Dynamic. Provocative. Life-Changing.
Bates College offers six arts-related majors, a statistic which only scratches the surface in terms of the inclusion of arts across the curriculum.
Fields of StudyBates College offers six arts-related majors, a statistic which only scratches the surface in terms of the inclusion of arts across the curriculum.
Fields of StudyBetween performances and concerts, workshops, exhibitions, and student organization events, there is always something happening at Bates!
Upcoming Arts HappeningsBetween performances and concerts, workshops, exhibitions, and student organization events, there is always something happening at Bates!
Upcoming Arts HappeningsConnect with other artists at Bates! Learn about our academics, arts-related clubs, upcoming events, performance opportunities, and much more.
Arts at Bates for StudentsConnect with other artists at Bates! Learn about our academics, arts-related clubs, upcoming events, performance opportunities, and much more.
Arts at Bates for StudentsArts without boundaries
As an integral part of our distinctive liberal arts mission, Bates celebrates the arts in ways that are intensely collaborative and courageous. Like us, the arts are diverse and complicated — and like us, the arts have the power to transform.
Great artists from around the globe join our talented faculty, staff and students in exploring this power, in both formal presentations and casual encounters. As you might expect, it’s student creativity that burns brightest in this dynamic continuum. The same passion that drives students to study and major in Bates’ robust departmental arts offerings also leads them to bring what they’re learning to surprising venues and extracurricular ventures all around campus and beyond.
IMPACT 21st (Innovation, Media, Process, Arts, Collaboration and Technology for the 21st Century) promotes new technical and presentational approaches to teaching and learning in the arts, and builds on Bates’ commitment to the transformative integration of technology and the arts.
More about IMPACT 21stIMPACT 21st (Innovation, Media, Process, Arts, Collaboration and Technology for the 21st Century) promotes new technical and presentational approaches to teaching and learning in the arts, and builds on Bates’ commitment to the transformative integration of technology and the arts.
More about IMPACT 21stThe Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work.
Bates Dance FestivalThe Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work.
Bates Dance FestivalThe festival exists to bring people together around a shared love of movies. In a culture that seems to grow more divided every day, the BFF aspires to initiate and facilitate substantive conversations between individuals who might not have met were it not for a shared interest in movies.
Bates Film FestivalThe festival exists to bring people together around a shared love of movies. In a culture that seems to grow more divided every day, the BFF aspires to initiate and facilitate substantive conversations between individuals who might not have met were it not for a shared interest in movies.
Bates Film FestivalLiterary Arts Live celebrates the diverse vitalities of contemporary literature and are made possible from the generous support of the English Department, the John Tagliabue Fund, and the Learning Associates Fund.
Upcoming ReadingsLiterary Arts Live celebrates the diverse vitalities of contemporary literature and are made possible from the generous support of the English Department, the John Tagliabue Fund, and the Learning Associates Fund.
Upcoming ReadingsAs a teaching museum at a liberal arts college, the Bates College Museum of Art brings to campus a world of ideas that are vital to the intellectual and cultural life of Bates and its surrounding communities.
Bates Museum of ArtAs a teaching museum at a liberal arts college, the Bates College Museum of Art brings to campus a world of ideas that are vital to the intellectual and cultural life of Bates and its surrounding communities.
Bates Museum of ArtArts are everywhere at Bates! Check out a complete list of departments, organizations, and clubs.
Arts at BatesArts are everywhere at Bates! Check out a complete list of departments, organizations, and clubs.
Arts at Bates
More than 60 performers participated in this year’s cultural showcase which highlights and celebrates — through performance — diverse cultures of the Caribbean and Latin American students at Bates. This year’s showcase on April 17 was entitled “Here to Stay: Rhythms that Raised Us,” which points to both the past and future cultural influence of Latine and Caribbean cultures in the United States and at Bates.
On April 17, Bates’ graduating studio art and visual culture students will step outside of their studios to share their work with the world during At the Table: Senior Thesis Exhibition 2026.
Bates Theater’s production of ‘Everybody’ sold out every performance at Gannett Theater last week — waitlists at the door, eager audience members finding out they’d gotten seats five minutes before curtain — and the room earned that anticipatory urgency.
During the first-ever Bates Curates event in March, faculty, staff, and students, and President Garry W. Jenkins, became “curators” as they gathered to select a new addition to the Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
