The MSU Year of Arts and Culture:
College of Arts and Letters Events
To have your event included, please call (517) 355-5633 or send an e-mail message to Kristan Tetens at tetenskr@msu.edu.
For a comprehensive list of related events, visit the Year of Arts and Culture website.
August 19 - September 28
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
Department of Religious Studies and MSU Museum: "Picturing Faith: Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-1943"
"Picturing Faith" is a unique series of photographs showing the place of religion in American society through the lenses of some of America's most well-known photographers -- Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks. It also presents the work of equally talented but lesser-known photographers -- John Collier, Jr., Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, and Marjory Collins. Supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the exhibition includes 45 black-and-white photographs gathered from the Library of Congress archives.
September 4 - October 14
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
The Art Museum: The Paper Sculpture Show
The Paper Sculpture Show is an interactive exhibition that brings artists and visitors together by providing a hands-on art making experience. The exhibition consists of works by 20 artists, drawn on flat sheets of paper and stacked in the gallery space. The visitor chooses a project, takes the printed sheet, and cuts out and assembles the three-dimensional sculpture. As the weeks pass, the gallery spaces become filled with art work.
September 12
7:00 p.m., S107 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Massimo Vignelli
Design legend Massimo Vignelli will lecture in conjunction with a screening of Helvetica on September 13. Vignelli sees design as a tool that can span across different physical and cultural boundaries. His work is included in collections around the world, from MOMA in New York City to Die Neue Sammlung in Munich. (See event listing for September 13.)
September 13
7:00 p.m., S109 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Film Screening of Helvetica
Sponsored jointly by the Department of Art and Art History and AIGA Detroit Chapter, this independent film explores typography, graphic design, and global visual culture as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. (See event listing for September 12.)
September 17
7:00 p.m., S105 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Nick Cave
Best known for his Soundsuits, fiber and performance artist Nick Cave transforms found and recycled materials into sculptural and ritualistic costumes. Cave is professor and chairperson of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
September 17
7:30 p.m., 402 Computer Center
Philosophical Perspectives on Hospitality; presented by Fred Rauscher and Christian Lotz, Department of Philosophy.
Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
September 19
7:30 p.m.,
B102 Wells
Film screening: Head-On (directed by Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey, 2004)
Presented by Richard Peterson, Department of Philosophy. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
September 20
7:00 - 10:00 p.m., 118 Psychology Building
Film screenings: No Pets and Dumpster by Jim Daniels
Daniels will introduce the films with discussion to follow. Daniels is the author of two recent books of poetry, Revolt of the Crash-Test Dummies (winner of the Blue Lynx Poetry Prize and published by Eastern Washington University Press) and Now Showing (Ahadada Press). Another collection of poems, In Line for the Exterminator, is due this year from Wayne State University Press. The MSU Press has just published his third book of short stories, Mr. Pleasant. This event is sponsored by the Public Humanities Collaborative (College of Arts and Letters), the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, MSU Libraries, the MSU Press, and Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives
(MSU Museum and the MSU School of Labor and Industrial Relations).
September 21
7:30 p.m., North Conference Room W449, Main Library
MSU Libraries Writers Reading Series: Jim Daniels
Daniels will read from his poetry and short stories (see event listing for September 20). MSU Special Collections is the repository for Daniels's papers.
September 18 - 23
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: As Bees in Honey Drown
Arena Theatre, lower level of the MSU Auditorium Building
As Bees in Honey Drown by Douglas Carter Beane
September 24
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Hudd Byard
An up-and-coming graphic designer, Byard is an art director with Contemporary Media in Memphis, Tennessee. Before taking his current position, he worked at GQ magazine in New York, New York.
September 24
7:30 p.m.,
101 N. Kedzie
Film screening: Ali--Fear Eats the Soul (directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1974)
Presented by Karl Schoonover, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
September 25
5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Kellogg Center Big Ten C
College of Arts and Letters: Celebration of Outreach and Engagement
More than 20 faculty and student outreach and engagement projects will be displayed and recognized during this event.
