Arts & Culture
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The (virtual) show must go on
For the first time in its 123-year history, the Michigan Marching Band has gone completely virtual due to COVID-19. Band, take the screen!
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Building an anti-racist world through the arts
U-M’s annual DEI Summit goes virtual with an arts-oriented program Oct. 26. Actor Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Treme”) is a featured speaker; Pierce is participating in the Digital Artist Residency at UMS.
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‘Mail Art’ project offers methaphorical transport
The U-M and Ann Arbor libraries are supporting the U.S. Postal Service in September. Creative ‘mail artists’ are asked to conceive and write a postcard to their future selves, describing this unprecedented time in history. An exhibit will follow.
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I need a (super)hero
Just as our world devolves into a dystopia worthy of a comic-book series, award-winning author Saladin Ahmed, ’99, sends two minority superheroes to the rescue.
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A ‘menacing, alien machine’
The coronavirus’ spiky ball tells a story, and if people understood it better they might feel more confident about defeating it, says the scientist who founded U-M’s BioArtography Project.
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What does a ‘public space’ become when the public is isolated?
Why is it important to prioritize art-making as a way to alleviate anxiety and loneliness? How can art-making be considered a service? Artist Cullen Washington Jr., whose solo exhibition, ‘The Public Square,’ opened pre-pandemic, shares insights.
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Another time, another place
This sentimental collection of essays by Peter Damm, BA ’71, takes you to a world of softly faded Polaroids and crackly AM radios. There are summer hijinks at Lake Michigan, poignant life lessons from the youngest of six Catholic children, and hilarious confessions that are both intimately personal and wholly relatable.
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If the shoe fits . . .
How painting an abstract Nike AJ1 helped self-proclaimed ‘Adidas man’ Shane Ward, BFA ’96, claim his power — and his grace — as an artist, apprentice, and African American man in 2020.
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Vulnerability, gravitas in quarantine docs
Instead of earning a stranger’s trust and documenting a moment in time for their final projects, students photographed loved ones in lockdown.