Year of Arts & Culture | 2007-08

The MSU Museum celebrates a landmark 150 years as Michigan's natural history and culture museum, and the state's first Smithsonian Institution affiliate

WKAR adds to new channels to its digital tier. WKAR Life (23.3) features lifestyles, how-to and encore programs; WKAR World (23.4) features documentaries, history and current events.

"Quilts and Human Rights" is an exhibition exploring the role that quiltmakers have played in raising awareness of human rights issues around the world and the power of textiles to communicate important ideas and information. The exhibition will feature inspiring and often provocative quilts made to document and express transgressions of human rights, to educate others about human rights issues and to pay tribute to leaders of human rights movements. A special component of the exhibition is being developed in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha, South Africa and will focus on human rights champions Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela. The exhibition and related programs are partially supported by funds from the MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Michigan Quilt Project Endowment.

Among the many projects to come out of the Great Depression and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal government programs to combat massive unemployment are those that dealt with the arts, architecture and crafts of American workers. Michigan State University Museum presents an exhibition of pieces from public work projects in Michigan and on the Michigan State College campus during the 1930s and early '40s. More than 8,500,000 Americans were hired through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) mostly to build roads, public buildings and parks. Unemployed artists and writers were also given work through branches of the WPA known as the Federal Art Project and the Federal Writers' Project. Their lasting legacy can still be seen and enjoyed throughout the state and the nation. Michigan State University and MSU Museum collections are rich with examples of a WPA legacy of art and craft.

This exhibition, organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art and drawn from their collection, covers over 1000 years of Chinese porcelains to illustrate the important role of foreign trade and changing domestic markets in stimulating Chinese potters — and their counterparts in Japan and Korea — to continually reinvent their repertoire of shapes and decorative techniques. The exhibition traces the exchange along the Silk Road between the Chinese Han dynasty and ancient Persia and the Mediterranean world; porcelains made for domestic use, foreign exchange and imperial families.

Laugh and sing along as Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, trips on a skateboard and accidentally drops his sweater in the sink – all before breakfast! Celebrate a very special Mother's Day by sharing the joy of a live arts performance with your family in this charming musical based on the classic book by Judith Viorst.

Ever wish you could go back to college, just for one day? Here's your chance! In conjunction with the East Lansing Art Festival (May 17-18), the MSU College of Arts and Letters will offer a day-long series of stimulating lectures, behind-the-scenes tours, art walks, and demonstrations on Friday, May 16. As part of this event, Kresge Art Museum will offer a gallery tour of the Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets, and East Asian Ceramics exhibition, a behind-the-scenes tour, and a walking tour of WPA art on campus. For more information, call (517) 355-5633. A complete schedule, further details, and registration information for these free events will be available here - http://www.cal.msu.edu/OneDayU.php

Swingin', Stompin'&Rockin' II explores the origins of American popular dance as it grew up with the development of Jazz. As we venture through Jazz history, we will discover every style had a dance craze. Ragtime had the "Cake Walk," Dixie Land had the "Fox Trot," Harlem stride had the "Charleston," and Swing had the "Lindy Hop." This is an electrifying performance full of movement and great jazz music.

Join the museum at the East Lansing Art Festival. Look for our booth where you can make and decorate masks and crowns. FREE, all ages welcome. NO registration required.

A lecture by Virginia Bower, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Ms. Bower (MSU, '72) is a well-known scholar of Chinese art and has been guest curator for numrous exhibits on Asian art around the country. She will give an overview of the objects in this exhibit.

Michigan Opera Theatre returns in grand style to present Giuseppe Verdi's beloved "La Traviata," filling the stage with the opulent glamour and decadent delights of 19th-century Paris. In the face of certain death, a beautiful courtesan devotes herself to fleeting pleasures. But a young man's sincere declaration of true love leads Violetta to realize the emptiness of her frivolous existence and she gives up everything to pursue a romantic reverie that leads to tragic consequences. Verdi's soaring arias and passionate duets make "La Traviata" one of the most popular operas.

