia Night 2014. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

In Chase Hall, performers include dancers, actors with the student-run Robinson Players and members of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Musicians Union, all in Memorial Commons, the former campus dining room that has been converted to an event space. In the Little Room, downstairs opposite the College Store, creative writers will read their prose and poetry in the Little Room.

In Olin, senior studio art majors will welcome visitors to their studios. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art, with three shows on the walls — including an acclaimed exhibition of digital montages by Maine artist Jeffery Becton — is open until 7 p.m.

Performers in Olin include the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra, singer-songwriters, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Jazz Combo and the Steel Pan Orchestra.

Finally, the event includes an exhibit of three-dimensional theatrical stage designs, which patrons of Asia Night will see when they enter the lobby of Schaeffer Theatre.

Refreshments, prepared by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dining Services, are key to the Arts Crawl experience. In store at Chase Hall are popcorn, hot chai and hot chocolate, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and assorted cookies.

In the Olin Arts Center lobby, treats include mini cheesecakes and mini “Death by Chocolate” cookies, along with bottled water to wash the sweets down.

Both the Arts Crawl, produced by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative, and Sangai Asia Night, sponsored by the student organization Sangai Asia, are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8212.

Arts Crawl 2016 Schedule

(subject to change)

Chase Hall 4 to 5:30pm

4:05pm: Kick-off with the Crosstones!

Memorial Commons

Theater, dance, and live music

4:10 – Theater performance: This is Kimmy by Hannah Albertine ’16

4:20 – Mixed media: Keila Ching ‘18

4:30 – Student band: The Retrievers

4:45 – Song and dance duet: Kelly McDonald ’19 and Charlotte Cramer ‘19

4:55 – Singer: Danielle Cohen ‘19

5:00 – Hip Hop dance: Jorge Piccole ‘18

5:05 – Student Band: Hired Help

5:15 – Singer/Songwriter: Alisa Amador ‘18

Little Room

4:30 – Readings and Refreshments

4:30 – Chris Shaw ‘16

4:50 – Julia Dunn ‘16

4:55 – Mary Schwalbe ‘17

5:00 – Hannah Zeltner ‘16

5:05 – Montana Hirsch ‘16

5:10 – Nick Muccio ‘16

5:15 – Will Hallett ‘16

Chase Gallery and Arts Commons

4-5:30 – Music, Movies, Art-making

Wish Tree

4-5:30 – Come hang your wishes here!

Fireplace Lounge, Commons, 5 to 6pm

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ popular a cappella ensembles

Olin Arts Center 5:30 to 7pm

5:30-5:50 – Gamelan Open Rehearsal (Room 243)

5:50-6:10 – Singer-songwriters (Museum of Art)

Hikaru Asao ’16 performs with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Jazz Combo during the 2013 Arts Crawl. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

In its third year in 2013, the Arts Crawl at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has become a signature event, a campus tour that showcases student expressive work across disciplines.

So if you were at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for the 2013 Crawl, late in the day on Jan. 25, you might have heard classic jazz or original poetry. You might have seen artists in their studios or dancers on a Memorial Commons stage. You might have lingered around the “All Things Chocolate” station in Olin Arts Center and admired the luminarias that lined campus walkways.

Some things are common across cultures: Here’s the bachelor party segment from Asia Night’s “Great South Asian Wedding.” Photograph by Michael Brady/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

This year, though, the Arts Crawl seemed to take on a new role, as the anchor for a weekend in the arts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. As always, Friday night’s Crawl was followed that night and on Saturday by performances of the funny, electric variety show known as Asia Night, sponsored by the student organization Sangai Asia.

But this time there was still another treat in store: Saturday night’s opening of an exhibition by acclaimed textile-installation artist Fransje Killaars.

Receptions at both the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art and downtown Lewiston’s Museum L-A, which are collaborating on Killaars’ exhibition Color at the Center, provided a sense of critical mass that really made the weekend something special for folks invested in the arts.

Read more about:

• The 2013 Arts Crawl at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½
• Asia Night 2013
• The opening of Fransje Killaars: Color at the Center

The Deansmen perform during the 2011 Arts Crawl at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

A kaleidoscope of student creativity in the visual, literary and performing arts, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ third annual Arts Crawl begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25.

Simultaneous sessions take place at four campus venues (listed below), with new presentations beginning at the top and bottom of each hour. The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8212.

Asia Night, a popular variety show representing many of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ diverse cultures, follows the Arts Crawl at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student organization Sangai Asia presents a second performance of Asia Night at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26. For more information, please contact ebou@bates.edu or hsiegel@bates.edu.

Read a preview of Asia Night by Liza Dorison ’13.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative sponsors the Arts Crawl to celebrate the imagination and talent that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students invest in myriad creative disciplines. All around the campus, snow sculpture, strolling performers and tasty comestibles from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dining Services will heighten the festive feel.

