About the Event

Experience projects developed during the UMD Immersive Media Design Program’s New Works Incubator, a nine-week summer development program designed to support the creation of immersive media projects by students from across the University of Maryland. The Incubator enables individual student creators and teams to explore new areas of immersive media and to create works based on their own interests and initiative.

Featured Projects:

• Avant-Guard by Martina Logan, Silas Raphaelidis, Mateo Rodriguez, Abigail Yim

• J*b by Mario Alvarenga

• Memento of Self by Zoya Rahman and Abdul Ariff

• New Pi by Luis Alejandro Royo Romero

• Reframed by Arindam Tripathi

• Short by Andrew Hu

• SoulHarmony by Juliana Messinger and Disha Ramesh

• The ARB by Jayden Jung, Justyn Jung, Judah Kamadinata

More projects from the New Works Incubator are available to view at the Iribe Center on Wednesday, September 9, 1-4:30PM and Thursday, September 10, 1-5PM.

About NextNOW Fest

This event is part of NextNOW Fest. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s annual NextNOW Fest is a multi-day arts festival featuring performances and other experiences by intriguing, inventive artists from around the country and the University of Maryland campus. A forward-looking gathering place where art transforms our future and connects us all, NextNOW Fest is where creativity and community converge.

A University of Maryland campus tradition, NextNOW Fest is a signature event in University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative, which leverages the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to address the grand challenges of our time. NextNOW Fest is also a partner of Terps After Dark, an initiative by the UMD Division of Student Affairs that supports late-night,on-campus student programming. The festival is open for all to attend, including the general public.

Festival Lineup & Schedule

Explore the NextNOW Fest 2026 lineup & schedule here. 

Funding

NextNOW Fest is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council. Additional support is provided by Terps After Dark, the University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative and UMD's Student Entertainment Events.