DATMA Kicks Off 2025 Programs with New Exhibits in New Bedford

DATMA – Massachusetts Design, Arts, Technology Institute – is beginning its seventh season in New Bedford with a pair of exhibits that opened over this weekend. One is at New Bedford City Hall, the other at 82 Front Street.

DATMA Chair of the Board Nicholas Sullivan stopped by Townsquare Sunday to preview the exhibits and discuss other programs that will continue throughout the school year.

One of the exhibits is titled "Mood-Vironment," a sculpture that is interactive, providing AI-generated sound responses and color-changing effects for people that walk through.  It's located at 82 Front Street.

The builder of  "Mood-Vironment" is Mona Ghandi, an architect and educator who currently teaches at Washington State University in Seattle.

"Embedded within the 11-foot high sculpture are sensors and cameras," Sullivan said. "As people walk through the sculpture, there are also lights embedded there that change colors, depending on the person's mood, desires or voice."

"To be clear, data from 'Mood-Vironment' is not being collected," Sullivan said. "It is simply a point in time."

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Sullivan said Ghandi has been designing and building similar structures for indoor use for more than a decade. This is Ghandi's first outdoor sculpture of this type. It will be in place at 82 Front Street through October 13, 2025.

The second DATMA exhibit you may have already seen. It is a series of fabric and sailcloth panels hung on the facade of New Bedford City Hall with other panels displayed along William Street, up to Gallery X.

"Being Seen: Celebrating Pride in the Southcoast" by textile artist and activist Liz Collins of Brooklyn, with help from students from the UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts and 17 other organizations, will be on display at City Hall through June 22.

After that, the fabric panels will go on the road. Sullivan said it's DATMA's first traveling exhibit.

"It will be on display at the Marion Art Center, various undetermined locations in Fall River, and at UMass Dartmouth, through 2026," he said.

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