Arts and Culture

Northern Michigan University will celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November with a series of presentations and other activities on campus and in the community.

Northern Michigan University's Department of Music will present its NMU Choral Invitational Concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, in Reynolds Recital Hall. The performance will feature choir students from Wausaukee middle and high school and Ishpeming and Calumet high schools. Those students will have spent the day visiting NMU's campus and rehearsing with Director of Choirs Erin Colwitz. 

Northern Michigan University honored Indigenous Peoples' Day Oct. 11 with an unveiling ceremony for a new sign on the academic mall acknowledging that the campus is located on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy. The event included songs by the Morning Thunder Drum, speakers and a group procession to the Center for Native American Studies' fire site near Whitman Hall.

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University will host a free opening reception for its new installation, “The Seventh Fire: A Decolonizing Experience,” at noon Saturday, Oct. 9, in its gallery in Gries Hall. The multimedia exhibit experience is funded in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will be on display through April 9. 

The Two Books, Two Communities program will host an Open Mouth Open Mic event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29, at the Ore Dock Brewing Company in Marquette, open to all.

Northern Michigan University is presenting a virtual lecture by Adam Weinstein titled “The Afghanistan Withdrawal” from 7-8:15 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27. The lecture will focus on U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban and the fall of Kandahar and Kabul. 

Northern Michigan University's Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center will host a free Campus and Marquette Bus Tour from 3-4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1. The Beaumier Center's director Daniel Truckey will lead the tour. Attendees will discover how NMU has changed throughout the decades. Participants will also travel through Marquette's commercial and historic districts to see the location of old off-campus hangouts and hear stories from years past. 

Northern Michigan University's Department of Theatre and Dance will present a CO/LAB COLLECTIVE dance showcase at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 2, at Forest Roberts Theatre. A sensory-friendly Theatre For All performance will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 1.

Northern Michigan University Theatre & Dance has released its schedule of 2021-22 productions, which will be performed for live audiences again after the pandemic required a pivot to virtual shows last season.

The NMU School of Art & Design's Winter 2020 Senior Exhibition had to migrate to a virtual gallery because of COVID-19. This year's event showcases the work of 44 graduating artists.