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Arts MSU News

Innovation.
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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 blue-glazed statue of three children kneeling and leaning against each other. The child in the middle holds an open book in her lap.
  • Place
  • Students
Where to find Pewabic pottery across MSU’s campus
Tiles from one of the oldest operating pottery studios in the country are hidden in plain sight, right here on campus
Three women stand together on a stage. The woman on the left wears a maroon blazer and trousers with a gold blouse. The woman in the center wears a cream-colored 19th-century period dress. The woman on the right wears a black floral blouse and black trousers. They are positioned in front of a blue projected backdrop.
  • Alumni
  • Faculty
  • Place
MSU Alum Sandra Seaton Reclaims History and Voice in World Premiere of ‘Sally: A Solo Play’
Wharton Center for Performing Arts celebrates the world premiere of Sally: A Solo Play, as both a creative milestone and a homecoming
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 metallic building with trees surrounding it and sidewalk leading up to the entrance. It is evening and yellow light is pouring out the windows of the front of the building.
  • Faculty
  • Place
Meet Phillip Bahar, new director of MSU’s Broad Art Museum
Bahar shares his background and why he's excited for the future of The Broad and the arts industry
A person stands outside surrounded by greenery. They are wearing a maroon jacket and reaching out their hand to touch a plant.
  • Place
  • Students
  • Wellness
Finn Smith: “Planting Wishes” at Beal Botanical Garden
Fisheries and Wildlife major Finn Smith encourages moments of mindfulness and sows seeds of curiosity about local natural wonders
A person in a green shirt on the left helps a group of four people plant strawberry plants in terracotta pots.
  • Faculty
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
MSU and Georgia Tech Receive Mellon Funding for Research Project Combining Afrofuturism, Humanities, and Horticulture
Spartans are bringing the humanities and horticulture together through The Earthseed Project
A close-up view of Beaumont Tower glowing red with projected words
  • Faculty
  • Place
  • Students
Beaumont Tower Comes Alive with Animated Projections Created by MSU Students
This year's Halloween carillon concert showcased artwork and animations created by students in the Department of Theatre
Three people including one in a bear mascot costume, stand on a blue lift waving in front of a red, orange, and yellow mural in progress on the side of a brick building under a clear blue sky.
  • Place
  • Students
MSU partnership brings vibrant public art to downtown Cadillac
MSU Extension and the city of Cadillac partnered to create a vibrant new mural celebrating local history and community pride
Four women stand in front of a wall of art. Two women on the right look at two paintings stacked one above the other on the wall. The other two women look at another painting on the right, their heads are tilted in towards each other.
  • Faculty
  • Place
  • Students
The art of teaching the arts
MSU is making its mark in Michigan when it comes to investing in the arts as essential to K–12 education
Portrait of MSU Assistant Professor Tim Conrad smiling. He's wearing a button down shirt and in the background are tree branches.
  • Faculty
  • Place
English Professor Receives Midwest Book Award for Short Story Collection
MSU Assistant Professor Tim Conrad received a 2025 Midwest Book Award for his debut short story collection, "The Machine We Trust"
Woman in a long black winter coat and black knit hat carrying a fake fur covered purse and a cell phone looking at a wall of painted and drawn portraits at a gallery.
  • Place
  • Students
Art Project Brings U.S. and Canadian Students Together
MSU and OCAD University students bridged borders through art, creating portraits that capture identity, place, and friendship in a cross-border collaboration
  • Innovation
  • Place
Convergence: Fusing Arts and Sciences at MSU
Learn how blending scientific and artistic research is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible
Photo of an outdoor stage performance with three actors in colorful costumes entertaining a seated audience. The stage is decorated with a brick backdrop, props, and a portrait of Shakespeare. Audience members, seated in lawn chairs, enthusiastically raise their arms in response to the performance.
  • Place
  • Students
Summer Circle Theatre Returns June 5-22 for 2025 Season
Summer Circle Theatre is back for its 63rd year, offering free outdoor performances for everyone to enjoy
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
  • Alumni
  • Place
  • Sustainability
Creativity Meets Conservation: An MSU Alum’s Mission to Protect Our Great Lakes
MSU alum and artist Hannah Tizedes is turning art into environmental activism through her Michigan-based nonprofit, The Cleanup Club
A woman with long, wavy brown hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing a deep burgundy blouse and posed against a dark gray background.
  • Faculty
  • Place
Faculty Voice: Using Documentary Film to Reclaim Buried Stories
MSU faculty member Geri Alumit Zeldes uses documentary film to reclaim stories long buried by time
Three people stand close together and smile at the camera in a gallery setting. The person on the left wears a blue, vertically striped shirt; the person in the middle has bright red hair and wears glasses and a colorful patterned shirt; the person on the right wears a light grey sweater and glasses. Artwork is visible on the walls behind them.
