Community Calendar

Speaker
Rose Gottemoeller, Catherine A. Novelli, Ronald E. Neumann, John R. Beyrle

About the Event:

Since the end of World War II, the United States and Europe have been closely tied together. American security ties with Europe were a fundamental part of overall US security during the Cold War. Europe is the United States’ largest trading partner. The development of Europe after the war has been, and continues to be, a key part of America's prosperity for 70 years. Are things changing now? What will the security relationship between the US and Europe look like going forward? What is Russia's place? How will the US balance its relations between Russia and Europe? The Ambassadors Forum will tackle some of the most central issues in this paradigm.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joins award-winning journalist Kara Swisher for a discussion on the state of U.S. democracy, politics, and more, at this live taping of the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast.

Since leaving office, Buttigieg has been using his voice to criticize many of the actions undertaken by President Donald Trump and his administration, while reaching out and engaging with people who might disagree with him. Swisher will delve into topics like threats to U.S. democracy, the state of political discourse, and prospects for the 2026 and 2028 elections.

Livestream the event at fordschool.umich.edu

Roberto Lugo creates defiant genre-mixing works that confront the function and subject matter of high art objects from Classical Antiquity, East Asia, the Italian Renaissance, seventeenth-century Europe, and beyond. Using the ancient medium of clay as his canvas, Lugo draws attention to intergenerational experiences of racial injustice while honoring African American and Latino culture.

Ceramics hold particular significance for Lugo due to their deep anthropological context. Over the course of history, finely-crafted ceramic objects stood as a symbol of class, privilege, and the aristocracy. Lugo intervenes in these histories, and countless more, to create a new mode of storytelling that blends narrative and portraiture with cross-disciplinary techniques and time-honored forms in order to introduce those notably absent from the art historical canon. The result is distinctive works in clay unified by Lugo’s call for representation.

Roberto Lugo holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, among others. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pew Fellowship, the Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize, a US Artists Award, and, most recently, the Heinz Award for the Arts. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; High Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Brooklyn Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Walters Art Museum; and more.

Presented with support from the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities.

This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.

Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS, ALL ARTS, and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Public.

The Alaya Project is the essential bridge between the intricate Carnatic style of Indian classical music and contemporary jazz and funk. Born in the cultural bastion of Oakland, California, The Alaya Project explores new textures and perspectives built over two decades of friendship, dialogue, and musical immersion across genres and continents.

The driving hybrid kit grooves of Indian percussionist and drummer Rohan Krishnamurthy, the soulful Ragas and melodies of Prasant Radhakrishnan on saxophone, and the harmonic bedrock of Colin Hogan embodies the permanence of a changing soundscape.

On Friday, Sept 19, 2025, Prof. Rogério M. Pinto of the University of Michigan School of Social Work (UMSSW) will be joined by four U-M collaborators for Colorism, an evening of live storytelling at Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (“The Wright”), 350 East Warren Avenue, at 7:30 p.m. (doors, 6:30). Hosting will be Satori Shakoor, Executive Director and founder of Detroit’s Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers.

Colorism will explore how racial categorizations and colorism have shaped the performers’ lives, opportunities, privileges, and prejudices. The performances will reflect ways in which colonial histories, scientific classifications, and social structures have upheld the imagined superiority of light skin and have oppressed those with darker skin tones.

The Michigan Art Gallery at Schmidt's Antiques proudly announces the opening of a major retrospective exhibition featuring over fifty never-before-seen European and American landscape paintings as well as portraits by renowned Ann Arbor artist Leon Makielski (1885–1974).
The European works were painted during Makielski’s early years studying and traveling across the continent, primarily in Paris. The American works include atmospheric scenes from Vermont, painted during travels to New England around the time Makielski met poet Robert Frost, and landscapes from Virginia, drawn from visits to his family in Appalachia.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6th, 2025 / 3PM-7PM
Public Exhibition & Sale: Open every Saturday until October 11th / 9AM-5PM
Works will be available for purchase in the gallery and online at www.michiganartgallery.com.
*Please note: This sale is on the third floor of our gallery, which is a converted 1910s barn without elevator access. Please email info@schmidtsantiques.com or call 734-434-2660 with any inquiries regarding access.
To learn more about The Michigan Art Gallery, please contact:
The Michigan Art Gallery at Schmidt's Antiques 5138 W. Michigan Avenue Ypsilanti, MI 48197 @michiganartgallery @schmidtsantiquesinc (T) 734-434-2660 (E) info@schmidtsantiques.com

OUT Ensemble hosts a fundraising event with the Northside Community Church’s Concerts4aCause series to raise funds for upcoming commissions by recent University of Michigan graduates. The two new works will be featured alongside Samuel Barber’s Summer Music and Jennifer Higdon’s Autumn Music on OUT’s first album, debuting in late 2026. In addition to a performance including these two works, the composers of the upcoming works will share the inspiration behind the new pieces.

“To say that Schmidt is simply a performer with a talent to entertain would be a miscarriage of understatement. Schmidt takes her audiences into her world as easily as the child who discovers the endless universes that exist in a cardboard box.” – Door County Advocate, Wisconsin
7 PM Door/ 7:30 Concert
Admission: $20 regular $18 student/senior No advance sales; cash or check at door only

10-piece big band led by Chris Smith, specializing in hot jazz of the 1920s and 30s. Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Duke Ellington and other jazz legends are prominent in their repertoire. Great for listening or dancing.