Kirby Memorial Theater
Next door to the Admission Office, you will find Kirby Theater. Behind its 1930s neoclassical exterior are state-of-the-art performance facilities with computerized lighting and sound systems, catwalks, and stretch wire grids. Kirby, a 400-seat proscenium theater, serves as the primary stage for Amherst College theater productions. Extending behind Kirby is Holden Theater, a fully equipped, 4,000-square-foot experimental black-box theater that expands the variety and versatility of Amherst’s performance spaces. Holden connects Kirby to the Webster Center, which houses dance, acting, directing, and design studios, as well as additional performance spaces.
Media Gallery
Arts
Literary Amherst
⭐ Arts
At Amherst, you can be part of a vibrant arts community. From our art studios and classrooms to our exhibition and performance spaces, Amherst nurtures artistic expression in every medium.
Arts at Amherst Initiative
The Arts at Amherst Initiative is a cross-disciplinary partnership whose mission is to foster participation in the arts at Amherst College by supporting collaboration across disciplines, facilitation conversations about the arts within the context of the liberal arts mission, and hosting leading artists from around the world. To foster the development of collaborative arts programming and a lively arts community, the Arts at Amherst Initiative Steering Committee provides funding opportunities to Amherst faculty and staff for collaborative projects, provides free guest housing for visiting artists at the Bailey Brown House, and runs a monthly arts programming series.
⭐ Literary Amherst
Amherst College is one of the world’s premier writing colleges, with an enviable literary legacy. Our outstanding faculty and alumni include influential and award-winning novelists, poets, journalists and critics, and our renowned literary publications are read around the world.
LitFest
Throughout its 200-year history, Amherst has been closely associated with writers such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur ’42, James Merrill ’47, David Foster Wallace ’85, Dan Brown ’86 and Lauren Groff ’01, among many others. Each year we welcome to campus distinguished authors of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for readings, conversations and master classes as part of the Visiting Writer’s Series and LitFest, the College’s annual literary festival.
The Common
An award-winning literary magazine based at Amherst College, The Common publishes stories, essays, poems and images with a strong sense of place. We publish two print issues per year and maintain a vibrant digital magazine. Since its debut in 2011, The Common has published more than 1,600 pieces from over 800 authors from 40 countries. Pieces from The Common have been selections and notable mentions in the prestigious Best American series. Recent short stories published in The Common have been awarded the O. Henry Prize 2017 and the PEN/ American Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 2017. The journal’s editorial vision and design have been praised in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Slate, The Millions, Orion Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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