“Our hope is that people will come to one venue, stay a while and then make their way to the others,” says Carol Dilley, associate professor of dance and coordinator of the event. “It’ll be fun, warm and colorful. What better way to spend a Friday night in January?”

Here are the venues and what’s happening:

Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave., houses a range of simultaneous activities. On tap in Memorial Commons, a former dining space newly repurposed for public events, are the Robinson Players (drama and musical theater); the Strange Bedfellows (improv comedy); ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ dancers; and bands from the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Musicians Union. There will also be an art station for children with face painting and art-making opportunities.

The Bobcat Den, downstairs from the commons, is the venue for literary readings.

Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.: As in Chase, an exciting mix of happenings with an emphasis on visual art and culture. Student artists will show work and open their studios to visitors, and on display in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art are three new exhibitions: “Robert S. Neuman’s ‘Ship to Paradise,’ ” “Intermezzi Portfolio” by Max Klinger and “Fransje Killaars: Color at the Center.” (A reception for “Color at the Center” takes place at 5 p.m. Jan. 26.)

Diverse musical performances are slated for the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall: the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Steel Pan Orchestra, the college Jazz Combo, North Indian and Middle Eastern sounds, and a battle of the MCs.

New Commons Fireplace Lounge, 136 Central Ave. Musicians including a cappella singers, pianists and the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ folk band Chase the Fiddlers perform in this cozy gathering spot.

Imaging and Computing Center, Coram Library, 42 Campus Ave., will be the site of the popular Giant Photo Booth for candid portraits.

It wasn’t quite as easy as thumping your Bean Boot heels together and repeating, “I want to get the hell out of this miserable slop.”

Still, escape from the cold and rain-soaked evening of Jan. 27 was possible: There really were a few hours when you could have found yourself saying, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Maine anymore.”

The escape came courtesy of the second-annual ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Crawl, a showcase of student creativity that culminated in the variety show called Asia Night — a kaleidoscope of dance, song and laughs that made the Maine winter seem far away indeed.

For four and a half hours, the campus was a constellation of creativity from south to north, as students danced, sang, acted, showed films and paintings and sculpture. And the ever-popular Asia Night filled Schaeffer Theatre for the first night of its two-night stand.

Especially well-attended were dramatic excerpts from the upcoming Robinson Players production of The Laramie Project and student-created dance works, all in Chase Hall — with “Amber Wears Polos,” a dynamic dance-and-poetry piece by Katie Ailes ’14, a highlight.

Ramya Ghantasala ’15 performs the Bharatha Natyam dance “Thillana.”

“I was incredibly pleased with the success of this year’s Crawl,” said Emma Timbers ’14, a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative, which produces the event. “It reflects the vibrancy of the arts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ that there were so many events going on.”

“I was happy to see people braving the dreary night to support friends and classmates,” Timbers said.

Kicking off the Crawl, if you will, were community art works presented, to the thump of drums, in front of New Commons. Helicase Biology Club members Conor Smith ’14 and Daniel Jordan ’14 won the snow sculpture contest with their beached sperm whale. “The beached whale triumphs, as it always does,” Kit Sheridan ’12 announced through a bullhorn.

It was a victory by default, as their anticipated rivals (and last year’s winners) from the chemistry department failed to show, but that took away nothing from the excellence of the whale. Also part of the opening ceremony was the creation, in the snow with spray bottles of dye, of a Sol LeWitt “automatic drawing,” under the direction of philosophy professor William Seeley.

Sheridan turned up again in the Olin Arts Center, where her complex abstract paintings hung on the wall of the studio she shares with other studio art majors. Her visitors included ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ president-elect Clayton Spencer, who, Sheridan recounted, wanted to know why she had chosen ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

“I went to an all-girl school for 10 years and I wanted to change things up,” Sheridan joked, but added, more seriously, that she appreciated the literal and figurative creative space provided to students in the arts — such as the program for studio art majors. “It’s nice to have a full year to work toward the Senior Exhibition,” she said.

In the Olin lobby, visitors hovered around a nothing-but-chocolate-and-plenty-of-it table while, at the foot of a staircase, the Crosstones belted out the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.” (Talk about art imitating life.) Student artworks on display included an intriguing diorama composed of stuffed animals, colored lights and mirrors in a low box.

In Coram Library, the Imaging Center featured student-made short films, a row of iPads programmed to give passers-by the effect of funhouse mirrors, and an image of Andy Warhol’s Brillo Soap Pads Box whose perspective changed as viewers moved from side to side.

During the second annual ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Crawl, a student examines a piece by Xioaze Xie in the Museum of Art.

Spoken-word and poetry performances took place in the newly renovated Roger Williams Hall, while Perry Atrium afforded a more reflective mood with an assortment of acoustic music, from the ukulele-powered original songs of Grace Glasson to the hypnotic Gamelan Orchestra.

