Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

Two side-by-side photos of an individual wearing a welding helmet and safety gloves while welding handle scales.

Studio Art Student Uses CREATE! Micro-Grant Funds to Produce Sculpture of Balisong Knife

December 13, 2022

As a 2022 CREATE! Micro-Grant recipient, Ryan Freund, a junior majoring in Studio Art, produced a sculpture featuring a single, manipulated Balisong knife. Titled Intersection, Freund utilized the knife's four handle scales to complete the piece. "I find flipping Balisong knives to be very beautiful and have been doing it since I was 13 years old," Freund said. "Their handles are used…

Person using an electric saw in a garage.

COVID-19 / News / Student / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

CREATE! Micro-Grant Used to Produce Sculpture Representing Lives Lost to COVID-19

December 8, 2022

Apparel and Textile Design major Gwen Pinger used a $500 CREATE! Micro-Grant to build a sculpture consisting of thousands of glass beads that hang from elastic strings, each representing a life lost from COVID-19 in Michigan. “The sculpture functions as a sort of wind chime with many long strands of string and glass beads that twinkle in the sun. The beads — in red, white, and silver — form the shape of IV needles,” said Pinger,…

Close-up photo of person with large beaded earrings.

Grant / News / Nonprofit, Education, and Social Impact / Student / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

CREATE! Micro-Grant Project Explores Identity and Healing Through Anishinaabe Beadwork

November 2, 2022

Affiliated with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, Esme Bailey’s culture served as inspiration for her CREATE! Micro-Grant project. The Michigan State University senior, who is majoring in English with minors in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS), grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, near the Isabella County Indian Reservation. She applied for and received a 2022 CREATE! Micro-Grant for $500 to make a set of…

Faculty / News / Production / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

Conversations With CAL Features Ryan Welsh Discussing ‘Mealworms’ Film

October 21, 2022

In this Conversations with CAL, Ryan Welsh, Assistant Professor of Media Acting in the Department of Theatre, discusses the making of "Mealworms," a short film created by more than 30 MSU students working together with industry professionals.

African American and African Studies / News / Performance / Production / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

MSU Theatre Brings Detroit’s Corktown Neighborhood to the Stage

October 4, 2022

Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre presents Corktown, Or Through the Valley of Dry Bones October 14-23 at the Pasant Theatre in the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. The play, written by Haitian American playwright Jeff Augustin and modeled after the Thornton Wilder classic, Our Town, centers on Jackee, a 14-year-old boy who takes us on a tour of one of Detroit’s oldest neighborhoods between 2007 and…

Internship / News / Student / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

Studio Art Major Takes on Two Roles Working for Museum

September 15, 2022

While working as a Gallery Guide and Events Intern at the MSU Broad Art Museum this summer, Olivia Morea, a senior BFA Studio Art major, educated and interacted with museum visitors and says the experience reinforced her decision to pursue a career working for a museum. In the following Q&A, Morea provides more information about her internship and highlights the…

Event / Performance / Production / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

MSU Department of Theatre Announces 2022-2023 Season

August 5, 2022

Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre announces its 2022-2023 season, which focuses on the exploration and celebration of community. “These scripts are intended to provoke discussion and drive our students and audiences to challenge our intellectual and emotional responses to the social conditions in which we live and champion traditions that bind us as neighbors and make us stronger together,”…

MSU Students presenting at the Breslin Center

Linguistics / Nonprofit, Education, and Social Impact / Publishing, Editing, and Authorship / Research / Student / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

College of Arts & Letters Students Earn First-Place Awards at UURAF

April 22, 2022

Three College of Arts & Letters students earned first-place awards for their presentations at Michigan State University’s 24th Annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF). The students are now among the other first-place winners who will be considered for the grand prize, which will be announced in June.  This year's UURAF was held at the Breslin Student Events Center.…

Zoom screenshot of six individuals and 3 groups of students.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / Faculty / Michigan Impact / Student / Student / U.S. Impact / Uncategorized / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

MSU Outreach Effort Celebrates Works of Black Playwrights

April 6, 2022

A group of Michigan State University faculty and students from the Department of Theatre in collaboration with the Wharton Center Institute for Arts & Creativity led an effort to bring the Next Narrative Monologue Competition (NNMC) to Michigan, a national high school competition that celebrates the diverse perspectives and worldviews of the Black community by bringing works of contemporary Black…

Award / COVID-19 / Donor / Fundraising / Student / Visual Arts, Arts Administration, and Performing Arts

Fund Created to Help Students Get the Art Materials They Need

November 6, 2020

When classes at Michigan State University moved to remote learning, students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD) faced the unique challenge of emulating studio spaces from home. In an effort to ensure student success, AAHD created the Student Art Materials Fund to provide necessary art supplies for students during remote learning. “Some forms of Studio Art and Apparel…