Gifts of Art is currently accepting proposals for our Aug 2013-Aug 2014 exhibit year. As one of the first and most comprehensive arts in healthcare programs nationwide, Gifts of Art brings the world of art & music to the University of Michigan Health System. Our nine galleries display over 50 exhibits a year. They include 2-D and 3-D spaces that are viewed by approximately 10,000 people a day. This makes our galleries some of the most widely visited indoor, non-museum exhibit spaces in the state. Submission deadline is May 31, 2013. http://www.med.umich.edu/goa/submissions.htm

This exhibit draws on the riches of the University of Michigan’s Robert Altman archive, including examples of his novel approach to overlapping dialogue, his exploration of movie genres, his use of ensemble casts, and how audiences and critics viewed his work. It includes materials from M*A*S*H, Gosford Park, Nashville, and more. Researched by students from the U-M Department of Screen Arts & Cultures.

Robert Altman is considered one of America's finest directors. His diverse style and range of vision and cinematic approaches is captured in the photographs, papers, letters, drawings and artifacts culled from the thousands of items that comprise The Robert Altman Collection in the Special Collections Library.

For Joanne Leonard, preserving newspaper clippings is something of an urgent task since future generations may know only digital versions of these fragile pages of newspaper. Through the juxtaposition of news images and images in books, Leonard creates a conversation in her photographs between present and past. The pictures she makes, sometimes witty, often poignant, are a form of diary; they reflect her daily observations as she reads the newspaper over morning coffee. Leonard's work has been widely exhibited and published, including exhibition in the San Francisco Museum of Art's Women of Photography, and publication in Janson's History of Art, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, and the Time-Life Library of Photography. She is a distinguished Professor Emeritus at U-M.

When viewing contemporary artist's books, we find alternative bindings and printing methods that often change the form of the traditional codex by altering type or image, shape or structure. For this exhibit, U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design Book Arts Instructor, Barbara Brown, has collected a body of work created by her students who have spent the 2013 winter semester exploring contemporary books and making books as art objects. The following students have work in the show: Ashley Allis, Jessica Costantini, Caili Dalian, Nancy Huynh, Rachel Junker, Janice Lee, Minji Lee, Nina Levin, Corinn Lewis, Rosie Liao, Lyz Luidens, Erica Neuman, Megan Reina, Anna Schulte, Amanda Stimac, Haley Tanasijevich, Diane Thach and Leah Whiteman.

One of the oldest women's professional art organizations in the country, the Athena Art Society began in 1903 at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to assist and encourage women in all branches of the fine arts. Athena provides local art awards and scholarships for women, and it stimulates local community participation through leadership and partnerships with other art organizations. Their calming representational and abstract images, landscape scenes, and figures evoke memories and feelings, reflecting Visions of Serenity. Members work in all media, including: painting, drawing, pastel, mixed media, photography, ceramics, sculpture, glass and fiber art. Gifts of Art Gallery — Taubman Health Center South Lobby, Floor 1.

Ann Arbor based Adrienne Kaplan explores the American search for happiness by choosing a day at the beach. Her goal is to transmit this search and achievement through the interplay of the paint and the subject. Her works are semi-representational acrylic paintings on canvas. Kaplan earned her BFA in Studio Art & History from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and her MFA in Printmaking from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She is represented by WSG gallery in Ann Arbor, where she is an active partner and has exhibited her work continuously since 2005.

Casey Blanchard is a monoprint and mixed media artist living in Vermont. During her travels, Blanchard considers no found object too grand or insignificant for expression in the printing medium. She finds the process of monoprinting to be engaging, fluid, unpredictable and fun. It is the mysteries behind the frayed veil, the torn edge and the unspoken word that intrigue her. Blanchard hopes to wake up the viewer's perception, encouraging in them reflection, exploration and a connection to meaning. She uses organic materials in her artwork to help draw people to their natural, healthy and whole state. Blanchard has been involved in arts in healthcare both nationally and internationally.

Missy Orge creates work that is evocative of scientific curiosities and mounted butterflies, with a humor that sneaks up and inspires a much closer look. Her current work focuses on birdpants ̶ tiny, ornithologically correct pants that “could be for backyard visitors who are either fashion-forward or simply chilly in the Michigan winter." She employs traditional craftwork such as quilting, embroidery and beading to produce highly detailed ̶ and decidedly non-traditional ̶ confections that encourage the viewer to consider the possibilities of enticing a chickadee to don a pair of slacks. Making Ann Arbor her home for more than 20 years, she spends her spare time filling bird feeders in the hope that, one day, she can talk a songbird into modeling her creations.

Widely traveled artist Kay Cassill looks for the unusual and the most ordinary views to save in her sketchbook and camera. In her studio, the sketches and photos give rise to watercolor paintings. Whitewashed walls clinging to a cliff and expressive views of a town as seen by a view of a single walkway are details in her paintings that help viewers feel that they were there. Cassill's postgraduate studies include the University of Iowa, the Art Student's League in New York City and the Academe de la Grande in Chaumiere, Paris. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York among others. She maintains a studio on Cape Cod as well as in Michigan.

The American studio glass movement started in 1962 with glass workshops held at the Toledo Museum of Art. The workshops, taught by Harvey Littleton along with scientist Dominick Labino, introduced a small furnace built for working glass that made it possible for artists to work in independent studios. The studio glass movement quickly spread north to Michigan, and in 1982, a decision was made that studio glass would be the focus of the University of Michigan-Dearborn permanent art collection, which is housed at the Alfred Berkowitz Gallery. This exhibition is a portion of that collection, spotlighting studio glass art by major artists working in the medium, including Dominick Labino, Marvin Lipofsky and Richard Ritter.

