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Arts MSU News

Innovation.
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The inside of the museum walls is lit with various triangles of light.
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability
MSU Broad Art Museum exhibition encourages us to embrace the dark
Jan Tichy: Darkness transforms the heart of the museum into a reimagined architectural and multi-sensory experience
Two people leaning down looking into a glass case at a Museum.
  • Accessibility
  • Innovation
  • Place
Building the Future of the MSU Museum
The MSU Museum is advancing experiences that explore the issues of our time and shape the future of learning and engagement
A person in a long dress stands in a dim gallery space, interacting with a digital art installation. A ring light on a stand faces them, while large projections of the person's face cover the walls.
  • Innovation
  • Place
Internationally renowned artists begin winter residencies at MSU
Carl Craig and Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm will develop projects linking creative work with scientific inquiry
MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon sits in front of a microphone smiling.
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
  • Place
Renovated MSU Museum part of a “vital social infrastructure on campus”
MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon shares what's new ahead of the Museum's reopening
A woman wearing a black turtle neck and blue shirt plays a saxophone on a stage.
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
  • Students
Sam Gucwa: Enterprising Jazz For Everyone
Jazz Studies major Sam Gucwa is an entrepreneur, ethnomusicologist, and sonic storyteller
  • Innovation
  • Place
Convergence: Fusing Arts and Sciences at MSU
Learn how blending scientific and artistic research is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible
DJ Stacey
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
  • Place
Ask the Expert: How Detroit and Its People Are Integral to the Rise of Techno Music
The story of techno music often focuses on a global narrative, overlooking its true origins in Detroit, Michigan
A group photo of the faculty of the College of Music. The group stands outside in three rows, smiling at the camera.
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
  • Students
The Reimagination of a Curriculum
MSU’s Music Theory faculty are reshaping the curriculum to reflect the diverse voices, styles, and experiences of today’s students
A woman wearing a green shirt with blue jeans stands smiling in front of a poster board titled
  • Innovation
  • Students
Theatre and Psychology Majors Combine to Offer Creative Approach to Costume Design
Blending her majors of Theatre Design and Psychology, senior Katherin 'Kat' Poon designs costumes that tell deeper stories about character, identity, and human behavior
A nighttime photograph shows a path lined with trees pierced by glowing with LED tubes. The trees are bare, and the wet pavement reflects the lights.
  • Innovation
  • Students
  • Sustainability
Graduate Student Pursues First-of-Its-Kind Dual Program While Using Art to Explore Ecological Loss
Hailey Becker often chooses the path less traveled, and when there is no path, she has no problem blazing her own
Vadu Rodrigues holding camera.
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
  • Students
MFA candidate uses art to create ‘Positive Africa’ movement
Artist-activist, Vadu Rodrigues is challenging negative perceptions of Africa and Black diaspora through his art and photography
A nighttime scene featuring several trees illuminated by diagonal white light fixtures. The lights are suspended between the trees, creating a striking geometric effect against the dark sky and greenery. The ground is grassy, bordered by a concrete walkway.
  • Innovation
  • Students
  • Sustainability
The intersection of art and nature: Combining forestry and artistic vision
Understanding the unique combination of academic programs for doctoral student Hailey Becker
Two young women stand on the Red Cedar River Trail engaged with their smartphones. One woman, wearing a light blue denim jacket and a white beanie, looks at her phone with a smile. The other woman, in a brown jacket and black shirt, adjusts her headphones while focusing on her device.
  • Innovation
  • Place
  • Students
Transforming the Everyday: Art Moves MSU
New app-based installation uses music to connect visitors, students and community to MSU’s campus
A picture of a magazine cover, with
  • Innovation
  • Place
  • Students
Student-Produced Publication Wins International Award for Excellence
East Lansing’s only full-color arts and culture magazine, The Current, has received a 2024 MarCom Gold Award
  • Accessibility
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
$3M Mellon-Funded ‘Creativity in the Time of COVID’ Has Local and Global Impact
Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art as Medicine reveals the transformative power of art as a coping mechanism during the isolation and uncertainty of the global pandemic
Morgan in a blue baseball cap darkens marks on Yupo paper.
