SUNY Potsdam Welcomes Community to LoKo Arts Festival from April 30 to May 4
SUNY Potsdam students cheer at Madfest, the annual music festival sponsored by Madstop Records. This year’s Madfest will be held on Saturday, May 3 from 4 to 10 p.m., in the Marshall Park Bandshell, as part of the LoKo Arts Festival.
SUNY Potsdam is thrilled to bring together campus and community with its annual celebration of creativity—the LoKo Arts Festival.
The 2025 LoKo Arts Festival will feature a range of free events highlighting the beauty and complexity of the visual, language and performing arts. The festival will run from Wednesday, April 30 to Sunday, May 4.
As always, the talent and creativity of SUNY Potsdam students will be on full display throughout the LoKo Festival—from choreography to poetry to artwork. All are welcome to enjoy the arts, and experience the joy and creativity of the SUNY Potsdam campus at the height of the spring semester! To check out all the events and the downloadable schedule, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.
The festival kicks off on Wednesday, April 30, at 3:30 p.m., with a talk by guest author and illustrator Jason Chin, held in the Rebecca V. Sheard Literacy Center. Chin is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed books, including “Grand Canyon,” “Redwoods” and “Your Place in the Universe.” He received the 2022 Caldecott Medal for “Watercress” by Andrea Wang, and a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor and the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for “Grand Canyon.”
Dr. Page Quinton will open a new exhibition, “Rocks Revealed: Nature’s Hidden Beauty,” from 5 to 6 p.m., in the Timerman Hall Commons. This exhibition is a fusion of art and science, featuring 7-foot-tall towering illuminated displays that showcase the hidden beauty of rocks and the stories they tell. These glowing panels reveal the intricate details of minerals, textures and fossils that geologists use to decode the environments of the past. “Rocks Revealed” will open throughout the festival in Timerman Hall for all to see.
That evening, The Crane School of Music will host the traveling trio Verismo, as they present an interactive free improvisation workshop, titled “Construction and Creation.” The workshop will be offered at 7:30 p.m. in Crane Rehearsal Room C119, located in Bishop Hall. The session will begin with building simple instruments using everyday objects, and discovering the relationship between sound and movement by improvising to a silent film. Participants are not required to have any prior musical skills to join in.
Danielle Johns, a lecturer and coordinator of art education at SUNY Potsdam’s Department of Art, joins in the fun with the traveling educational and creative program, BIG INK. The group will return with its woodblock presses to the Performing Arts Center lobby as part of the LoKo Arts Festival, on May 1 and 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The traveling educational and creative program BIG INK will return to campus to bring people together to collaborate on creating original prints using large-scale woodblock printmaking techniques. BIG INK will set up shop in the Performing Arts Center lobby from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Thursday, May 1 and Friday, May 2. The group will work with guest artists, students and faculty to turn the lobby into a print shop, featuring “The Big Tuna,” a custom-designed giant mobile press. Large-scale woodblock prints will be pulled on the press both days, and kids can watch and try their hand on “The Anchovy,” a miniature press, as well.
The LoKo Festival will welcome the writer, poet and academic researcher Matthew Carey Salyer, to lead a reading from his most recent collection of poetry, titled “Probation,” on Thursday, May 1 at 4 p.m., in the Fireside Lounge, located in the Barrington Student Union.
The Spring Dance Concert will debut the same evening, at 7:30 p.m. in the Proscenium Theater in the Performing Arts Center. Evening performances will be offered at 7:30 p.m. from Thursday, May 1, to Saturday, May 3, ending the run with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.
The Spring Dance Concert will debut as part of the LoKo Arts Festivalt SUNY Potsdam, performances running from May 1 to 4.
The traditional Spring Festival Concert at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will be presented on Friday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m., in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall. The Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra will perform “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” a cantata by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, with guest artist and Crane alumnus Noah Unser ’24, tenor soloist. The free concert will also stream live on YouTube at the concert time. For a program and livestream link, visit www.potsdam.edu/cranelive.
Art in the Quad will return to SUNY Potsdam’s LoKo Arts Festival, with numerous free activities planned in the Academic Quad on Saturday, May 3, from noon to 3 p.m.
Art in the Quad will return to the Academic Quad on Saturday, May 3, from noon to 3 p.m.
Madstop Records will host Madfest, the annual music festival celebrating the incredible talent of student musicians and artists from across New York State, on Saturday, May 3 from 4 to 10 p.m., in the Marshall Park Bandshell. Madfest will feature high-energy performances, great vibes and amazing live music.
Live performances by student musicians from across New York State are the highlight of Madfest at SUNY Potsdam. This year’s Madfest will be held on Saturday, May 3 from 4 to 10 p.m., in the Marshall Park Bandshell, as part of the LoKo Arts Festival.
Throughout the festival, all are welcome to contribute to a Community Coloring Book project in the Maxcy Hall Athletic Complex. The college and local community will create a paint-by-number style mural alongside professional artist Liza LaBarge ’12. The mural’s design was inspired by the history of the mascot Max C. Bear.
Kathryn Kofoed Lougheed ’54 and Donald Lougheed (Hon. ’54) founded the LoKo Arts Festival in 2012, to bring the campus festival tradition back to Kathy’s alma mater. For more information, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.
About SUNY Potsdam:
Founded in 1816, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America’s first 50 colleges—and the oldest institution within SUNY. Now in its third century, SUNY Potsdam is distinguished by a legacy of pioneering programs and educational excellence. The College currently enrolls approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its challenging liberal arts and sciences core, distinction in teacher training and culture of creativity. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu.
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