'Arts at Bucks' Festival Begins Wednesday

Bucks County Community College’s Arts at Bucks Celebration begins this week and will feature free concerts, demonstrations, exhibitions and more in a series of events that are open to the public. Many of the events are free.

The month-long celebration begins Wednesday and goes through May 14.

"The annual Arts at Bucks festival showcases the talent and academic excellence available at the public, two-year school," according to a BCCC press release.

BCCC is one of the few community colleges in the nation that is an accredited institutional member of both the National Association of Schools of Music and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the press release said.

Here's a look at some of the festival highlights:

• The Vijay Iyer Trio will perform modern jazz at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 18. The performance is free.
• The play These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich, a drama set in Chicago in the 1920s, opens at 8 p.m. on April 25. There will also be performances on April 26 and 27. The cost is $10 for the public and $7 for students. 
• On May 2, the 48th Annual Student Exhibition will open in the Hicks Art Center Gallery. It runs through May 14. Admission is free. For gallery hours, visit www.bucks.edu/gallery. 
• An open house will be held May 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be free demonstrations, gallery receptions, open studios, and more. Demonstrations include woodturning, glassblowing, silkscreening and a bronze foundry pour. In addition, students will be selling their arts and crafts in the Hicks Art Center courtyard. For a complete schedule, visit www.bucks.edu/artsatbucks.
• “Tree to Form,” the interactive exhibition in Artmobile, the college’s traveling outreach museum, is on display adjacent to the Hicks Art Center Gallery. Artmobile is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday May 2 and 3; 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday May 5; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday May 6. Admission is free.
• Professor Doug Rosentrater’s Oral Interpretation class performs free for the public at 9:30 a.m. on May 7 and 9 in Penn Hall room 253.  The class will present a multi-voice readers’ theater, “A Night to Remember: Accounts from Survivors of the Titanic” on Tuesday, and “A Preponderance of Pooh: What to Do in the 100-Acre Wood” on Thursday. 
• On May 8, the juried annual BCCC Film Festival takes place in the Gateway Auditorium. The festival is free and open to the public.
• At 7 p.m. May 10 and 11 there will be an an improvisational comedy performance featuring nearly two dozen students. It will be held in the Gateway Auditorium. Admission is $7. 

For complete details about Arts at Bucks, visit www.bucks.edu/artsatbucks or call the Department of the Arts at 215-968-8425.