State of the Arts

ARTS INITIATIVE

At the University of Michigan, the arts exist beyond our campus walls. Through our State of the Arts programs, we bring world-class artistic experiences to communities across Michigan and the Great Lakes region—fostering connection, sparking conversation, and strengthening the cultural fabric of our state. From immersive performances that challenge and inspire, to symphony tours that reach students in their own communities, to forums that unite arts advocates around a shared future, State of the Arts reflects our belief that the arts are essential to a vibrant, just, joyful state of Michigan & the world.

2026 Faculty Arts Ambassador
& Great Lakes Arts Leaders Forum
2025 Symphony Band Tour
2024 With Love, From Inside

Faculty Arts Ambassador

The Faculty Arts Ambassador Program sends U-M faculty artists into communities across Michigan through collaborative, public-facing work.

“Through the Faculty Arts Ambassador Program, U-M educators share the inspiration they spark on campus with communities across the state, partnering with local arts, culture, and other service organizations to create meaningful experiences that not only enhance the lives of all Michigan citizens, but bring new meanings and purpose to the work of our faculty,” —Mark Clague, executive director of the Arts Initiative

Engagements will take place across Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula between May & August 2026.

Faculty ambassadors receive project funding, travel support, and a stipend, along with logistical and marketing support from the Arts Initiative.

STATE OF THE ARTS | 2026

Faculty Arts Ambassador

ARTS INITIATIVE
Catie Newell

  • Catie Newell is an architect and artist who chases darkness and light through material and spatial expression. Newell is the founding principal of the architecture and research practice Alibi Studio, and Professor ofArchitecture at University of Michigan’s Taubman College. Newell's research and creative practice have been widely recognized for exploring heartfelt design construction and materiality in relationship to location and geography. The work ranges in scale from buildings to objects and explores the world most deeply with material systems and optical captures.The process of fabrication is a vital act in the work, often amplifying material effects and situational influences, intertwining the processes of making and design across the entire project. Her work has been shown in secret venues in Detroit, in the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale, in night-sensitive museum solo shows, and in the landscape of rural Michigan. She has been in Residence at The Studio, Corning Museum of Glass, Haystack, and Autodesk Pier9. Newell is a MacDowell Fellow, a Kresge Artist Fellow, a WOJR/Civitella Fellow, and a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy in Rome.

  • Coffee @ Ten | Momentary

    • Thursday, July 30, 2026

    • 10–11 a.m.

    • Zoom & Crooked Tree Arts Center
      Gilbert Gallery 461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey, MI 49770

    • More information

    Catie Newell, Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will present selections from her architectural and artistic practice exploring light, darkness, memory, grief, and care through installations, objects, and spatial studies.

    The presentation highlights work from Objects for Passing, examining how designed environments and material presence can support people through life transitions, grief, and loss.

  • Newell’s artist talk will invite participants into her material-driven practice, exploring light, perception, and the emotional resonance of objects and environments.

  • Objects for Passing: Art for Grief, Care, and Life Transitions

    Workshop led by Catie Newell utilizing work from her artistic and architectural practice. Participants will engage with themes of grief, care, memory, and transition through material exploration and creative reflection.

Jonathan Holland

  • Once upon a time, Jonathan Holland was kicked out of college for bad grades and past-due tuition. After overcoming jail and homelessness, Jon poem-ed his way into a role as teaching artist and instructor at UM. He’s currently working on essays about masculinity and fatherhood and a memoir about socioeconomic and racial (dis)advantage in the criminal justice system.

    Holland is a formerly incarcerated poet and memoirist invested in making art and poetry accessible to all through community, academic, and professional workshops. A graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and a teaching artist in theUniversity of Michigan English Department Writing Program,Holland has been awarded the Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award as a GSI and the Ben Prize for Excellence in First-Year Writing Instruction as a Lecturer. Some of his recent work can be found in Aethlon, StepAway Magazine, and Sport Literate.

  • Centered on storytelling, accessibility in creative practice, and personal narrative as a tool for reflection and expression, these 2-day workshops create space for participants to develop their voices and share their experiences.

    Location:     Chippewa Correctional Facility, Kincheloe, MI (Upper Peninsula, via the Prison Creative Arts Project)

2025 State of the Arts Symphony Band Tour

STATE OF THE ARTS | 2025

Symphony Band Tour

ARTS INITIATIVE MUSIC, THEATRE & DANCE

The May 2025 State of the Arts Tour took the University of Michigan Symphony Band across the State of Michigan to engage local communities, connect with prospective students & educators, and showcase the university’s world-class performing arts programs.

~3,647 people in attendance across 11 locations

Over 2,000 HS Students received instruction

    • May 6 — Belleville High School, Belleville, MI | Troy High School, Troy, MI

    • May 7 — Fenton High School, Fenton, MI | Grand Blanc High School, Grand Blanc, MI

    • May 8 — University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, MI

    • May 9 — H.H. Dow High School, Midland, MI | Interlochen Center for the Arts, Interlochen, MI

    • May 10 — Traverse City West Senior High, Traverse City, MI

    • May 11 — Frauenthal Theater, Muskegon, MI

    • May 12 — Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Muskegon, MI | Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

  • *Section Leader

    Director of Bands
    Jason K. Fettig 

    Graduate Conductors
    DaJuan Brooks, Kristina LaMarca

    Faculty Soloist
    David Jackson

    Piccolo & Flute
    Danny Burns, Joyce Eu, Tieran Holmes, Abi Middaugh*

    Oboe & English Horn
    Madeline Antony, Hannah Grosse, Charlotte Kosek, Lillian Mathews*, Cynthia Tang

