FABRIC Arts Festival is back: What to know before you go
FALL RIVER — The annual FABRIC Festival of the Arts is underway, and this time with a focus on creating a regional experience that will connect Fall River to its neighboring cities of Providence and New Bedford.
In its fourth edition, which takes place Oct. 5 to 14, this celebration of Portuguese arts, culture and the diverse local community will feature a series of performative dinners, music concerts, movie screenings, art exhibitions and educational workshops scattered across the three cities.
“It’s about expanding the branding a little further and working the regional angle,” said Michael Benevides, who conceptualized FABRIC. “I thought this was a clever way to reach audiences that we have not been able to connect with yet.”
He noted that one of the main goals of this edition is “to invite audiences to view Fall River and the region as a territory of arrivals and geographic intersections, with a program inspired by the diasporic aesthetics, languages and codes that shape the region.”
FABRIC is being organized by Casa dos Açores da Nova Inglaterra (CANI) under the leadership of Benevides, with Portugal-based curator Jesse James, and a production team on both sides of the Atlantic.
“FABRIC’s role is to boost the local cultural ecosystem, creating moments that bring together local entities and agents and invite people from other places to create here,” said James. “It’s about setting things in motion, creating exchanges and places where artists are Fall River’s great ambassadors.
He pointed out that ‘movement’ should perhaps be this festival’s theme.
“A movement that is made through these hyper-communications (through affections and between times),” he said, noting that FABRIC’s board members felt it was important to expand programming to other cities as a way of enhancing the movement and circulation of people and ideas between places.
“Instead of centralizing, they put Fall River in communication with,” he stressed. “It was natural to expand to neighboring cities like New Bedford, with which we share the heritage of the Portuguese and Azorean diaspora, and to Providence and its effervescent cultural dynamic that can influence what happens here.”
He believes all these connections help to cement Fall River’s image as a city of “makers,” because there are many creators here.
“Entities like F.R.A.A.C and Viva Fall River are imagining new creative movements in the city, and this is going to transform the way people live and think about the city,” he said. “The new Gather space will be an important hub. FABRIC is another element of this transformation, acting on a broader, more international level that aims to bring attention to the dynamics that are being established locally.”
Unlike previous editions, this year’s FABRIC will not leave a permanent mark in the form of a mural, sculpture, or installation.
“It wasn’t premeditated,” James said. “When we invite artists, it’s to commission new projects and give them the freedom to think. It’s a way of making FABRIC exciting and challenging from a creative perspective. In this edition, the artists were more interested in other types of projects.”
FABRIC to kick off in Providence
The festival will kick off in Rhode Island, with events taking place over the course of several days at the Courtland Club, Machines with Magnets concert venue, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
On Oct. 7, Providence’s Courtland Club will host “Tropical Anthropology: A Dinner Performance” with Caique Tizzi, a Brazilian-born artist, cook and event organizer living in Berlin, Germany. Starting at 7 p.m., guests will experience an evening of food, song and poetry revolving around tropical foods.
According to FABRIC organizers, Tizzi will examine how foods indigenous to the Americas came to be transformed into ciphers of colonialism and the commodity exchange between different imperial outposts.
“In other words, food becomes a medium or lens to understand these intertwined pasts, creating a sensual experience that grasps at both the culinary and geopolitical complexities that exist within them,” reads a press release.
This is a ticketed event with limited capacity. Tickets can be purchased at courtlandclub.com.
On Friday, Oct. 6, Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket will serve as the backdrop for a night of live music with PVD sensation Baby and Portugal’s experimental-electronic artist Surma starting at 8 p.m. It will be followed by a dance party until 1 a.m. with local DJ Isabella and Portuguese-Angolan DJ Lycox, who is currently based in London. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at FABRIC’s website and at the door on the day of the event.
On Saturday, Oct. 7, the experimental movie ‘Supernatural’ by Lisbon-based filmmaker Jorge Jácome, will be shown at 6 p.m. at RISD Museum’s METCALF Auditorium, 20 North Main St., Providence. Admission is free. Doors will open at 5 p.m.
