FABRIC Arts Festival returns with art, music, food, and film in Fall River, New Bedford, Providence

Fall River, MA – The annual FABRIC Arts Festival brings an international spotlight on acclaimed musicians and visual artists, showcasing Fall River as it has always been: a place of creation and production, a city of makers in the expanded fields of art and design.

On October 5-14, 2023, FABRIC Arts Festival will feature a series of music concerts, art exhibitions, public art, dinners and educational workshops in Southeastern Massachusetts. For the first time, the festival assumes a regional initiative to connect Fall River to its neighboring cities: Providence, RI, and New Bedford, MA.

“The connection aims 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,” said co-founder of FABRIC Michael Benevides.

“We’re excited for the fourth edition of FABRIC Arts Festival to present a program comprised of contemporary Portuguese, North American and international artists, continuing on a path of articulation and collaboration between local agents (artists, spaces, companies, institutions) and the invited artists/collectives by the festival,” said co-founder of FABRIC Jesse James.

The festival’s first weekend, October 5-7, occurs in Providence with programming between Courtland Club, Machines with Magnets and the Rhode Island School of Design. On October 12, FABRIC moves to New Bedford, partnering with the New Bedford Whaling Museum for AHA! night, a monthly arts and culture event. The festival culminates in Fall River for two days of 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).

INITIAL LINE-UP OF ARTISTS

MUSIC: Gisela João, Surma, We Sea, Baby;Baby: Explores, Dj Lycox

ART/PERFORMANCE: Allyson Vieira, Sónia Almeida & André E. Teodósio, Caique Tizzi, Nuno Pimenta

EXHIBITIONS: Hyper-ballads (curated by Jesse James), Unfixed Concrete Ideals (curated by Ben Sloat & Allyson Vieira)

FILMS: Catarina Gonçalves, Jorge Jácome

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. The New Bedford Whaling Museum will showcase emergent Azorean artists: a music concert by indie-pop band We Sea and Matria, a short film by director Catarina Gonçalves. In Providence, Machines With Magnets welcomes Surma’s dreamy experimental electronica, followed by a dance party with Dj Lycox. Food and commensality are also central in FABRIC’s programming, where two performative dinners have been commissioned to artists Caique Tizzi (in collaboration with Courtland Club in Providence), and Sónia Almeida & André E. Teodósio (in collaboration with Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River).

FABRIC is organized by Casa dos Açores de Nova Inglaterra (CANI) under the leadership of Michael Benevides in Fall River, with Portugal-based curator Jesse James, and a production team on both continents.

For more on the schedule of events, click here.