Public programs facilitate dialogue between academics and professionals, informing scholarship and strengthening practice.
Multiple day conferences, year-long colloquia, individual lectures, “conversations” between individuals, hands-on workshops, and Museums at Noon talks featuring our graduate students all contribute to the remarkable richness of MSP offerings.
Video recordings of some MSP lectures are archived for viewing in our Media Gallery.
Lectures
Events
-
-
Museums, Technologies and Civic Transformations
University of Michigan Museum of ArtPresentation by Seb Chan, Director & CEO of ACMI (formerly Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Melbourne, Australia and the Museum Studies Program's 2025 Visiting Scholar UM Museum of Art - Helmut Stern Auditorium Predictably, the first quarter of the 21st century has...
-
-
Flexing the Museum: The Global Museum in the 21st Century?
University of Michigan Museum of ArtPresentation by Christina Olsen (Director, UM Museum of Art) October 23 at 5:30 pm UM Museum of Art, Helmut Stern Auditorium Exploring museums across Argentina, the UK, Belgium and Portugal visited on a recent sabbatical, museum director Christina Olsen wrestles with museums' changing shapes...
-
-
Museums in Time of Polycrisis: The Promise of Cultural Institutions
Haven Hall, Eldersveld Room 505 S. State Street, Ann ArborPresentation by Dr. Porchia Moore January 27 at 5:00 pm Eldersveld Room, 5670 Haven Hall (505 S. State Street, Ann Arbor) As a global polycrisis continues to impact modern day life, perhaps no other institution is experiencing the impact of rapid change more than...
-
-
Museo Moderno: A Values-driven Model that Positions Art and Artists as Central to Human, Economic and Democratic Development
University of Michigan Museum of ArtPresentation by Victoria Noorthoorn, Director, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and the Museum Studies Program’s 2026 Visiting Scholar UM Museum of Art – Helmut Stern Auditorium How does art lead the way in creating our possible futures? How do the human imagination...
-
-
America at 250: a Conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Rackham Graduate School 915 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesAmerica at 250: History, Memory, and Truth A Conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Tuesday, March 31, 6pm (doors open at 5:15pm) Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St. Free & open to the public Museums are the classrooms of our...
-
-
In the Shadow of the Empire: Calcutta’s Victoria Memorial and its Cast of Moving Statuary
Haven Hall, Eldersveld Room 505 S. State Street, Ann ArborPresentation by Tapati Guha-Thakurta October 23 at 4:00 pm Eldersveld Room, 5670 Haven Hall (505 S. State Street, Ann Arbor) With a focus on Calcutta’s landmark monument – the most grandiose of the memorials to the Queen of all the ones built across the...
