Where We Are: Arts & Culture
Theatres, galleries, museums, cultural centers, historical sights—take your pick. The Pioneer Valley also is home to internationally known artists, writers, and musicians. No matter what the season, it's a creative, vibrant place.
Photos
Top right
An illustrated area map of the location of the Five Colleges in relation to Mount Holyoke College. Hampshire College, Amherst College, and UMass are all north on Route 116 (approximately 10 miles). Smith College in Northampton is approximately 12 miles west.
Bottom right selections
The Emily
Dickinson Museum consists of two historic houses in the center of Amherst,
Massachusetts, associated with the poet Emily Dickinson and her family during
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Homestead was the birthplace
and home of the poet Emily Dickinson. The Evergreens, next door, was home to
her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and their three children. (Photo: The facade
of the yellow Homestead)
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The Eric Carle
Museum of Picture Book Art is the first full-scale museum in this country
devoted to national and international picture book art. The museum's goal is to
foster connections between visual and verbal literacy and to provide visitors
of all ages and backgrounds with the confidence to appreciate and enjoy art of
every kind. (Photo: the museum's modern white facade)
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The National
Yiddish Book Center rescues Yiddish and other modern Jewish books and
celebrates the culture they contain. To date, 1.5 million volumes have been
recovered. The center's achievement has been hailed as the "the greatest
cultural rescue effort in Jewish history." (Photo: the center's distinctive
shingled rooftops)
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Opened in 1979, the Iron
Horse Music Hall has earned a national reputation as a venue for live
music. Nightly shows feature up-and-comers, as well as established artists.
(Photo: the poster-filled front windows)
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The Springfield
Symphony Orchestra is the largest professional orchestra in Massachusetts
outside of Boston and is composed of approximately 80 musicians from the Pioneer
Valley, Boston and New York areas. The SSO also sponsors two youth orchestras
with 170 musicians, and a 120-voice volunteer chorus. (Photo: the conductor reading
a page of sheet music)
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Located in the heart of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, the
Springfield
Museums is composed of four world-class museums—the Museum of
Fine Arts, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Springfield Science
Museum, and the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. It also is home to the
Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden, a series of full-scale bronze sculptures of Dr.
Seuss's whimsical creations, honoring the birthplace of Theodor Geisel,
a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. (Photo: A bronze sculpture of Seuss's character Horton)
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One of the oldest collegiate museums in the United States, the Mount
Holyoke College Art Museum maintains a comprehensive collection of approximately
14,000 objects, ranging from ancient Egypt, China, and Peru to contemporary
America.
Known for its lively, intellectual, and imaginative special exhibitions,
the museum also hosts related gallery talks, lectures, and occasional concerts
that are open to
the public. (Photo: students viewing a modern print)
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The
University Gallery is the visual arts showcase of the Fine Arts Center
on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The gallery
maintains a permanent collection of approximately 2,600 objects with an
emphasis on drawings, prints, and photographs from the second half of the
twentieth century. (Photo: a contemporary installation)
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The Smith College
Museum of Art is best known for its nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and
American collection. In addition, it is developing holdings in Asian, African,
and Latin American art. The permanent collection features works by Manet,
Monet, Picasso, Copley, Eakins, Stella, Motherwell, O'Keeffe, and many other
famous painters, along with noteworthy sculpture and classical antiquities,
prints, drawings and photographs. (Photo: interior of a gallery of classics)
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The Mead Art Museum
is an American Association of Museums (AAM)-accredited museum that houses
the art collections of Amherst College, nearly 14,000 works that have been
acquired since 1839. It has six galleries devoted to displaying highlights
of its permanent collection, in addition to its changing exhibition space
in
Fairchild Gallery. (Photo: looking through the doorways of several galleries)
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The Hampshire College Art Gallery functions primarily as an
alternative exhibition space concentrating on, but not limited to, the visual
arts. The exhibits feature work by graduating students, fine arts faculty,
and emerging regional artists, as well as that by contemporary artists of
national and international stature. (Photo: an installation of an exhibition in progress)
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The UMass Fine Arts Center
is a central force in the cultural, social and academic life of the
university, the Five Colleges, and the Pioneer Valley of western
Massachusetts. It offers a combination of educational, visual, and performing
arts programs.
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Find Out More
(Links to related sites outside this tour)
About This Site
This transcript is a companion to the Mount Holyoke College Tour, a multimedia site presenting the Mount Holyoke experience through photos, audio clips, and video clips. The corresponding page on the multimedia tour is Arts & Culture. If you have suggestions about how to improve the accessibility of this site, please contact us.