In celebration of the upcoming one-year anniversary of the reopening of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, a new student-geared program has been created. “1 Year, Many Voices” focuses on students’ responses to the museum’s collections.
“1 Year, Many Voices”
Deadline: Sunday, Feb. 14
The Student Programming and Advisory Board of UMMA, in collaboration with Arts at Michigan, is accepting submissions from students until Sunday, Feb. 14. The Board is asking students to create a response to one piece of art in the UMMA collection. There is no restriction on format. The medium of the submission can range from photography to music to a written response.
“We really wanted to open up the doors to any way that students would respond,” said Mary DeYoe, education program coordinator of UMMA. “So it could be musical composition, it could be sculpture, it could be something written, it could be a poem. … We really wanted it to be wide ranging.”
The diverse possibilities with this program result from the Board’s desire to push past conventional readings of art and open up boundaries across several disciplines.
“People look at things very differently and that’s what’s really cool about it and what we hope will be really cool about all the submissions,” DeYoe said.
The Board will also serve as the jury for the competition. Consisting of 12 students from multiple backgrounds, including both undergraduates and graduates whose areas of study range from Mathematics to Art & Design to Japanese Studies, the Board mirrors the intended diversity of the program’s submissions.
“It’s a wide range of students (who) make up this board,” DeYoe said. “This year it’s really cool because it’s the first year that they have a building to work with and (a chance) to actually create programs and to help figure out ways to get students involved.”
Since the reopening of UMMA, the Board has become increasingly focused on the students’ reception of the collection.
“What we wanted to do this year is … to really showcase how students have been engaged at the museum,” DeYoe said.
In addition to a monetary award, the top three submissions will receive publicity on either a guided tour of UMMA, the museum’s website, YouTube, or in the museum’s publication, depending on the medium of the selection. There will also be a ceremony on April 1 to celebrate all of the submissions.
As for future plans, the Board is keeping an open mind on the continuation of the program.
“Right now it’s just this year’s project and I think we’ll see where it goes,” DeYoe said.
However, DeYoe indicated one enduring theme in future programs will be the students’ interaction and involvement with UMMA.
UMMA offers a stunning collection of work, spanning from Contemporary and Modern to African to Early Western art. Now, in correspondence with the UMMA motto “the more we look, the more we feel,” students are able to finally be a part of a museum that has become a staple of Ann Arbor.
For more information on how to submit pieces, go to umma.umich.edu.