museums

For more than 40 years, the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum has filled the space of a former firehouse at 220 E. Ann Street in Ann Arbor. As we close out 2025, we can look forward to another fascinating and intriguing year. Susan Westhoff is President and CEO of the Museum and of the Leslie Science and Nature Center. She joined WEMU's David Fair to reflect on the current year and let us know about all of the new things we’ll get to learn in 2026!

The 2025 Blacksmith Shop Concert Series in Manchester takes place in the historic site of a former wagon factory. Built in 1877 by a group of stonemasons, the building was turned into a blacksmith shop. Eventually purchased by the Manchester Area Historical Society, it now operates as a museum where blacksmiths still practice their craft. WEMU’s Caroline MacGregor talks to violinist Grant Flick about the Blacksmith Shop Concert Series.

Democrats in the Michigan Legislature are figuring out their next move following a sudden, unilateral action by the House Republican majority to cut $645 million out of the state budget. Rick Pluta has more.

Members of the University of Michigan’s Lecturers’ Employee Organization’s Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums bargaining unit (LEO-GLAM) have overwhelmingly approved a strike pledge. WEMU’s Kevin Meerschaert reports.

Jason Stevens's company, Flutter & Wow Museum Projects, located in Ann Arbor, has designed exhibitions and displays for local museums, like the U-M Museum of Natural History and the Motown Museum, as well as museums in Kentucky, Georgia and elsewhere. Jason joins Deb Polich on this edition of WEMU’s "creative:impact." They talk about what it takes to create captivating and exciting exhibitions.

Food—glorious food—is the subject of this "creative:impact." We meet Brooke Boyst and Andrew Schneider, museum studies graduate students at EMU. They are on the team behind the "Hamburgers for Breakfast" exhibition at the McKenny Gallery. Join Deb Polich’s conversation with Brooke and Andrew to hear what they discovered in Eastern’s archives, about the pairing of food, and the EMU student experience.

A leading expert on cultural audience behavior, Alan Brown returns to "creative:impact" after his first appearance in April 2020 just weeks after COVID-19…