  • Innovation
  • Place
  • Students
MFA Candidate Creates Immersive Digital Display Featuring the Art of Breaking
Morgan Reneé Hill has created an innovative art display to offer a unique immersive experience into the art of Breaking (breakdancing)
Faith Nhkum smiling inside a lab
  • Innovation
  • Students
Faith Nhkum: Illustration and Inquiry
MSU student Faith Nhkum combines artistic passion with interest in STEM
An MSU student CoLaborator leans over part of the exhibition to engage in conversation with a visitor
  • Innovation
  • Students
Creating Conversations: Inside MSU Museum’s CoLaborator program
The CoLaborator Program at MSU Museum brings together students dedicated to fostering discussions, creativity, and learning.
Headshot of Abel Korinsky
  • Innovation
  • Place
International artist visiting MSU for residency at intersection of art, science and technology
Meet Abel Korinsky, the inaugural MSUFCU Arts Power Up artist-in-residence
Photo of two visitors in The CORE looking at sculptural work from Africa
  • Accessibility
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
MSU is transforming the art museum experience
Through an innovative, interactive approach, the MSU Broad Art Museum encourages new ways to approach art
Grace Krajewski dances in front of a projection art installation in the STEM building
  • Innovation
  • Place
  • Students
Student view: Bringing STEM and the arts together
MSU student Grace Krajewski writes about how her love of the arts impacts her studies in STEM
Seven students stand in front of exhibition text.
  • Innovation
  • Students
A third space
CoLaborator program offering place and space for student success
Mannequins wear two green and white designs, on display in the Spartan Bookstore
  • Innovation
  • Students
  • Sustainability
MSU students earn fashion week trip with sustainable designs
Senior Apparel and Textile Design majors Abigail Jones and Whitney Howard both earned a trip to New York Fashion Week with their winning designs
Five MSU students and MSU Museum staffer Caroline White pose in front of the exhibition
  • Accessibility
  • Innovation
  • Students
MSU students partner with the Smithsonian and MSU Museum
A multidisciplinary team of students worked with the Smithsonian to test a new approach to accessible design at the MSU Museum.
Three women hold up a poster they designed to promote their wellness activities.
  • Innovation
  • Students
  • Wellness
Innovative course uses creative arts to combat stress
The class explores how arts alleviate anxiety and stress and help promote better mental health.
  • Accessibility
  • Innovation
  • Place
MSU Broad Art Museum expands access to permanent collection with ‘The CORE’
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University has opened a new facility that more extensively displays works from its permanent collection.
  • Alumni
  • Innovation
  • Wellness
Merging the medical and music worlds
Practicing physician and professional hip-hop artist uses his platform to raise awareness about health
  • Innovation
  • Place
  • Students
The MSU Museum is “rethinking its strategy and solidifying its place on campus”
MSU alumnus and MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon talks about serving as a creative “collaboratory” for campus
Actor from the Department of Theatre cast performing The STEAM Plays at a local elementary school.
  • Innovation
  • Students
Making a case for STEAM over STEM with new musical
A new musical by Department of Theatre Professor Rob Roznowski explores the relationship between the arts and STEM
Images collected from a photovoice project by Wiba Anung. Photos: Shiloh Maples and Kat Jacques
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability
Beyond collaboration at the CoLab Studio
MSU Museum Takes a Co-Curatorial Approach to CoLab Studio Exhibitions.
Image of exhibition with timeline of information, Zaha Hadid designed chairs, and large abstract photo mural
  • Innovation
  • Place
The inspired mind of Zaha Hadid
Explore the inspiring MSU Broad Art Museum and an exhibition dedicated to boundary-pushing designs from its architect
Alexis Black directs two women in a black box theatre through an intimate scene
  • Faculty
  • Innovation
  • Students
Supporting staged intimacy
MSU theatre professors advocate for safety, boundaries, and better storytelling through intimacy direction education
A comic book drawing of a young boy and girl. The girl asks the boy
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability
Drawing high schoolers to STEM with plants and creativity
A collaboration between plant and education researchers at MSU is working to transform the relationship students have with science
Dr. Jon Frey (right) with MSU student Ally Miscikoski (left), a senior Studio Art major, during the 2023 Ceramic Arts in Greece Study Abroad.
  • Innovation
  • Students
Students create ceramics inspired by study abroad
MSU students create and exhibit create their own works of art inspired by Greece
Class works in the the 360 Degree Visualization Room, surrounded by images and text related to the women they were studying
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
  • Students
Students raise awareness of monuments women
An MSU class raises awareness of the women who fought to rescue and return art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
Photo of film professor Peter Johnson interviewing Stanford W. Carpenter
  • Faculty
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Innovation
Afrofuturism explored in new documentary by MSU Professors
Championed by artists, scholars, and activists around the world, Afrofuturism offers a tool kit for a better tomorrow.