    E-flat Clarinet
    DaJuan Brooks

    Clarinet
    Nicholas Ebbers, Zachary Gall, Xindan Hu, Dave Kim*, Daniel Millan, Maja Pechanach

    Bass Clarinet
    Rene Ulloa

    Bassoon
    Donald Schweikert*, Kate Stienstra, Chloe Meyer

    Contrabassoon
    Ella Hebrard

    Saxophone
    Lauren Troutman, Jonah Kulick, Andrea Voulgaris, Kristina LaMarca, Haruka Taguchi

    Trumpet
    Oliver Barron, Whitney Corpany*, Nathaniel Hubbard, Gabriel Johnson, Caleb Jones, Lila Sareen

    Horn
    Guillerme Cooper, Claire Marquardt, Britta Pingree, Heidi Riggs, Lillian Sears*

    Trombone
    Makenzie Barber, Aiden Drysdale, Marlia Nash*, Jarod Schafer*

    Bass Trombone
    Evan Ling, Ryan Meyaard

    Euphonium
    Roel Arazo*, Jack Bird, Ellen Lee*

    Tuba
    Tyler Johnson, Zhaowei Qu, Haley Pauzus

    Percussion
    Karl Reuterbusch, Elijah Hall, Faye Lu, Jonathan Wentzel, Julian Toogood*, John Tatara

    String Bass
    Minglu Jiang

    Harp
    Maydine Bellot

    Piano
    Lukas Nepomuceno 

  • (to be selected from the following)

    March, “The Governor’s Own”
    Alton Adams (1889-1987)
    edited Mark Clague

    Zoom !
    Scott Boerma (b. 1964)

    Overture to Candide
    Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)   
    transcribed Clare Grundman

    Suite from Far and Away
    John Williams (b. 1932)
    transcribed Paul Lavender

    O Magnum Mysterium
    Morton Lauridsen (b. 1943)
    arranged H. Robert Reynolds

    Awaken from Concerto for Trombone, “Sonorous”
    Quinn Mason (b. 1996)
    transcribed Nicholas Williams
    David Jackson, trombone soloist

    March, “Rolling Thunder”
    Henry Fillmore (1881-1956)

    Lyric
    George Walker (1922-2018)
    transcribed Luci Disano
    Conducted by DaJuan Brooks

    Bravado
    Gala Flagello (b. 1994)
    Conducted by Kristina LaMarca

    Lento Assai from Symphonic Dances
    Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
    transcribed Paul Lavender

    Niagara Falls
    Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

    March, “Pride of the Wolverines”
    John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
    edited United States Marine Band

    “Victors Valiant”
    Jerry Bilik (b. 1933)

  • The historic U-M Symphony Band is a leading ensemble in the American wind band movement. With performances in prestigious venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, and Milan’s La Scala, the U-M Symphony Band is widely known for the professional quality of its performances and recordings. Giving up to ten regular performances each year, the Symphony Band often collaborates with world-class artists and plays an ambitious role in commissioning new works for winds. The Symphony Band splits into chamber ensembles for concerts each term and can form both a wind ensemble and a full symphonic band equipped to perform any repertoire written for the wind medium.

  • Symphony Band takes show on the road in statewide tour (The University Record )

    (U-M Symphony) Band on the run; first tour since 1990s(Michigan News)

    Jason Fettig and Mark Clague discuss Symphony Band tour on Stateside(Michigan Public)

    University of Michigan Symphony Band visits Fenton High School (Tri-County Times)

    FACING THE MUSIC – Symphony band photo gallery(University of Michigan-Flint)

    MHS, Dow students perform with U-M Symphony Band (Midland Daily News)

    U-M Symphony Band tour shares love of music (Michigan News)

STATE OF THE ARTS | 2024

With Love, From Inside

With Love, From Inside is an original play crafted by the Dropped Keys Theatre Company, which includes University of Michigan undergraduate theater students and currently and formerly incarcerated writers and performers.

The play emerged from students' visits to lead acting workshops with incarcerated individuals. It vividly recounts stories that incarcerated theater makers wanted to share with outside audiences, blurring the boundaries between the incarcerated and free world. Through letters and correspondence, it explores joys, struggles, resilience, injustice, and our shared humanity across prison walls.

With Love from Inside tour poster

Watch the full play (1h19m)

    • May 5 — Detroit Public Theatre, Detroit, MI

    • May 10 — PIX Theater, Lapeer, MI

    • May 11 — Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

    • May 13 — Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor, MI

    • May 19 — Historic Howell Theatre, Howell, MI

    • May 20 — The Fledge, Lansing, MI

    • May 22 — Theatre NOVA, Ann Arbor, MI

    • May 24 — Fox Run Senior Living, Novi, MI

    • May 30 — Matrix Theatre Co., Detroit, MI

    • May 31 — Matrix Theatre Co., Detroit, MI

  • The Dropped Keys Theatre Company formed in September 2023 for the purpose of dramatizing the stories of currently and formerly incarcerated people. Their work begins with theater workshops inside prisons where people serving time and members of the University of Michigan community collaborate. They perform in venues outside of prisons as a means of carrying these performances across the walls that divide us.

  • With Love, From Inside: New play focuses on the need for Second Look legislation in Michigan (American Service Friends Committee)

    UMich Prison Creative Arts Project presents final performance of “With Love, From Inside” (The Michigan Daily)