  • Place
  • Students
MFA Exhibition Features Work of Three Artists/Scholars
The 2025 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition highlights the innovative thesis work of three graduating MFA candidates, capping off their three-year creative journey
  • Faculty
  • Place
  • Students
Faculty voice: I’m a maker and a storyteller
Discover how Teresa Dunn’s identity as a Mexican American artist shapes her life, art, and role as a professor at MSU’s College of Arts and Letters
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
Person smiling while painting the exterior wall of a building white using a roller brush. They are outdoors on a sunny day, with other people in the background also painting and working.
  • Place
  • Students
Scientist. Artist. Activist. Global Spartan.
From rural India to MSU, undergraduate Veona Cutinho merges science, art and advocacy to bridge cultures and advance health care equity
Emily Sylman in a yellow shirt engages a group of young students sitting with sketchbooks, attentively observing an unseen artwork in an art gallery.
  • Accessibility
  • Place
  • Students
Emily Slyman: Educator of the Future
MSU Broad education intern and future educator, Emily Slyman, is incorporating art into all subject areas with their students
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)
Amaya Aten at a conference with three other students presenting a poster
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
  • Students
Amaya Aten: Art is Revolutionary
Aspiring law student Amaya Aten uses her complementary majors to explore how creativity drives social change
Rodney Whitaker
  • Faculty
  • Place
MSU jazz professor, Detroit jazz icon elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Rodney Whitaker, University Distinguished Professor of Jazz Bass and director of Jazz Studies, joins the ranks of artists, scholars, scientists and leaders of one of the oldest learned societies in the United States.
Portrait of Oscar Rodriguez Quiroz
  • Faculty
  • Place
  • Students
Graduate Student Honored for Bringing Hispanic Golden-Age Drama to MSU
MFA Acting Candidate, Oscar Rodriguez Quiroz, receives Varg-Sullivan Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts.
Photo of Liv Furman wearing black in front of colorful quilt she created.
  • Faculty
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
Exploring Connections Within Teaching, Learning, and Quilt Praxis
In Afrofuturism & Quilting exhibition, local and national quilt artists and quilt scholars explore embodied and theoretical connections between Afrofuturism and quilt making.
Two performers dancing
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
  • Sustainability
Across Oceans: Small Island Big Song’s Residency at Wharton Center
In March 2024, campus experienced the transformative power of music during Small Island Big Song's performance and residency at Wharton Center for Performing Arts.
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
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
  • Students
Las Alas Invisibles exhibition recognizes migrant farmworkers
Parallels of the monarch butterfly journey from harvest to higher education
Photo of red dress with sunlight shining through
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
‘REDress Project’ comes to MSU
This public art installation spotlights violence against Indigenous women
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
University student lays on a sofa in an outdoor living room set up and throws football in the air.
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
MSU explores intersection of arts and sports
Exhibition and theatre installation show how artists and athletes both shape history and create community
Graduate Katie Quinlan holds up a poster she designed herself at Ford Field
  • Alumni
  • Place
From a Spartan to a Lion
How one MSU alum combined her love of sports and arts into a career
Kelly Salchow MacArthur rowing with three other teammates.
  • Accessibility
  • Faculty
  • Place
MSU professor and olympian part of Olympian Artists Program
MSU Professor and Olympian Kelly Salchow MacArthur is once again part of the Olympics, this time leading a community art project.
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
MSU Museum, Smithsonian partner to preserve work by African American artists
The MSU Museum is a selected participant of the the African American Craft Initiative within the Smithsonian.
  • 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
  • Place
Expanding exhibitions at the MSU Broad Art Museum
Alan and Rebecca Ross build on long-standing support for art at MSU
  • 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
Judith
  • Place
  • Wellness
Can the arts help us feel more connected to a place?
We often look to the arts to establish relationships with where we live and to one another.
Kota Ezawa,
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
MSU Broad merges sports, art, and social justice
The new exhibition shows how artists have depicted sports figures who have used their influence to spark change.
A student studying at the Beal Botanical Garden
  • Place
  • Students
  • Wellness
Art and Nature in the Beal Botanical Garden
Artists are consistently inspired by nature, but the arts also provide new ways of seeing and experiencing the natural world around us.
Image of colorful abstract artwork on the wall in the College of Music
  • Place
  • Students
At MSU, public art is essential
Michigan State University’s campus is a canvas for sparking new ideas, deepening understanding and cultivating a sense of belonging
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
A photo of Beal Botanical Garden
  • Place
  • Sustainability
  • Wellness
150 Years of connecting people, plants, and place
Beal Botanical Garden staff join MSU Today's Russ White to talk about the garden’s history, present, and sustainable future.
Quilt
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Place
Quilt gives peek into Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood
A recently discovered quilt is providing a peek into what life in Black Bottom was like more than 50 years ago.