Festival of the Creative Arts brings 23 days of cross-disciplinary collaborations and artistic forms of expression to FSU campus

By Layne Roberts

Florida State University’s fourth annual Festival of the Creative Arts begins Friday, Feb. 6, and features 12 events and four exhibitions that celebrate the arts, humanities, health, and community through creative collaboration. FSU’s Office of Research presents this campus-wide festival, hosting collaborative performances and discussions that highlight the university’s diverse talents and creativity. All events are free of charge.

“This is an excellent opportunity to learn about the historic and contemporary connections between art and science with multiple hands-on activities,” says Iain Quinn, director of the festival. Quinn is professor of organ and coordinator of sacred music at FSU and a research fellow in the arts and humanities.

By hosting the festival for the past four years, the university supports various academic disciplines and organize opportunities for faculty members, staff, students, and alumni to discuss and showcase their work with like-minded peers.

Colleges, schools, and departments from across campus will come together over a period of 23 days in the Spring 2026 semester to show the innovation and excellence that results from combining unique ideas and forms of expression. The festival ends March 1 with a student-led fashion show in the Student Union as a send-off.

The festival starts with a special collaboration between English department graduate students and the School of Dance, the Dedman College of Hospitality, and the College of Music. “Poets at the Party” will be performed Feb. 6 at the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre, with participation from English doctoral students Caroline Laganas, Natalie Eleanor Patterson, Christell Victoria Roach, and Hugh Wilhelm, master’s student Sophia Upshaw, and undergraduate Camille Pepper. Read English major Kaylee Morrow's preview of “Poets at the Party” here.

Distinguished University Scholar of English Barbara Hamby worked with Quinn to organize this event.

“He is the mastermind behind all this,” Hamby says. “He keeps everything moving between poetry, music, and dance.”

English doctoral alumna Tana Jean Welch is a panel member in the festival’s “Arts-Health-Humanities Symposium VI,” which takes place Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Claude Pepper Center. Welch earned her degree in 20th-century American literature in 2014, and she is currently FSU Associate Professor of Medical Humanities.

The symposium will consist of a panel of design, medicine, music education, music therapy, and musicology students coming together for a conversation regarding their current research and future interdisciplinary collaborations. Poster presentations of art therapy and music therapy will also be on display.

English Associate Professor Emeritus Dennis Moore participates on Feb. 16 in the “Nickel Boys,” which is based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The story chronicles the friendship between two young African American men sentenced to Nickel Academy, a fictitious name but based on the true story of Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, where former students have reported being beaten and abused. The Civil Rights Institute is co-presenting this event hosted at the Askew Student Life Center.

The entire schedule highlights and embodies the scope of innovation at FSU, Quinn says.

“The festival is always a special opportunity for everyone to be inspired by the creative spirit that defines FSU,” he adds.

The remaining events include two that are geared toward children and families. “It’s the Weather!” on Feb. 7 is recommended for K-12-aged students to learn about the weather and nature through works of art and hands-on activities. Classic stories will be read on Feb. 8 during “Storytime Under the Stars” in a planetarium. Both events will be held at the Challenger Learning Center in downtown Tallahassee.

The Feb. 12 “Classics Symposium” will consist of a celebration of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry through readings and performances.

The “Art of Walking,” held Feb. 17 in Strozier Library’s Bradley Reading Room, explores walking in the city as not only a form of physical exercise and transportation but also as a social and cultural practice called flânerie, or the French art of aimless, leisurely strolling through a city. The lecture will amble through some of the major French figures who wrote about the flâneur’s and flâneuse’s kaleidoscopic encounters with the sights and sounds of urban life.

The next event, Feb. 20, in the Facility for Arts Research, is “Lay of the Land,” which is an exhibition and symposium from the Department of Art faculty that explores the complexity of spaces inhabited by humans.

The “Chamber Music of Frank Martin,” held Feb. 22 in Longmire Recital Hall, celebrates the music of the late Swiss composer through numerous contrasting ensembles.

On Feb. 24, in the Askew Student Life Center, “The Contemporary Film—Finding Your Family” features student short films, cinematic exploration about the many definitions of family. FSU Film faculty will participate in a Q&A session following the showings.

Wrapping up February, the final two days of the month offer the “24-Hour Create-A-Thon” in the Innovation Hub. FSU students from across campus will work in teams to celebrate and develop new works as a foundation of innovation across various disciplines.

Finishing out FSU’s Festival of the Creative Arts for 2026 on the first day of March is “Interlocking Art: A Mixed Media Gala.” The Student Union is the place for an evening of student creativity across the arts and a fashion show courtesy of Club Downunder and the Department of Student Engagement.

Four exhibitions will be available for viewing during the festival: “Water Ways: Indigenous Ecologies and Florida Heritage, co-presented at the Museum of Fine Arts with the FSU Native American and Indigenous Studies Center and curator Elizabeth A. Cecil; “Akimbo: A Solo Exhibition by Zoë Charlton, also at the Museum of Fine Arts, is an installation and animated film exploring themes of memory, place, and resilience in the Tallahassee landscape; the Department of Art Faculty present “Lay of the Land in the Facility for Arts Research; and Ted T. Ellis’ “The Art of Healing is on display at Robert Manning Strozier Library.

Through the hosting of these events, FSU remains engaged with the importance of education and community. Anyone who wishes to show appreciation for the collaboration and creativity of academic disciplines across campus can do so, free of charge, in the coming 23 days.

Layne Roberts is a senior at Florida State University, majoring in English-Literature, Media, and Culture, with a minor in education.

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