Reproductive Justice -- the right to have children, not have children, and parent our children in healthy and safe environments -- is a movement and perspective that arose in the 1990s. Articulated and led by women of color with a more encompassing social vision, reproductive justice usually incorporates both a framework of human rights and an awareness of the intersectionality of women’s identities and struggles against sexism, racism, homophobia, and economic marginalization.

This exhibit provides a historical context for the emergence and antecedents of reproductive justice. Given that women's lives have never been reducible to one dimension of their reproductive health, this exhibit traces a longer history of reproductive justice, illustrating many facets of experiences, debates, and policies related to pregnancy, birth, birth control, and raising children.

The exhibit is held in conjunction with the conference, Reproductive Justice: Advocates, Academics, Activists in Ann Arbor, a Michigan Meeting.

MTango is a student organization dedicated to spreading the joy of Argentine tango in the University of Michigan community and beyond. We pride ourselves in providing outstanding teachers at affordable prices, and we look for instructors who are not only excellent dancers and experienced teachers but are also articulate and personable people. We also host social dance parties and share our talents through performances. MTango offers a popular intensive beginner's series in Argentine tango (no partner or experience required), as well as classes for more advanced dancers. It's a great way to meet people, listen to awesome music, relax, share a few dances, and have lots of fun!

El Otro Lado/The Other Side: Struggles for Racial Justice and its Opposition, presented In collaboration with the LSA Winter 2013 Theme Semester, "Understanding Race," presents posters, photographs, archives, books, pamphlets, periodicals, buttons, and other items that illustrate a long history of race-related social protest movements, and that are intended to stimulate conversation and raise awareness about struggles against racism, past and present.

Items on exhibit are from the Joseph A. Labadie Collection, which documents radical and social protest movements from the 19th century to the present. The collection, which is part of the University of Michigan Special Collections Library, is the oldest and largest of its kind, having originated in 1911 when Detroit anarchist and labor activist Joseph Antoine Labadie donated his personal papers to the University of Michigan Library. Today the collection continues to grow, with the addition of both retrospective and contemporary materials.

The exhibit, curated by Julie Herrada with assistance from Daniel Dobras and Cathy Baker, is available during Audubon Room hours: Mon-Fri 8:30am-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 1-7pm.

People are different. Throughout history, these differences have been a source of community strength and personal identity. They have also been the basis for discrimination and oppression.

The idea of “race” has been used historically to describe these differences and to justify mistreatment of people and even genocide. Today, contemporary scientific understanding of human variation is beginning to challenge “racial” differences, and even challenge the very concept of race.

Race: Are we so different?, developed by the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, is the first national exhibition to tell the stories of race from the biological, cultural, and historical points of view. Combining these perspectives offers an unprecedented look at race and racism in the United States. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.UnderstandingRace.org. The traveling Race exhibit has inspired the University of Michigan’s Understanding Race Project, an audience engagement initiative including the campus-wide, winter term Understanding Race Theme Semester, centered in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; participation by all ten public school districts in Washtenaw County; and extensive involvement by community members, nonprofits, government agencies, and other groups.

Museum opens at 12 noon on Sundays

Alisha Wessler’s “Compass” is from the exhibit “Kelsey Contemporaries: Kayla Romberger and Alisha Wessler,” open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through June 16 at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. The exhibit features the work of Master of Fine Arts students Romberger and Wessler from the School of Art & Design and Museum Studies Program.

Each week, writers will bring in typed copies of their short stories, plays, poems, novels, essays, or freelance magazine articles. Fellow writers will offer friendly and appreciative criticism on all aspects of writing. Participants are asked to provide copies of their essays to share with the group. For 23 years, Joy Rome was a Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Class continues Fridays, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon September 7 - August 30 at TSRC.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens is the venue for this special show of art created by older adults with memory loss and art students working in a variety of materials and media. The exhibit is based on the class created by U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design Associate Professor Anne Mondro. Partnering with the U-M Silver Club mild memory loss program club members, including the newer Elderberry (barely elder) group, students guided the members in art making. The theme of the semester was “Lessons Learned.” Students and club members shared experiences and expertise to create one-of-a-kind works of art. The final result is an art exhibition for the Club Members, care partners and students. This traveling exhibition captures the spirit of creativity and embraces a shared experience.

Sponsored by U-M Geriatrics Center, Silver Club Mild Memory Loss Programs; U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design; U-M Alzheimer's Disease Center; and U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum.

Organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Florencia Pita/FP mod explores the provocations and intersections of digital technology, material experimentation, femininity, and ornament in the work of Argentina-born, Los Angeles-based architect and designer Florencia Pita. The exhibition and its related publication, part of the UMMA Books series, trace the evolution of Pita's design ideology through installation pieces, urban design, tableware, furniture, and architecture, as well as small adornments. Pita's boldly colored works draw from literary, art, and biological sources; employ cutting-edge architectural fabrication techniques; and cross borders of visual art, architecture, and design.

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment, Laura Lynch and Hugh McPherson, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Additional generous support is provided by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

The Clements Library never stops adding to its collections of primary source material. Already one of the finest American history research libraries in the world, its curators are always seeking new items to improve traditional strengths of the collection or to support new perspectives on the study of America before 1900. This exhibit features recent acquisitions of the Book, Manuscripts, Map, and Graphics divisions and shows how they fit in to the Clements overall collections.