Hollander Lecture Series Brings Artists, Designers, and Scholars from Around the World to MSU

Hollander Lecture Series Brings Artists, Designers, and Scholars from Around the World to MSU

Michigan State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design will welcome 10 artists, designers, and scholars to campus during the 2026-27 academic year as part of its annual Stanley and Selma Hollander Visiting Artist, Designer, and Scholar Lecture Series.

This year’s series, which will kickoff Tuesday, Sept. 29, with American Artist, brings internationally recognized leaders in art, design, and scholarship to MSU to share their creative and scholarly research and explore how visual representation in its many forms can serve as a mode of inquiry. All the lectures and events in this series are free and open to the public.

Text on a light green background reading 'Stanley + Selma Hollander lecture series' on the left, separated by a vertical line from the words 'Artist Designer + Scholar' on the right.

The 2026-27 lineup spans a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, with visiting speakers whose work explores technology, race, memory, art history, literature, conservation, design, and the relationships between art and society.

Beyond their public lectures, visiting artists, designers, and scholars engage with the MSU community through a variety of activities such as workshops, class visits, panel discussions, exhibitions, studio visits, and group critiques. These opportunities allow students and the public to interact directly with leading professionals and scholars while gaining new perspectives on their own creative and academic work.

The series is named for the late Stanley and Selma Hollander, its primary benefactors. Their generosity and longstanding support for the arts and humanities at Michigan State University can be seen across campus. Their legacy continues to provide the Department of Art, Art History, and Design with a sustained opportunity to bring artists, designers, and scholars from around the world to MSU each year.

This year’s series also is sponsored by the Department of Art, Art History, and Design along with generous support from MSU’s College of Arts and Letters, Office of the Provost, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Anthropology, Digital Humanities Program, Department of Theatre, and Beal Botanical Gardens and Arboretum.

The following are the 2026-27 Stanley and Selma Hollander Visiting Artists, Designers, and Scholars:

Fall 2026

Full-length portrait of American Artist wearing a bright blue puffer jacket and jeans, seated on a stool in front of a translucent red studio curtain.

American Artist

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

American Artist makes thought experiments that mine the history of technology, race, and knowledge production, beginning with their legal name change in 2013. Artist’s work is in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum of Modern Art.

Black-and-white close-up headshot of Johnathan Springer with a short fade haircut and a trimmed beard, looking off to the right against a solid black background

Jonathan Springer

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Jonathan Springer is a Creative Director at REI Co-op, helping redefine what it means to be “outdoorsy” through bold and inclusive marketing campaigns. With a background in design and more than 20 years of experience, he has created award-winning campaigns for USPS, Target, Whole Foods, Moncler, AT&T, and many other global brands.

Close-up portrait of Juan Cortes with a dark beard, wearing a black zip-up hoodie with the hood pulled up against a warm yellow-and-orange backdrop

Juan Cortés

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Juan Cortés is a Colombian artist, programmer, educator, and co-founder of the editorial project Otros Presentes. He leads technology for the Museum of the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica de Colombia, developing decentralized digital platforms that explore memory, politics, ecology, and the intersections between art and technology.

Close-up headshot of Seph Rodney with short locs and a salt-and-pepper beard, wearing a denim jacket over an olive turtleneck against a dark gray background

Seph Rodney

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Seph Rodney, Ph.D., is a regular contributor to The New York Times and a former senior critic and opinions editor for Hyperallergic. In 2020, he won the Rabkin Arts Journalism Prize, and in 2022, he received an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. He also is a curator of contemporary art exhibitions.

Close-up headshot of David Yung Kim with short black hair and a light goatee, wearing a rust-orange collared shirt against a blurred neutral background

David Young Kim

Thursday, Dec. 3, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

David Young Kim is an art historian of the early modern period in a global context. He is a Professor of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. His research engages with theories of art, historiography, and film. His books on the traveling artist and on groundwork in the Renaissance have opened new fields of inquiry, while his current project examines translations of Vasari’s famous 16th-century biographies of artists in Korea.

Spring 2027

Kelly Clare

Thursday, Feb. 4, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Kelly Clare is an artist and writer based in western Massachusetts who explores digital materiality through multimedia installation, sculpture, drawing, and poetry. The author of three poetry chapbooks, Clare also is an editor at Ghost Proposal. Clare has an MFA from the Sculpture and Intermedia Department at the University of Iowa.

Medium portrait of Jen Wang with a short buzzcut and a white graphic t-shirt, seated indoors on a couch and looking toward soft natural light

Jen Wang, Comics Forum Keynote Speaker

Friday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m.
MSU Library Green Room

Jen Wang is this year’s Comics Forum keynote speaker. She also is an the an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of several graphic novels, including Ash’s Cabin; Stargazing; The Prince and the Dressmaker; In Real Life, co-written with Cory Doctorow; and Koko Be Good. Wang is a co-founder and organizer of Comic Arts LA.

Black-and-white portrait of Isla Hansen with chin-length dark hair and a white collared shirt, looking directly at the camera in a softly blurred indoor setting

Isla Hansen

Tuesday, March 23, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Isla Hansen is an artist who works in sculpture, interactive installation, performance, video, and play objects. Her work explores cultures surrounding play, personal technologies, labor, work, children’s media, fantasy, and the relationship between bodies and technological progress. Hansen teaches sculpture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Waist-up portrait of Michelle Segre with shoulder-length brown hair and a black t-shirt, standing in front of a colorful woven textile on a white wall

Michelle Segre

Tuesday, April 6, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Michelle Segre lives and works in New York City. She has had solo exhibitions at the lumber room in Portland, Oregon, and the University Art Museum at SUNY Albany, among others. Her work also has appeared in group exhibitions at institutions including the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York.

Close-up outdoor portrait of Angeliki Psaroudaki with dark wavy hair and a light gray jacket, looking slightly upward in front of a weathered stone archway

Angeliki Kandri

Tuesday, April 27, 6 p.m.
107 South Kedzie Hall

Angeliki Kandri is a conservator of antiquities and works of art in Greece. She has collaborated with Greek and international archaeologists on projects that include the restoration of works at Kenchries, Poseidonia, and other sites in the Corinthia. Her current research focuses on the use of 3D-printing technology in conservation.

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