September 26
7:30 p.m., 107 S. Kedzie
Film screening:
Cabeza de Vaca (directed by Nicolas Echevarria, Mexico/Spain/USA, 1991)
Presented by Sandra Logan, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
September 28
Afternoon and evening, Kresge Art Center
The Department of Art and Art History: The Artz Blitz
The Department of Art and Art History and Kresge Art Museum will host a series of events and activities for students to create, play, and enjoy a variety of art-centered experiences.
September 28
4:00 p.m., 303-5 International Center
"Experiment Mars: Contemporary German Literature, Imaginative Ethnoscapes, and the New Futurism," lecture by Leslie A. Adelson, professor of German Studies and director of the Institute for German Cultural Studies, Cornell University.
October 1
7:30 p.m., Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
College of Arts and Letters: Lecture by Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature
Tickets: $20; available September 1 (free to MSU faculty, staff, and students with ID at box office only, limit two); call 1 (800) WHARTON or visit www.whartoncenter.com.
Pamuk, one of the most prominent novelists at work in the world today, was born in Istanbul in 1952. Among his many highly regarded works are The White Castle (1991), The Black Book (1994), The New Life (1997), My Name is Red (2001), Snow (2004), and Istanbul: Memories and the City (2005). In his home country, Pamuk has a reputation as a social commentator even though he sees himself as principally a fiction writer with no political agenda. His speech at MSU will touch on some of the issues raised during his Nobel lecture, in which he noted that "what literature needs most to tell and investigate today are humanity’s basic fears: the fear of being left outside, and the fear of counting for nothing, and the feelings of worthlessness that come with such fears; the collective humiliations, vulnerabilities, slights, grievances, sensitivities, and imagined insults, and the nationalist boasts and inflations that are their next of kind."
October 3
7:30 p.m., 107 S. Kedzie
Film screening: The Host (directed by Joon-ho Bong, South Korea, 2006)
Presented by Tim Deines and Jennifer Fay, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
October 8
7:30 p.m., 101 N. Kedzie
Film screening: Brother From Another Planet (directed by John Sayles, USA, 1984)
Presented by Ellen McCallum and Jeff Wray, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
October 10
7:30 p.m., 107 S. Kedzie
Film screening: Distant (directed by Nuri Bildge Ceylan, Turkey, 2002)
Presented by Jyotsna Singh, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
October 10 - 17
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: Pygmalion
Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium Building
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
October 15
7:30 p.m., 101 N. Kedzie
Film screening: Frontieres (directed by Mostefa Djadjam, Algeria/France, 2001)
Presented by Ken Harrow, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
October 17
7:30 p.m., B102 Wells Hall
Film screening: La Promesse (directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France, 1996)
Presented by Scott Juengel, Department of English. Part of "The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization," A Symposium of Film and Philosophy, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of English, which includes a film series and symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of "outsiders" and on the questions about our response to visitors, immigrants (legal and illegal), and "guest workers."
October 19
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., 303 International Center
The Feminist Literature and Theory Working Group (FLATwg) in the Department of English will sponsor "Feminist Publics: Mapping Difference, Building Coalitions" with speakers Kathryn Bond Stockton (University of Utah) and Ranjana Khanna (Duke University). As differences proliferate among feminists and the call to respect local variations within an increasingly transnational context threatens to become a mere convention, how do feminist communities in fact imagine “community”? How do we build coalitions that do not simply “recognize” differences, but rather rigorously interrogate the social, political, economic, and cultural terrains that produce them? “Feminist Publics” extends the discussion from our 2007 Spring Symposium, “Projects in Progress: Feminist Scholarship at MSU” and seeks to engage already existing feminist publics at MSU and in the Michigan area in these lines of inquiry. Click here for the PDF flyer.
October 20 - December 14
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
The Art Museum: Marion Post Wolcott Photographs
An exhibition of more than 40 photographs by Marion Post Wolcott featuring her work from the 1930s and 1940s, including the photographic documentation done for the Farm Security Administration between 1938 and 1941 in New England and the South.
