(Victoria Blaine Design Associates)

For the fourth year, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Arts Collaborative presents the Arts Crawl, a celebration of student creativity in the performing, literary and visual arts.

This exciting event begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, in various campus locations. It culminates with the first of two performances of Asia Night, a witty and colorful sampler of performing arts and fashion from all over Asia.

Presented by the student organization Sangai Asia, Asia Night performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24 and 25, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Admission to both the Arts Crawl and Asia Night is open to the public at no cost. For more information about the Arts Crawl, please call 207-786-8212. To learn more about Asia Night, please contact mpham2@bates.edu.

See a complete Arts Crawl schedule.

Hiraku Asao ’16 performs with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Jazz Combo during the 2013 Arts Crawl. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Located at 56 Campus Ave., Chase Hall is a key focus of Arts Crawl activity. Memorial Commons, the former campus dining hall that has been refurbished as a major performance and event space, is the site for stage performances throughout the Crawl. Dance, theater, music and improv comedy are on tap there.

At the other end of the building, downstairs opposite the College Bookstore, the Little Room is the place to catch creative writing in action, hosted by poet and English faculty member Rob Farnsworth.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ a cappella groups — the Crosstones, the Deansmen, the Manic Optimists, the Merimanders and TakeNote — will represent this beloved campus tradition in two locations. Singing begins in the Fireplace Lounge in Commons, 136 Central Ave., beginning at 4:20 p.m. The Crosstones will begin the final set for this location at 6:20.

The a cappella groups will also perform on the Olin Concert Hall stage in alternation with Hired Help, the Steel Pan Orchestra, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Jazz Band and other student musicians.

Ramya Ghantasala ’15 performs a classical Indian dance during Asia Night 2013. Photograph by Michael Brady/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Also in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St., student visual artists will be on hand in their studios to discuss work in progress for next spring’s Senior Exhibition. And the Museum of Art will be open, welcoming visitors to its just-opened winter shows:

How to Make the Universe Right: The Art of the Shaman in Vietnam and Southern China, an extraordinary selection of painted scrolls, masks and other objects used in shamanist ceremonies of ethnic minorities; and Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center, a wide-ranging survey of collages curated by the ICC and William Low, curator of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ museum.

Finally, refreshments are key to the Arts Crawl experience: Enjoy chocolate, apple crisp, popcorn, hot chocolate and more.

Hathorn Hall is silhouetted against a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ fireworks display. Photograph by Ken Zirkel.

Residents in the neighborhood around ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College shouldn’t be surprised to hear and see some pyrotechnics this weekend.

A student group at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ will present fireworks over the college’s Lake Andrews starting around 9:15 p.m. Sunday, May 12.

An organization promoting Asian and Asian-American awareness, identity and fellowship at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Sangai Asia sponsors a fireworks show near the end of every academic year.

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.

Hathorn Hall is silhouetted against a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ fireworks display. Photograph by Ken Zirkel.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College student organization Sangai Asia ends another academic year with a bang as it offers fireworks, food and music on Sunday, May 6, at the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater, adjacent to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

The event is open to the public at no cost. The rain date is Friday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, please contact jrice2@bates.edu.

The fun begins at 7:30 p.m. with music and food. Sounds will be provided by the Flu Fighters, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student band that plays ” ’90s mischief mixed with some classic rock flair,” according to band member Erik Barth.

Wei-Li, a Chinese restaurant in Auburn, will supply appetizers on a first-come, first-served basis.

Around 9 p.m., the fireworks display over Lake Andrews begins.

Sangai Asia promotes Asian and Asian-American awareness, identity and fellowship at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

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

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student organization Sangai Asia celebrates the end of another academic year with food and fireworks on Friday, May 13, at the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater, adjacent to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

The event begins at 7:30 p.m. with appetizers from Chopsticks, a Chinese restaurant in Lewiston. Around 9 p.m., the fireworks display over Lake Andrews begins.

The event is open to the public at no cost, with food available on a first-come, first-served basis. The rain date for this event is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 20. For more information, please contact jrice2@bates.edu.

Sangai Asia promotes Asian and Asian-American awareness, identity and fellowship.

Sangai Asia, a student organization celebrating Asian culture, presents a celebration capped with a fireworks display on campus on Saturday, May 15.

Thai food and live music will be offered starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater, adjacent to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. The fireworks over Lake Andrews are scheduled to start around 9 p.m.. The event is open to the public at no cost, but the supply of refreshments is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hallowell-based Central Maine Pyrotechnics will provide the fireworks display.

For more information, please contact this jrice2@bates.edu.

Sangai Asia, a student organization at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College that promotes Asian and Asian American awareness, identity and fellowship, presents its second annual Annual Asian Performance Night at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3rd, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

The event is co-sponsored by the college’s Multicultural Center and Women’s Resource Center.

Asian Performance Night highlights the varied Asian and Asian-American cultures that are increasingly prominent in our community. The performers are ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students of Asian and Asian American descent, as well as students with an interest in those cultures.

In addition to dances, skits and musical pieces performed by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, a professional Cambodian performance group from Portland will take part. The program will conclude with a fashion show featuring ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student-models wearing Asian and Asian American cultural costumes, including Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese.

Sangai Asia, a student group at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College that promotes Asian and Asian American awareness, identity and fellowship, presents a cultural extravaganza titled “Asian Night Performance”  at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. The public is invited to attend at no charge.  For more information, please call ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student organizer Khoa Pham at 207-777-7811.

The presentation, co-sponsored by  the Women’s Resource Center and the Multicultural Center, features a fashion show, dancing, singing and guitar playing spanning various Asian nationalities, including Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

A special guest for the evening is Filipina poet Barbara Jane Reyes, a Mellon learning associate at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the humanities and social sciences.

Central to the Asian Night Performance is a series of traditional Vietnamese dances conducted by the nonprofit Boston-based performing group Bon Hong Viet Nam, or “The Reflection of Roses.” The group has appeared throughout the United States and Canada.

“The Reflection of Roses” consists of 10 or so professional female artists who will perform Vietnamese folk songs and dance wearing brightly colored outfits. Holding candles and fans, the women will sport traditional “ao dai” (long dress), while moving gracefully across the stage.

“‘The Reflection of Roses” promises to deliver a truly mind-blowing series of talented moves and great music,” says Pham, a junior from Houston, Texas.