RSS Newsletter

Glimpse4

New Exhibits Look At Race In Our Community

As we go about our daily lives, we encounter dozens, if not hundreds, of new people each week – at the grocery store, at the library, at the stoplight. But how often do we see beyond the surface, especially when it comes to people who look different from ourselves?

UMMNH has developed two new exhibits to explore issues of race in our community, and to provide a local counterpoint to a nationally traveling exhibit on race coming to the Museum in early 2013.

Opening Friday, November 16 with a public reception from 6-8 pm, Glimpse: People of our Community and Race in this Place: A Community Conversation invite exploration and conversation about race here in Washtenaw County.

Twenty-two large-format portraits by photographer Mohammed Langston comprise Glimpse: People of our Community. The photos and the subjects’ statements about race highlight the diversity of our region and pique our curiosity about others, inviting viewers to go deeper, to move beyond the “glimpses” of life and into real relationships with folks who are outside of our usual social circles.

We hear about issues of race in the news on a national level almost every day. But how does race affect our community here at home?  Race in this Place:  A Community Conversation explores some of the ways race affects life in Washtenaw County. The exhibit identifies issues of race in four areas:  health, education, the legal system, and immigration, and presents some of the people and organizations working to make this a better place for all.

The exhibit also features a video by Ann Arbor documentary filmmaker Laurie White (whose past work includes Refusing to be Enemies - the Zeitouna Story), highlighting several local residents, who speak about their experiences of race in Washtenaw County.  The exhibit includes photography on the theme of race by area youth who participated in PhotoVoice workshops led by Professor Larry Gant of the U-M School of Social Work, as well as artwork by youth participating in the Neutral Zone’s SEED program (Students Empowering Each other about Diversity). The African-American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County has also provided objects for display.

Race in this Place was developed by Abigail Celis, a U-M PhD student in Romance Languages and Museum Studies, with support from U-M’s Arts of Citizenship Program, and was designed by the Museum’s exhibit staff.

Glimpse and Race in this Place were developed as part of the Understanding Race Project, an audience engagement effort launched by the Museum in anticipation of the traveling exhibit RACE: Are we so different?, on view at the Museum from February 8-May 27, 2013.  More information about the exhibit is available at www.UnderstandingRace.org.

 The Understanding Race Project holds monthly Community Conversations.

October: “A Historical Analysis of Racism,” held Tuesday, October 16 from 6-9 pm at Arrowwood Hills Cooperative Community Center, 2566 Arrowwood Trail, and Wednesday, October 17 from 11-2 at Peace Neighborhood Center, 111 North Maple Road.

November: “Becoming Activists - Racial and Social Justice,” held Tuesday, November 13 from 6-9 pm and Wednesday, November 14 from 11 am-2 pm. Both meetings held at Washtenaw Community College, Morris Lawrence Building. Learn more at understandingraceproject.org.

 

Marina

New Office Manager Marina Mayne

Marina Mayne is the Museum’s new Office Manager, officially starting October 8.

Marina graduated from U-M last spring with a degree in Anthropology and Museum Studies. She began working at the Museum as a student docent as a sophomore, and has worked in the office, in the gift shop, giving tours, and as staff on weekends. “The only thing I haven’t done is work in the Planetarium,” she notes.

An Ann Arbor native, she began visiting the Museum as a young child with her grandmother, so when she started to think of student jobs, the Museum came to mind. Marina has also interned at the Kelsey Museum and the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, as well as working as a banquet server at the Campus Inn, and helping out at Pioneer High School’s Band Camp up in Interlochen.

Last spring, docents got a glimpse of Marina’s Honors Thesis, “Faces of a False Face Mask: Understanding Authenticity in Museum Research and Display,” during a docent coffee talk. These masks are ceremonial objects that are not specifically covered under the laws of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), but are often considered for repatriation due to their importance for the Iroquois.

 

The Lake Effect: Creating A Resilient Future

On Wednesday, October 3 the Museum’s Planetarium linked with numerous other planetarium domes across the country for the “domecast” of a live program about the Great Lakes Watershed entitled “The Lake Effect: Creating A Resilient Future.” The program helps tell the story about one of Earth’s largest fresh water systems, and will become part of the Museum’s public and school program offerings.

The Museum Planetarium is one of eight sites nationally that are collaborating on the Worldview Network, a three-year NOAA grant to discuss and present on climate-related issues relevant to their region. Primary partners on the project include NOAA’s Climate Program Office, The Elumenati, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the California Academy of Sciences.  More information is available at worldviews.net. 

Nanocam: A Trip into Biodiversity

On October 20 at 10:30 am , see a show in the Planetarium about inner space! Nanocam is a fascinating journey exploring life-forms that are invisible to the human eye and contribute to a better understanding of the world we live in.

Take a trip into the five kingdoms of living things, seen through an electron microscope: the kingdom of bacteria, protists and their mechanisms of motility, the structure of fungi,the specializations of plants, and the complexity of the animal kingdom. Featuring never-before-seen images, Nanocam shows a reality measured in micrometers. Tickets are $5 per person.



 

 

Past Newsletters

Click below for PDFs of recent issues:

Oct-Nov 2012 (PDF)
Jun-Aug 2012 (PDF)
Apr-May 2012 (PDF)

 

« May »
S M T W T F S
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  
-