October 23
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Robert Birmelin
Part of the first generation of figure painters following the abstract expressionist movement, Robert Birmelin’s work explores the crowded streets of the urban landscape. His work has been acquired by 40 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Hirshhorn.
November 1
7:30 p.m., Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Department of Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts: Shakespearian Actor Brian Bedford
Brian Bedford of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival will perform The Lunatic, The Lover, and The Poet. This event is part of the Stratford Festival Artist Residency. During the residency, the Department of Theatre will perform scenes from Shakespeare for Michigan high schools; for information, call (517) 355-6690.
November 3
Muslim Studies Program: Day-Long Conference and Cultural Event to Celebrate the Life and Legacy of Muslim Poet Rumi
A day-long conference and cultural event celebrating the work and modern-day legacy of Rumi, the 13th-century Muslim poet, philosopher, and mystic, will take place on Saturday, Nov. 3, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Parlor Room, MSU Union. Rumi’s eloquent and humanistic poetry creates a window on Islamic beliefs, values, and wisdom that is far removed from images of violence and terrorism. During the conference, international scholars will explore Rumi’s writings, their place in Islamic literature and society, and their resurgence as bestsellers in the West. This conference concludes with a night of poetry reading, whirling dervishes, and traditional Sufi music beginning at 7:00 p.m. in Gold Rooms A and B, MSU Union. Coleman Barks, one of the most successful translators of Rumi’s work in the United States, will read Rumi’s poetry with accompanying musicians. Admission is free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Muslim Studies Program with additional support from the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives and five colleges. For more information, click here or contact Professors Emine Evered or Jyotsna Singh.
November 6
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Diana Cooper
Diana Cooper, recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, combines drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation by using unorthodox but commonly available materials such as foamcore, felt, and pom-poms.
November 9 - 11
East Lansing Marriott–University Place
Gramsci Now: Cultural and Political Theory, An International SymposiumNovember 13 - 18
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: Arts or Crafts
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Arts or Crafts by Rob Roznowski
November 29
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Clarence Morgan
University of Minnesota faculty member Clarence Morgan is a painter, printmaker, and writer interested in spontaneity and visual systems. His current work combines geometric and painterly abstraction within the realms of subjectivity and materiality.January 7 - March 16
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
The Art Museum: "The Impressionist Era: Works on Paper"
More than 55 artists will be represented in this exhibition of works on paper by artists who participated in the eight impressionist exhibits held in Paris between 1874 and 1886.
January 22
6:00 p.m., 41 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Akio Takamori
Merging western and non-western influences, Akio Takamori draws on his childhood in Japan when creating his large figurative ceramic sculptures. Takamori is currently a professor at the University of Washington and has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
January 28
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Jim Sherradan / Hatch Show Print
As the manager of the legendary Hatch Show Print shop in Nashville, Tennessee, Jim Sherraden uses letterpress processes that date back to the fifteenth century to individually hand-pull posters from the shop’s archives.
January 29
7:30 p.m., Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Wharton Center for Performing Arts:
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
Led by artistic director Judith Jamison, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre has performed for an estimated 21 million people in 48 states and in 71 countries on six continents, including two historic residencies in South Africa. The company has earned a reputation as one of the most acclaimed international ambassadors of American culture, promoting the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance.
January 29 - February 3
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: Six Characters in Search of an Author
Arena Theatre, lower level of the MSU Auditorium Building
Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello
February 2
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
1:00 p.m.
Department of Theatre Dance Program, College of Music, and Wharton Center Education Programs: Swingin', Stompin', and Rockin' II
This performance answers the question: What is jazz? With energetic performances guaranteed to appeal to young and old alike, this concert will illustrate ten basic elements of jazz: rhythm, improvisation, syncopation, blue note, harmony, tone color, riffs, breaks, percussion, and call and response. Appropriate for children ages 8 and up.
