Connecting Arts & Society RAP

Investigate how arts, culture and history shape our lives!

Connecting Arts & Society RAP is a collaboration between  Music/The Lively Arts, Anthropology and History.

When you join this RAP you will...

• Attend Fine Arts Center Performing Arts Series events and guided visits to University Gallery exhibitions of sculpture, painting, and photography.

• Explore identity as a universal theme; ethnic identity, civic and national identity, cultural identity as well as the intersections between arts and identities. 

• Share your living-and-learning experience with other students who are curious and interested in studying about arts, identity and ideas.

• Make connections with faculty and graduate students from Anthropology, History and Music.

This RAP is ideal for any first-year student whether you are entering UMass Amherst with a declared major or are still deciding on what you want to major in. 

You will enroll in a History or Anthropology class which will infuse topics being introduced in your Lively Arts class into their already culturally rich curriculum.

Learn that we are not all the same and yet for all humans, the arts have been and continue to be an important means of self expression, social protest and communication.

Discussions will embrace topics such as:

• Civic and religious connections in history
• The idea of art in the renaissance
• Marking rituals
• Introducing cross cultural perspectives on various topics.

Be sure to visit the How to Join page on this website to learn about the process and important timelines you must follow to become a member of this fantastic program!