Arts and Culture

Northern Michigan University alumna Karen Saari was commissioned to co-write a musical titled Ten Days in a Madhouse, about journalist Nellie Bly's experience infiltrating a notorious insane asylum to report on the abhorrent conditions. The show had its world premiere Aug. 19-27 through Music Theatre of Madison in Wisconsin. The Upper Peninsula native said it was research for an NMU class assignment that sparked her lifelong fascination with Bly.  

A new website dedicated to the symbiotic relationship between the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University will be launched with a free public event at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, in Ballroom I of the Northern Center at NMU. The website was created by the Beamier U.P. Heritage Center and funded by a donation from NMU History Professor Emeritus Jon Saari.

Northern Michigan University's DeVos Art Museum will open an exhibition Aug. 15 that features three groups of new acquisitions from the permanent collection on display for the first time. The exhibit is titled “New to the Collection: Kinngait: Artists' Reflections in Print, Lundmark and the Lake, and Selections in Contemporary Illustration.”

Two Books Two Communities of Marquette and Alger Counties has named this year's book selections:The Lightkeeper's Daughters, an adult novel, and Me and You and the Red Canoe, a children's book, both by award-winning Canadian author Jean E. Pendziwol. 

The Northern Michigan University Department of Theatre and Dance will present the world premiere of "A Complicated Hope" by John Mabey of Atlanta, winner of NMU's 2021 Panowski Playwriting Award. Show times are 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 8 through Saturday, June 11, and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 12. A sensory-friendly Theatre for All performance will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday. 

The Northern Michigan University Arts and Athletics Golf Outing will be held on Thursday, June 23, at the Marquette Golf Club. This is the 4th annual event, which supports students and programs associated with the Departments of Theatre and Dance and Intercollegiate Athletics.

WNMU-FM producer and host Kurt Hauswirth recently won two Broadcast Excellence Awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. “The Local Shuffle,” a special edition of “The Shuffle” new alternative music program that premiered on the station just last year, was recognized as best musical programming. An interview he conducted with poet Moheb Soliman about his “HOMES” release and reading in Marquette earned a merit award for special interest and cultural programming.

Northern Michigan University seniors graduating from the School of Art & Design have artwork displayed at the DeVos Art Museum through Friday, April 29. The exhibition features students concentrating in ceramics, computer art, digital cinema, drawing/painting, graphic design, human-centered design, illustration, metalsmithing/sculpture as well as photography and woodworking. 

Northern Michigan University will host a NMU Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10 at Reynolds Recital Hall. Admission is free. 

Northern Michigan University's Percussion Ensemble presents its spring performance at 3 p.m., Saturday April 2, in Reynolds Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.