Arts MSU Impact

MSU's Department of Theatre staged an intimate, campfire-centered production of The Grown-Ups at Corey Marsh, blending performance with the natural landscape

MSU’s Music Theory faculty are reshaping the curriculum to reflect the diverse voices, styles, and experiences of today’s students

Blending her majors of Theatre Design and Psychology, senior Katherin 'Kat' Poon designs costumes that tell deeper stories about character, identity, and human behavior

Hailey Becker often chooses the path less traveled, and when there is no path, she has no problem blazing her own

Showcasing the beauty and resiliency of Indigenous gardening methods

Beal Scholar Laura Perrin is breathing new life into Michigan State's historic Beal Botanical Garden through rewilding, sustainability, and hands-on learning

MSU alum and artist Hannah Tizedes is turning art into environmental activism through her Michigan-based nonprofit, The Cleanup Club

MFA candidate Brandon McDuff transforms rejection into recognition with a national sound design award

MSU faculty member Geri Alumit Zeldes uses documentary film to reclaim stories long buried by time

The 2025 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition highlights the innovative thesis work of three graduating MFA candidates, capping off their three-year creative journey

Michigan State University’s Womxn of Color Initiatives (WOCI) has selected Porsha Olayiwola, Poet Laureate for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, as its 2025 Artist-in-Residence

Ryan Claytor is a trailblazer in comics education whose passion for teaching and talent as an award-winning comics artist and creator is fueled by his love of the expressive medium

Get a peek behind the curtain as a new version of “In Pieces” is brought to life by Michigan State University students working together with Broadway professionals

MSU’s costume design students bring “9 to 5, The Musical” to life with creativity, collaboration, and mentorship

MSU Professor, Safoi Babana-Hampton, amplifies silenced histories of the Francophone Afro-Caribbean world through the voices of artists, historians, and policymakers

Artist-activist, Vadu Rodrigues is challenging negative perceptions of Africa and Black diaspora through his art and photography

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

Understanding the unique combination of academic programs for doctoral student Hailey Becker

Faculty and students are using theatre and dance to illuminate the effects of climate change through a project in partnership with Bullfrogs Ballet

New app-based installation uses music to connect visitors, students and community to MSU’s campus

East Lansing’s only full-color arts and culture magazine, The Current, has received a 2024 MarCom Gold Award

In a first of its kind partnership, a group of MSU Department of Theatre students and alums recently participated in a reading of a new musical with the Flint Repertory Theatre

From rural India to MSU, undergraduate Veona Cutinho merges science, art and advocacy to bridge cultures and advance health care equity

Four Spartans – two alums, a faculty member, and a current student – played key roles in a pre-Broadway tryout of the new dance musical, Esther

MSU Broad education intern and future educator, Emily Slyman, is incorporating art into all subject areas with their students

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 Reneé Hill has created an innovative art display to offer a unique immersive experience into the art of Breaking (breakdancing)

Aspiring law student Amaya Aten uses her complementary majors to explore how creativity drives social change

MSU grad Mikayla Thompson, descendant of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is educating others about Indigenous farming practices and culture through the gardens she helped create

Katherin Poon applies her double major in Theatre Design and Psychology in her work in costuming

Two-time Olympic rower Kelly Salchow MacArthur sees a connection between athletics and art in bringing people together

Tyler Mazone is a Deaf and neurodivergent DMA Composition student who knows that music is always a multi-sensory experience

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.

MFA Acting Candidate, Oscar Rodriguez Quiroz, receives Varg-Sullivan Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts.

The CoLaborator Program at MSU Museum brings together students dedicated to fostering discussions, creativity, and learning.

In Afrofuturism & Quilting exhibition, local and national quilt artists and quilt scholars explore embodied and theoretical connections between Afrofuturism and quilt making.

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.

Meet Abel Korinsky, the inaugural MSUFCU Arts Power Up artist-in-residence

Parallels of the monarch butterfly journey from harvest to higher education

This public art installation spotlights violence against Indigenous women

Through an innovative, interactive approach, the MSU Broad Art Museum encourages new ways to approach art

MSU student Grace Krajewski writes about how her love of the arts impacts her studies in STEM

CoLaborator program offering place and space for student success

Senior Apparel and Textile Design majors Abigail Jones and Whitney Howard both earned a trip to New York Fashion Week with their winning designs

Exhibition and theatre installation show how artists and athletes both shape history and create community

How one MSU alum combined her love of sports and arts into a career

MSU Professor and Olympian Kelly Salchow MacArthur is once again part of the Olympics, this time leading a community art project.

A multidisciplinary team of students worked with the Smithsonian to test a new approach to accessible design at the MSU Museum.

The class explores how arts alleviate anxiety and stress and help promote better mental health.

The MSU Museum is a selected participant of the the African American Craft Initiative within the Smithsonian.

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.

Blaire Morseau is one of two new faculty members in the Department of Religious Studies to receive an inaugural 1855 Professorship

Alan and Rebecca Ross build on long-standing support for art at MSU

Practicing physician and professional hip-hop artist uses his platform to raise awareness about health

MSU alumnus and MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon talks about serving as a creative “collaboratory” for campus

A new musical by Department of Theatre Professor Rob Roznowski explores the relationship between the arts and STEM

We often look to the arts to establish relationships with where we live and to one another.

MSU professor Kinitra Brooks asks us to consider who is the monster in horror.

The new exhibition shows how artists have depicted sports figures who have used their influence to spark change.

Artists are consistently inspired by nature, but the arts also provide new ways of seeing and experiencing the natural world around us.

Hear how Wharton Center is increasing access to life-changing performing arts opportunities for high schoolers across the state.

Michigan State University’s campus is a canvas for sparking new ideas, deepening understanding and cultivating a sense of belonging

MSU Museum Takes a Co-Curatorial Approach to CoLab Studio Exhibitions.

Explore the inspiring MSU Broad Art Museum and an exhibition dedicated to boundary-pushing designs from its architect

MSU theatre professors advocate for safety, boundaries, and better storytelling through intimacy direction education

A collaboration between plant and education researchers at MSU is working to transform the relationship students have with science

Luke Haight, a saxophonist from Clarkston, Michigan, shares insights from his education abroad experience in Israel

MSU students create and exhibit create their own works of art inspired by Greece

Beal Botanical Garden staff join MSU Today's Russ White to talk about the garden’s history, present, and sustainable future.

Forms of Freedom: The Art and Design of Black and Indigenous Creative Public Pedagogies is a research collaboration between Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artist collectives

An MSU class raises awareness of the women who fought to rescue and return art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

Maya Schuhknecht shared her passion for the arts through her social impact initiative, “Art For All"

Kelly Salchow MacArthur is the 2023 recipient of the International Institute for Information Design (IIID)

A recently discovered quilt is providing a peek into what life in Black Bottom was like more than 50 years ago.

Championed by artists, scholars, and activists around the world, Afrofuturism offers a tool kit for a better tomorrow.

The Detroit Regional Engagement and Access to Music Endowment (MSUFCU DREAM Fund) supports the MSU Community Music School in Detroit