Connecting through Creativity, Craftsmanship, and Celebration

February is a busy month for the arts at Tabor, often being when annual performances like the musical, winter drama, and applied music recital are held. This year, on February 15 and 16, 2024, Tabor hosted its inaugural Winter Arts Festival to celebrate the talents and efforts of students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Festivities kicked off on Thursday with an All School Meeting. There, students heard a keynote presentation from Mark Parsons ’86, founder and executive director of New Bedford Research & Robotics (NBRR). Smith introduced Parsons as “an adventurer and artist who cross-pollinates design, engineering, and tech spaces with creative fervor.”

Parsons delivered an engaging presentation titled “Art and Innovation.” In his presentation, Parsons shared a sculpture he derived from drawings that were collected from people tasked with drawing their childhood homes from memory. This project made him ask himself, “Is the artwork the making of the work, the object of the work, or the people and the space it affects?” Transforming ideas into tangible objects that take up space in the world, and learning how to make such spaces, is, he offers, “what I’m doing at NBRR and what Tabor is doing for you.”

Parsons’ presentation concluded with a brief Q&A. Students asked insightful questions such as, “How do you use technology and innovation to aid in medical breakthroughs?” and “When you are thinking of collaborating with someone, what are the qualities you look for?”

On both Thursday and Friday, the entire community was invited to attend an opening art reception, held in The Travis Roy Campus Center and the Braitmayer Arts Center. There, art from accomplished alumni, faculty, staff, and students was on display. Meanwhile, guests enjoyed each other’s company, refreshments from Tabor’s dining team, and performances from several Tabor ensembles including the Madrigals, Gospel Choir, and student chamber groups. After the arts receptions, people crossed campus to Hoyt Hall for the winter musical production of, “Footloose.”

“Without the arts, the Tabor community would be a much less vital and imaginative place to be. We have an arts requirement because endeavoring to understand human connection and experience through risk taking and personal expression is an important and essential tool to developing the life of a mind. Art requires risk, intellectual investment, technical development, planning, and imagination,” shares Tricia Smith, Chair of the Arts Department. “Whether you are facing a blank page or unbound vista, an empty stage, a line of music, the complicated mechanisms of an instrument, a lump of clay, or a vast array of pixels and the algorithm behind that screen, creativity is an essential part of art and the gateway to creative innovation. Risk is always the first step—a step into possibility and a wondering about what can be but isn’t yet.”

Creative programs play an integral role in the Tabor Way of Learning. They instill an understanding of the importance of creative expression, artistic process, and personal engagement as part of the educational experience. The Winter Arts Festival is a new tradition that exemplifies Tabor’s dedication to both the visual and performing arts, and we look forward to celebrating again next year.