Concluding this escape from the cold and rain was a warm and lively destination: Asia Night, sponsored by the student organization Sangai Asia. In contrast to the day that preceded it, a day of gray skies and cautious shuffling over wet ice, this show was nothing but dazzling colors, silly humor and captivating motion.

In fact, dance drove Asia Night, and driving much of the dance were two seniors who, making their final Asia Night appearances this time around, have played decisive roles in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ dance: Shachi Phene, a woman of Indian descent from Lexington, Mass., and Shlesma Chhetri of Kathmandu, Nepal.

In ornate traditional costume, Chhetri and Sanya Thapa ’12, also of Kathmandu, brilliantly performed a Nepali folk dance in which two girls share stories of being in love. Phene joined forces with singer Amna Ilyas of Faisalabad, Pakistan, for “Mere Dholna Sun (Ami Je Tomar).” While singer Ilyas, an Asia Night co-host, navigated the stratospheric range and tonal intricacies of this love song, Phene easily moved through steps combining classical Indian dance and Bollywood choreography.

In a more purely classical Indian vein, Ramya Ghantasala ’15 delivered the dance “Thillana” with enough expertise, not to mention sheer charm, to inspire optimism about the future of South Asian dance at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ post-Phene and Chhetri. Japan and Vietnam were also represented by traditional dances.

Music included a song by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra, in its third performance of the evening, and a piece — something in between music and dance — by a group of drummers in Japan’s thundering taiko tradition.

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Two men sang songs that gave pensive counterpoint to the lively dances. Hieu Nguyen ’13 of Hanoi, Vietnam, brought a powerful vocal talent to “Nostalgia,” a folk-influenced expression of longing for a bygone rural life. And, even as political repression in Myanmar seems to be easing, Swe Htet Naing ’12 of Mandalay sang a moving ballad commemorating the victims of 50 years of repression in the former Burma.

Reading their lines from iPads, Ilyas and her co-host Umur Khan ’13 of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, had Hollywood award-show banter down cold, whether in introducing the next act or the students who modeled Asian apparel in between performances. (Umur: “Amna, you’re so gorgeous, intelligent, sexy — you’re getting more and more like me everyday.”)

An iPad in the Imaging Center reveals the true face of a visitor’s soul during the 2012 Arts Crawl.

And the grand finale, a mind-bending collision of umpteen dance and musical styles carried off by more than 40 students, was framed as a reality-talent TV show, with different groups of dancers competing for world domination.

But while the talent-show conceit got lost in the commotion, it didn’t even matter: In dance styles from Bollywood to Latin to hip hop to Broadway, with bright shiny costumes to match, the finale was a Schaeffer-shaking celebration not just of Asian culture or of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, but of the sheer ecstatic power of music and dance.

— with additional reporting by Jay Burns

Concluding with the spectacular variety show called Asia Night, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½Â  presents its second annual Arts Crawl on Jan. 27.

The event is open to the public at no cost.

Revealing the breadth and excellence of the visual, literary and performing arts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the Arts Crawl begins with outdoor activities across campus at 4:30 p.m. For more information, please call 207-786-6417.

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Asia Night, reflecting the diversity of Asian cultures, ends the Crawl at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. On the program are pop dances including Bollywood numbers, performance art and gamelan music.

Asia Night 2011, photographed by Judson Peck '11.

Sangai Asia, the student organization producing Asia Night, offers a second performance the following night, also at 7:30. For more information, please email scheung@bates.edu.

Produced by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative, a group of faculty, staff and students working to raise the profile of the arts on campus and in the community, the Arts Crawl features more than 100 students sharing their creative voices through film, dance, music, spoken word and theater.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art, at 75 Russell St., stays open past its usual 5 p.m. closing time for the occasion. Showing are Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments (1993–2008), a major survey of work by an important Chinese American artist known for his explorations of time, memory, history and the media; and James Ensor: Scènes de la vie du Christ and other works, featuring lithographs and etchings inspired by late-medieval combinations of religious and carnival imagery.

Arts Crawl events will take place simultaneously across campus. The outdoor events include a cappella singing, as well as snow painting and ice sculpture contests open to public participation.

The Deansmen perform during the 2011 Arts Crawl at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

Myriad indoor activities begin at 5 p.m., including:

• displays of student artwork in media including drawing, painting, photography, ceramics and printmaking, as well as open studios hosted by senior studio art majors showing their thesis work in progress, all in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.
• acoustic music and dance improvisation in the art museum;
• Sangai Asia performances, original choreography, rock bands and theatrical monologues in Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave.;
• world and acoustic music, including the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra, in Pettengill Hall’s Perry Atrium, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk);
• student film shorts in Coram Library, 42 Campus Ave.;
• and performances of spoken-word pieces and poetry from 6 to 6:30 p.m. in Roger Williams Hall, 9 Andrews Road.

Sweet and savory treats such as popcorn, hot chocolate and hot apple crisp will be served around campus, including “all things chocolate” station in Olin Arts Center, 75 Campus Ave., and international foods in Perry Atrium.