ArtsFarmington is sorry that our spring programs, State Street Jazz and Maine Mountain Chamber Music (MMCM) were cancelled due to COVID restrictions. We hope to be able to bring you our planned fall programs: MMCM in September, Maine Squeeze in October, Antonio Rocha in November, and Doug Protsik in January. All depends on the venues of Nordica Auditorium, the UMF North Dining Hall, and the Emery Community Arts Center being open, and the willingness of the various artists to perform. Concerts will probably need to happen with proper “social distancing,” but we are hopeful that we will still be able to bring you these arts events to help keep us inspired and hopeful in these uncertain times.

The type and quality of the concerts MMCM brings us is known to all of us. Maine Squeeze, an all accordion group, has entertained us in the past and is scheduled to perform in the North Dining Hall and to teach us, including UMF students, line dancing and other active folk dancing forms. Antonio Rocha is a storyteller and mime who is scheduled to entertain the students at the Farmington Middle School in two separate performances during the day, and to present a performance for us in Emery that night. Doug Protsik is scheduled in January to bring us a silent Charlie Chaplin film with his accompaniment on “old time piano” – sure to bring many laughs to lift us out of our winter blues.

State Street Jazz is happy to reschedule their performance of New Orleans jazz music as an outdoor concert sometime in the late summer or early fall as restrictions allow.

We are committed to bring the arts to you in one form or another. Please stay tuned via our Facebook page and through our website at artsfarmington.org.

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