Research and Teaching

University of Michigan faculty across the spectrum of disciplines—from art history to zoology, medicine to creative writing—use UMMA’s collections and special exhibitions in their teaching and research. In our expanded facility—with vastly more works of art on view, new object study classrooms, and a state-of-the-art auditorium—the opportunities to engage the Museum of Art in your academic planning will be greatly enhanced.

At present, a number of UM graduate students and faculty are involved in the multi-year project of reinterpreting and reinstalling the UMMA collections in new and refurbished galleries that will reopen in 2009. This wide-ranging work, supported in part by the Getty Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will also include improvements to the Museum’s digital collections records and enhancements to the user interface.

In past years, faculty members have served as guest curators of temporary exhibitions, and have led their classes in the selection of objects for display, creation of didactic materials, and the publication of gallery guides and handouts; these opportunities will continue upon our reopening. Graduate students are involved in research either for course credit, for pay, or on a volunteer basis. Their participation is invaluable to a variety of projects that extend beyond traditional curatorial research and writing, including work on the Museum’s website, publications, gallery installations, information technology, and communications. See For UM Students to learn more.

UMMA and the Kelsey Museum of Art and Archaeology jointly publish The Bulletin of the University of Michigan Museums of Art and Archaeology on a biannual basis. Faculty and graduate students are invited to write articles for this journal, both extended scholarly essays that relate to the Museum’s collections and exhibitions as well as brief studies of individual works of art. For more information about the Bulletin and submission guidelines, please contact UMMA Director of Communications, Karen Chassin Goldbaum.