Arts & Culture

  1. When ‘Red Emma’ came to town

    In the 1910s, anarchist, writer, and provocateur Emma Goldman, described by J. Edgar Hoover as ‘the most dangerous woman in America,’ paid regular visits to Ann Arbor. She described one rowdy U-M crowd as ‘pampered parasites, not one of them with enough backbone to fight a flea.’

  2. Genre-jumping Fulbright scholar takes a novel path

    Aspiring scientist Ariel Djanikian, MFA ’04, read the writing on the lab wall when she found herself prioritizing creative writing over her latest experiment. Her fascinating and often tragic family history informs a recurring theme in both of her novels: the obliteration of one group of people for the convenience of another.

  3. How bedside musicians helped one family cope with tragedy

    The Gifts of Art Bedside Music and Art Program at Michigan Medicine is staffed by musicians specially trained in providing acoustic music for patients at the bedside. Artists will go “where patients, families, and staff members need us,” says coordinator Sam Vandiver.

  4. Dick Gaskill and his photographic memory

    After seven decades, Michigan Marching Band photographer Dick Gaskill, BBA ’57, has finally put down his gameday camera. But all those memories at Michigan Stadium are forever printed in the pages of history, and on his heart.

  5. Cannupa Hanska Luger ‘GIFTS’ U-M campus with public art installation

    The installation refers to the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, which states that Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi tribes gifted the land to U-M upon which the Ann Arbor campus stands. The work contributes to a campuswide initiative to challenge University history.

  6. Danielle Scarpulla: The beauty in fashion and in Stamps

    This Italy-based fashion designer and Stamps grad has experience working in luxury shoe design but is now breaking into linens and textiles to help add special flair to one’s home and wardrobe. She shares insights on breaking into the fashion industry and adapting as it evolves.

  7. Two sides of the coin: Endi Poskovic on “Arts & Resistance”

    The Fall 2023 Theme Semester — Arts & Resistance — reflects how creativity and making can arise from oppression and destruction. Arts & Resistance has generated public performances, courses, lectures, conferences, exhibitions, and mini-grants for students campuswide.

  8. A dream of fundamental justice

    In 1900, the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians lost their land and rightful place as a sovereign nation. Today, with input from other Native voices, an Ojibwe artist highlights the tribe’s history and current bid for federal reaffirmation in an exhibition at the U-M Museum of Art.

  9. From Hopwood to Hollywood to joy in the morning

    She fled the tenements of Brooklyn in the 1920s to follow her boyfriend to the U-M Law School. She got married, struggled to blend in with the coeds, and sought refuge in the library when things went awry. Then, Betty Smith, the future author of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ met playwright and professor Kenneth Thorpe Rowe. His mentorship set her on a path that produced the bestselling novel of 1944.