“Listening” by Jane O’Hara, part of a presentation at Worcester Art Museum for 2015 Compassion Arts Festival

our ARCHIVES PAGE IS BEING UPDATED.

For an interim listing of past programs & presenters click here

OUR HISTORY

Compassion Arts launched its all-volunteer ‘arts for animals’ initiative in 2015, presenting live programs in NY and MA at venues such as Leonard Nimoy Theater at Symphony Space (NYC), PACE University (NY), Worcester Art Museum (MA), Amazing Things Arts Center(MA), Kendall Square Cinema (MA), Catskill Animal Sanctuary (NY) , Woodstock Sanctuary (NY), and Boston Veg Fest, in partnership with organizations such as Culture & Animals Foundation, In Defense of Animals, Unity of Central MA, Earthlands, Maple Farm Sanctuary, CompassionFest, New England Veg Fest and others.

Michael Harren performing “Their Eyes” at Symphony Space for 2017 Compassion Arts Festival

VIRTUAL CHANGES

In 2020, Compassion Arts transitioned to a permanent virtual format, with a growing collective of volunteer presenters and others in the arts, education, and animal advocacy, who helped advance the project’s development through sharing their work. A few of these presenters include Allison Argo, Gene Baur, Jo-Anne McArthur, Martin Rowe, Jane O’Hara, Janell O’Rourke, Michael Harren, Donald Vincent, Gretchen Primack, Isa Leshko, Joanne Kong, Cyrus Mejia, Joy Askew, Lisa Levinson, Marc Bekoff, Sarah Bowen, Aysha Akhtar, Jasmine Leyva, John Yunker, Marla Andrews , Cheryl Miller, Marlene Narrow, Alfee West, Ellie Sarty, Cindy Sarty, Sunta Africa, Zoe Weil, and more.

“The Last Pig” film by Allison Argo screened at 2018 Compassion Arts Festival

PAST WORK

In its eight years as a volunteer collective, the Compassion Arts project has presented more than 80 free programs, as well as programs in partnership with other groups to benefit helping animals directly or to support the advocacy work of artists and others. Some examples include film screenings of award-winning documentaries such as The Last Pig (2018), A Prayer for Compassion (2019), Kedi (2017), and Invisible Vegan (2020); visual art exhibits like the group exhibit The Fifth Trust (2021), Forget Me Not virtual exhibit (2020) and pop-up exhibit Beasts of Burden II (2017) from Jane O’Hara; theater works The Animal Show by Michael Harren (2018), Sanctuary (A Radio Play by John Yunker) performed by Our Hen House (2017), and True Story Playback Theater (2019); as well as poetry readings with writers such as Donald Vincent and Gretchen Primack (2016-2021), music performances like The Rattle and the Thunder by Ellie Sarty with the Food Chain Re-Imagined ensemble (2017, 2018) and Compassion Chorus (2019), workshops in writing, storytelling, creativity, and healing arts (2015-2021) and numerous speaker and discussion program events.