10 Creative Ways to Celebrate NextNOW Fest’s First Decade

Terps-centric arts extravaganza to feature nearly 60 exhibitions, performances, activities.

By Jessica Weiss ’05 | Maryland Today

“Bathe” in the meditative sound of gongs. Lose yourself in artistically crafted virtual worlds. Take in comedy and music by emerging and breakout touring artists. 

These are just a few of the ways to experience NextNOW Fest, the University of Maryland’s arts experience that begins today. To mark the festival’s 10th anniversary in 2023, staff and students have planned nearly 60 free performances, art installations and activities on and off campus over the next two weeks.

“It’s multifaceted, multidimensional—a way to start the year off with a bang in a creative fashion,” said Nyomi Fox ’24, a psychology major and arts leadership minor who’s one of four student artistic planning fellows helping to curate the event alongside professional staff. “Art takes so many forms and NextNOW is so interdisciplinary. Anyone will be able to see themselves in an artistic space at the festival.”

Presented and produced by The Clarice, NextNOW Fest is the result of partnerships with UMD student-led groups, academic departments and local and touring artists. It’s supported by Arts for All, a campuswide initiative that aims to broaden the footprint of the arts across campus and galvanize collaborations between the arts, technology and social justice, and is part of the Terps After Dark initiative, which supports late-night events in the first six weeks of the fall semester.

Read the full story in Maryland Today.