The Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) has awarded MSU’s College of Arts & Letters $750,000 to support the Department of Art, Art History, and Design’s Critical Race Studies Residency Program, which has brought two Artists-in-Residence to campus for the 2017-2018 academic year.
The MSUFCU gift will help advance the Critical Race Studies Residency Program’s mission of enriching the life of the greater Lansing community by facilitating practices of inclusion through art and design.
“With the generous support of the MSUFCU, the Critical Race Studies Residency Program will enable us to advance our shared goal to drive cultural transformation through a deep engagement with the creative arts and design,” said Christopher P. Long, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “The true impact of this program lies in the opportunities it will create for us to live up to the core values of MSU and the MSUFCU to redress structural inequalities and catalyze connections across the Greater Lansing community.”
The 2017-2018 Critical Race Studies Artists-in-Residence are:
- Alejandro T. Acierto, sound and multimedia artist
- Karen Hampton, textile artist
As part of their residency, Acierto and Hampton will produce substantial public projects that engage in critical approaches to diversity and inclusion through creative practice. They will each mount solo presentations of their work, teach courses in the Studio Art and Apparel and Textile Design programs, and participate in outreach to the community throughout the year, working in some of MSU’s most publicy accessible spaces, such as (SCENE) Metrospace, MSU Union Art Gallery, Broad Art Museum, and Kresge Art Center, as well as locations in the greater Lansing community.
The MSUFCU gift will be spread out over a five-year period in annual installments of $150,000 to be paid in 2018 through 2022. The gift is part of a $5.5 million donation to Michigan State University from the MSUFCU to support 10 University programs over the course of five years. Besides the College of Arts & Letters, the other areas across campus to benefit from this gift include MSU’s Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Broad College of Business, College of Communication Arts and Sciences, College of Music, College of Social Science, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, Science Gallery, Wharton Center for Performing Arts, and WKAR.
“Both MSU and the MSUFCU are committed to helping people achieve their dreams,” said April Clobes, MSUFCU’s President/CEO. “We are proud to support MSU’s efforts that help ensure our communities are alive with arts and education and are places where people can learn and thrive.”
MSUFCU presented Michigan State University with a check for $5.5 million at the MSU vs. Western Michigan football game on Sept. 9.