Discover (or rediscover) culture, creativity and all there is to see and do in Greater Lansing. Participants can visit more than 35 locations, including Potter Park Zoo, Impression 5 Science Center, as well as the Lansing Art Gallery, Lansing City Market, State Capitol, Capital Area District Library and more. MSU destinations include: Beal Botanical Gardens, Beaumont Tower, MSU Bug House, MSU Dairy Store, MSU Museum, Kresge Art Museum, Wharton Center for Performing Arts and MSU Children's Gardens. "Tourists" purchase a passport for $1 (from Lansing or Meridian malls, AAA-Grand River Ave., CATA Transportation Center, or CVB in Old Town). Then they have access to the leisure, learning and tourist attractions all day long. Presented in partnership with the Greater Lansing Convention&Visitors Bureau.

Join the Friends of KAM for a day in Grand Rapids. First stop: coffee and sweets at the home of Mary Ann Keeler to see her modern art collection. Next on the agenda is a visit the new Grand Rapids Art Museum to experience the building and the collection, as well as a docent-guided tour of Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series. Lunch follows at Leo's Restaurant in downtown Grand Rapids. The day concludes at the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park with a docent-led tour of the exhibition Degas in Bronze: The Complete Sculptures and time to explore the gardens. Cost: $85.00 per person for Friends of Kresge; $95.00 per person for general public. Click here to download a registration form (http://www.artmuseum.msu.edu/PDF/grandrapids08.pdf) or call KAM today for details (517) 353-9834. After April 21, call for space availability.

Led by art educators, art historians and museum docents, participants of Kresge Art Museum's Summer Art Camp will EXPLORE, ENJOY, and CREATE original art during the course of a week. By experiencing different ways of looking at art through interactive tours and activities in the museum, kids will then make their own original work in the studios of the MSU Department of Art. At the end of the week, participants will host an exhibition of their own artwork and tour friends and family through the museum. Ages 4th–6th grade. Sign up will begin April 1, 2008. For details and registration, download this PDF form below. For information contact Cari Wolfe at (517) 353-9834. http://www.artmuseum.msu.edu/education/summer/08_creative_kids_summer.pdf

Dr. Catherine Ryu, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Culture, Department of Linguistics and Languages, MSU leads a lecture considering the exhibition theme in relation to the circulation of ideas, objects, and people in the increasingly globalized contemporary world order. Ryu's work reassesses the Silk Road as a conceptual metaphor used to analyze the interweaving of technology and knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge and power.

This is an award-winning 1991 Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwan film, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. An adaptation of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, it is noted for its opulent visuals and sumptuous use of colors, the fi lm tells the story of a young woman who becomes a concubine of a wealthy man during the Warlord Era.

SO MUCH HAPPENED BEFORE DOROTHY DROPPED IN. Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One - born with emerald-green skin - is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for the most spellbinding new musical in years. When WICKED opened on Broadway, it worked its magic on critics and audiences alike. Winner of 15 major awards including the Grammy® and three Tony® Awards. Today, "WICKED is Broadways biggest blockbuster." - The New York Times

Hands on Japanese calligraphy with Kitty Douglass, Program Assistant, Asian Studies Center, MSU. After a brief overview of the history of calligraphy, join us for a lesson in the way of writing. All materials provided, FREE, ages 6 years and up, MUST pre-register, call for availability. Funded by the Dart Foundation.

The roots, the rhythms and the richness of music, dance, arts and culture from across America and around the world come to downtown East Lansing for the Michigan State University Museum's annual Great Lakes Folk Festival, Aug. 8-10. Five music and dance stages sponsored by the City of East Lansing let visitors swing, fling, jig, reel and revel, including: Acadian (Prince Edward Island, Canada), bluegrass, Chinese erhu, Malian kora (West Africa), Ottawa Valley fiddle (Canada), Piedmont blues, Western swing, Wisconsin polka, Zydeco and more. This award-winning event has emerged as one of the region's premiere arts programs and a summer-time high note -- and is expected to draw more than 90,000 visitors throughout the weekend to celebrate culture, tradition and community. Learn more at http://www.greatlakesfolkfest.net .