February 5
7:00 p.m., S107 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Julie Mehretu
Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu incorporates the vocabularies of maps, urban-planning, and architectural forms in her densely layered paintings and drawings. Mehretu’s work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial and Carnegie International and supported through a MacArthur Fellowship and Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant.
February 21 - 24
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: Dancefest
Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium Building
Dancefest featuring the MSU Repertory Dance Company
February 25
7:00 p.m., S107 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: James Elkins
A professor at the Art Institute of Chicago, James Elkins is an artist whose work goes beyond art and into culture at large. The author of nearly 20 books that explore visual thinking and representation systems, he explores the fields of science, religion, nature, writing systems, and archaeology.
March 24 - April 6
The Art Museum
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
Department of Art and Art History: Master of Fine Arts Exhibition
Opening reception: March 21, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
March 13 - 15
Details to be announced
American Indian Studies Program: "Returning the Gift" conference
A national event for Native writers.
March 18
7:00 p.m., 108 Kresge Art Center
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Hans-Ulrich Alleman
Partner in the design firm Allemann, Almquist and Jones, Hans Ulrich-Alleman’s work originates from Bauhaus sensibilities and addresses fundamental links between perception and expression in graphic design. Recognized in design collections internationally, Allemann is a recent recipient of the AIGA Fellows Award.
March 30
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts; time to be announced
Department of Theatre and Wharton Center for Performing Arts: Young Playwrights Festival
Mid-Michigan high school students have their plays produced and performed by students in the MSU Department of Theatre.
April 1
7:00 p.m., S107 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Amalia Mesa-Bains
Artist and critic Amalia Mesa-Bains explores contemporary dilemmas of the Latino community in her installation altar pieces and extensive writings on Chicano art and culture. Mesa-Bains has been honored as a MacArthur Fellow and by the Association of Hispanic Artists in New York.
April 10
7:00 p.m., S107 South Kedzie Hall
Department of Art and Art History Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Ghada Amer
Posing questions of identity and spirituality, Egyptian artist Amer creates hand-embroidered paintings encompassing both elements of Western and Islamic culture. Amer’s work has been included in the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, the Kwangju Biennial, and the Johannesburg Biennale.
April 10 - 13 and 17 - 20
Various times; visit website for details
Department of Theatre: Babes in Arms
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Babes in Arms by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with a new book by Joe DiPietro.
April 12 - 27
The Art Museum
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
Department of Art and Art History: Undergraduate Exhibition
Opening reception: April 18, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
April 18 - 20
Details to be announced
Department of Theatre: Arts Weekend
Forty-eight hours of continuous art on the MSU campus. On April 20, MSU will lead an arts and culture coalition down Michigan Avenue, ending with a dance/theatre/visual arts environmental installation/performance at the Capitol Building.
May 3 - August 1
Museum opening hours; visit website for details
The Art Museum: "Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets, and East Asian Ceramics"
This exhibition, organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art and drawn from their renowned collection, covers more than 1,000 years of Chinese porcelains to illustrate the important role of foreign trade and changing domestic markets in stimulating Chinese potters and their counterparts in Japan and Korea to continually reinvent their repertoire of shapes and decorative techniques. The first part traces the exchange along the Silk Road between the Chinese Han (206 BCE–220 CE) dynasty and ancient Persia and the Mediterranean world between the second and tenth centuries. The second part features colored porcelains made for domestic use and foreign exchange during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911); the third part focuses on the competition between kilns for imperial patronage and the Chinese influence on later Japanese and Korean ceramic traditions.
May 17
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
1:00 p.m.
Department of Theatre Dance Program, College of Music, and Wharton Center Education Programs: Swingin', Stompin', and Rockin' II
This performance explores the origins of American popular dance as it grew up with the development of jazz. As we venture through jazz history, we will discover every style had a dance craze. Ragtime had the “Cake Walk,” Dixie Land had the “Fox Trot,” Harlem stride had the “Charleston,” and Swing had the “Lindy Hop.” This is an electrifying performance full of movement and great jazz music. Appropriate for children ages 8 and up.