Arts Initiative Workshops 2026 - 2027

In research libraries and collections, we may capture the portrait of history in so-called insignificant visual and verbal textualities and textiles– in material details” writes Susan Howe. In this workshop, Stamps MFA candidate Celia Shaheen will invite participants to explore the tactile qualities of archives, both personal and public, through tapestry weaving. In dialogue with Cosmo Whyte: Under the Quiet, Beyond the Eye, participants will splice and reconfigure photographs from the Ann Arbor District Library Archives with yarns, fabrics, and elements of their own personal and/​or familial archives to create a small woven collage.

This workshop is best suited for ages 12 and up; no weaving experience necessary. Participants are highly encouraged to bring copies of photographs, letters, recipes, and/​or other printed matter that speak to their lived experiences and histories. Note: we will be cutting these elements up before adding them to our weavings.Limited space available; registration required.

Join the Special Collections Research Center and the Arts Initiative for an evening of reading, making, and sharing recipe cards. Attendees will have an opportunity to explore and discuss historic, 20th century family recipe card boxes from the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. Then, under the guidance of Arts Initiative Teaching Artist Michaela Nichelle, attendees will turn their hands to carving personal or family stamps to use on recipe cards of their own. Blank recipe cards and historical recipes will be available for use. Before or after the event, stop by the adjacent exhibit in the Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room: Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920s and find the commercial recipe cards issued by Monarch Home Service from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

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