“Inhabiting the blurred boundaries between documentary and fiction, this is a film that experiments with form — between curiosities, video clips and confessions — which is not surprising since it started out as a spectacle for the stage and not for the screen,” reads a press release. “Madeira Island’s autochthonous lusciousness is where the possibilities open up to think about everything we consider to be ‘natural’ and whether we should expand the notion to encompass much more complexity.”
Festival comes to New Bedford Oct. 12
On Oct. 12,FABRIC moves to New Bedford, partnering with theNew Bedford Whaling Museum for AHA! night, a monthly arts and culture event.
Starting at 6:45 p.m., the museum will showcase Matria, a short film by Portuguese director Catarina Gonçalves. A tribute to Natália Correia, a Portuguese poet and writer who was born 100 years ago, the 2023 film travels to the island of São Miguel, Azores, where reality and fiction intertwine with her poetry.
It will be followed at 7:30 p.m. by a music concert by indie-pop band We Sea, hailing from S. Miguel, Azores.
Admission is free to both events. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
FABRIC bringing six events to Fall River
The festival will culminate inFall River with two days of diversified programming, involving spaces such as the Fall River Government Center, Portugalia Marketplace, Bristol Community College, GATHER (a new art space), and Fall River’s Open Studios (produced by FRAAC).
On Friday, Oct. 13, the multidisciplinary group exhibition ‘Hyperballads’ will open at 5 p.m. at Gather, Fall River’s new cultural endeavor located at 43 Troy St.
Curated by James, the exhibition will move around “what we might feel and can’t see, what surpasses us and exists beyond.” It will feature works by Allyson Vieira, Beatriz Brum, Eva Papagarmariti, Gil Ferrão, Gonçalo Preto, Horácio Frutuoso, Nadia Belerique, Sónia Almeida and Yuli Yamagata.
The exhibition will remain open through Nov. 11 and can be visited on Fridays, from 4 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, from 2 to 6 p.m. Admission is free.
Less than a mile way, Portugalia Marketplace will host ‘On The Other Side: A Dinner Performance’ by Sónia Almeida and André E. Teodósio with Chef Robert Andreozzi at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at FABRIC’s website.
On Saturday, Oct. 14, dozens of artists will showcase their work at multiple locations, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Participating studios will include the Narrows Center for the Arts, Smokestack Studios, Greater Fall River Art Association, Little Miss Art, Viva Maker Shop, Craftyish, The Ignition Space, SoCo Art Lab, Grimshaw-Gudewicz Gallery and Shane Landing LLC Studios.
At 1 p.m. the ‘Unfixed Concrete Ideals’ exhibition will open at the Government Center. Curated by Allyson Vieira and Ben Sloat, it will be set up in the atrium and feature the work of more than a dozen artists exploring the generative contradictions of concrete’s material qualities and use. Guests will be able to visit the exhibition free of charge through Nov. 18.
At 5 p.m., the sculpture ‘Repose’ made by Allyson Vieira with sandbags will be unveiled at the pond of Bristol Community College’s Fall River Campus. The sculpture can be visited through Nov. 11 during Campus open hours.
Festival to culminate Oct. 14 with fado performance
In a first-time collaboration with The Zeiterion, Fall River will host Gisela João, a central figure and one of the most exciting interpreters in contemporary fado music.
With a constant presence on national and international stages, electrifying and unforgettable performances, Gisela is an iconic model for contemporary Fado.
“She is not your typical fadista,” said Benevides. “She is more contemporary, edgier. Although her melodies sound like fado as she has the traditional backline with the Portuguese guitar, her lyrics are more interesting. For example, in ‘Hostel das Mariquinhas,’ she talks about alfacinhas, the people of Lisbon, being displaced by airbnbs. She is a very cool, creative person.”
The concert will start at 7 p.m. at Bristol Community College’s auditorium. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.zeiterion.org/events/gisela-joao
For more information on FABRIC Arts Festival and participating artists, visit https://www.fabricfallriver.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: FABRIC Arts Festival returns to Fall River and New Bedford
