Arts and Culture

Northern Michigan University's DeVos Art Museum will host an artist talk and reception featuring Liz Ward and Robert Ziebell at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. The artists will discuss their work currently on display. Their project titled “Across Time and Place” explores the artists' approaches to understanding and interpreting place through multimedia artworks. Their works examine the nuance of place and delve into the richness of our world today and in past periods.

Northern Michigan University alumnus Jack Deo will present an artist's talk pertaining to his collection of photographs featured in the NMU DeVos Art Museum exhibition titled “Standing Still - Studio Portraits from the Upper Peninsula.” The event begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Art & Design 165 and will be followed by a reception. 

Northern Michigan University's jazz ensembles will return to the Reynolds Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30 for their first concert of the fall 2024 season. This event is free and open to the public.

Northern Michigan University's CO/LAB Dance Company participated in the Detroit Dance City Festival (DDCF) Sept. 7-8, performing a student-choreographed piece outside the Detroit Institute of Arts, watching a professional showcase and attending master classes.

The folk-jazz fusion group American Patchwork Quartet, which showcases the dynamic diversity of contemporary culture by reimagining timeless songs from America's past, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Northern Michigan University's Forest Roberts Theatre. The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at NMU is hosting the concert.

Northern Michigan University Theatre & Dance will present its annual Wildcat Theatre Follies, which showcases a broad array of performance talents from freshmen and sophomores in the program, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5 and Friday, Sept. 6. The event will take place in Forest Roberts Theatre and include artistic productions varying from dramatic scenes and monologues to song and dance routines as a celebration of Northern's rising performance arts stars.

Award-winning country duo Maddie & Tae will headline a free outdoor concert as part of Northern Michigan University's 125th anniversary Homecoming celebration at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, in the gravel parking lot behind the Superior Dome. Their opening act, NMU student and singer/guitarist Sami Brown, will take the stage at 6:30 p.m.

Michigan Humanities will present a special event titled "Bridging Michigan: Building Understanding through Poetry" on Thursday, Sept. 12, in the Northern Center at Northern Michigan University. NMU English professor emerita and Upper Peninsula Poet Laureate Beverly Matherne will converse with Michigan's Poet Laureate Nandi Comer about how poetry creates understanding between one another. NMU Assistant Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Shawnrece Campbell will moderate the discussion.

Percussionist Britton-René Collins, Grand Prize winner of the 2022 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and the 2021 Chicago International Music Competition, will perform at Northern Michigan University as part of the Siril Concert Series at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. She will also present two additional free events earlier in the day: a music appreciation talk at 11 a.m. and a percussion masterclass at 1 p.m. All will take place in Reynolds Recital Hall.

In conjunction with Northern Michigan University's 125th anniversary, the DeVos Art Museum on campus is presenting "Standing Still: Studio Portraits from the Upper Peninsula" through Nov. 2. The historic portraits, provided by the Jack Deo Collection, were taken at U.P. photo studios from 1890-1910. They depict local legends, friends, neighbors and everyday heroes of the past.