The University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative wrapped up 2024 with yet another transformative year of programming, engaging the U-M community in new and meaningful ways, illuminating the human experience, sparking joy through shared wonder, and creating space for critical conversations. Here's a look back at some of the highlights from this past year

Uncovering the Financial Realities of Artists: The Artist Pay Project. The University of Michigan's Arts Initiative, along with the Ross Impact Studio, is proud to announce “The Artist Pay Project”: an immersive exhibition led by journalist and 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Makeda Easter.

The University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative has announced musician, composer and scholar Rhiannon Giddens will be its inaugural U-M Artist-in-Residence.

The new program aims to bring extraordinary, innovative artists to campus in order to create, grow and impact the world while engaging the university community in the transformative power of the arts.

The University of Michigan’s Gershwin Initiative is turning back the clock to showcase a pioneering work of American political satire that proves the more things change, the more they stay the same.

From the moment you walk into the gorgeous space Philippa Pham Hughes has created at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) the vibes are immaculate. Think anthropology meets your grandmother‘s kitchen. Visiting Artist for Art & Civic Engagement at UMMA, Hughes has curated the “Hey, We Need to Talk!” exhibition with extreme intentionality. Every artwork, furniture piece, and even the wallpaper has been thoughtfully selected, each element carrying its own significance. 

The Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design is presenting a semester-long celebration featuring queer artists and artmaking around the theme of “Gender Euphoria.”

These performances, exhibitions, conversations and provocations explore how to make art and find queer joy in a state of emergency.

The University Musical Society (UMS) is set to challenge audiences once again with the return of its provocative No Safety Net series in the 2024-25 season. This cutting-edge program, known for presenting works that tackle contemporary issues head-on, will feature three interactive theatrical experiences that promise to spark dialogue and push the boundaries of traditional performance.

The University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative, Wolverine Wellness and other campus partners have joined forces to center personal and community well-being in the 2024-25 academic year with a focus on the theme Take Care.

The University of Michigan Arts Initiative’s Projects in Partnership program has awarded funding to four arts-based teams representing more than 18 units, schools and colleges across U-M’s Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses and in Detroit.

PiP projects are large-scale projects that activate the campus and community, increase arts engagement for students, faculty, staff and the region, and leverage interdisciplinary partnerships for impact that could not be achieved effectively by one partner alone.

The University of Michigan Libraries, in collaboration with the U-M Arts Initiative, are bringing book arts into focus at this year’s Ann Arbor Art Fair with Art + Science.

Visitors to the fair will be able to create their own flora-inspired prints using two historically important book art methods: cyanotype and woodblock printing.

Anastasia Tsioulcas, Culture Correspondent for NPR, has been named the inaugural Knight-Wallace Arts Journalism Fellow in a joint effort between the University of Michigan Arts Initiative and the Wallace House Center for Journalists.

The University of Michigan Arts Initiative has announced three master’s degree-level residents for its Creative Careers Residency, a transitional program providing support for full-time, self-directed creative practice in architecture and urban planning, art and design, performing arts, intermedia arts or creative writing.

The University of Michigan’s Student Life Sustainability Office is proud to announce, in partnership with the U-M Arts Initiative, artist-in-residence Dawn Weleski as part of the "Noon at Night,” a collaborative project offering radical hospitality through participatory performances, student campus tours, and a community café. This initiative is supported by U-M Student Life Sustainability Cultural Organizers and the Arts Initiative.

A unique collaboration between students, faculty and local artists is bringing a vibrant mural related to the field of nuclear engineering to the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus this spring.

The interdisciplinary mural project was sparked by U-M faculty and graduate students in the sciences seeking creative, hands-on art-making outlets beyond their research.

Composer and University of Michigan lecturer Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra has co-created a trailblazing world premiere production, “Ni une más,” that braids together music, theater and dance to tell the stories of those who have survived gender-based violence and to showcase their growing agency.

The Institute for Social Research will host Houston-based artist Rick Lowe as part of the U-M Arts Initiative’s Creators on Campus program.

The School of Social Work, in partnership with the U-M Arts Initiative, has announced the selection of the Pan-African Creative Exchange as the featured artist residency for 2024.

This is the first artist residency at SSW and the second iteration of the Arts Initiative’s Visiting Artist Integration Program, designed to infuse the University of Michigan’s engagement and learning processes with the dynamic creativity of artists.