Arts Initiative's "Arts for All" Events

Join us for the second Creative Arts Meetup (CAM) of the year!

Whether you're an artist, writer, performer, crafter, or simply passionate about the arts, the Creative Arts Meetup is the perfect space to connect with fellow creatives. Bring your own work and ideas to share, collaborate with others, network, or just hang out and enjoy a welcoming atmosphere—plus free food and refreshments!

This event is open to the public—feel free to bring friends, colleagues, and anyone interested in the creative arts. All are welcome!

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at creativearts@umich.edu. or join the CAM community server on Discord for conversation, collaboration, and sharing creative inspiration.

*No prior experience required, all materials will be provided.*

Join Eli Zemper from Curiouser Clay as we explore Eco Printing! Eco printing (or bundle dying) is a sustainable natural dyeing process that uses plant materials to create a unique print on fabric. Participants will be provided a large cotton bandana and all the plant materials necessary to create a beautiful one-of-a-kind print.

Eli Zemper is an artist and founder of Curiouser Clay: a mobile workshop that brings creative experiences to communities within a one-hour radius of Chelsea, Michigan for teambuilding, family celebrations, community engagement, and personal enrichment. Eli also serves as the artist-in-residence at St. Louis Center, a residential facility for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities where she oversees the program Moxie Works, which aims to break down barriers in access to artistic expression, provide a creative economy for artists with disabilities, and encourage community collaboration in the arts.

This workshop is presented in partnership with MBGNA and the Arts Initiative.

This workshop is presented in partnership by the Stamps Gallery, and the Arts Initiative.

No prior experience required, all materials will be provided. 

Join poet Caroline New for an immersive poetry workshop inspired by Stacey Kirby’s The Bureau of Personal Belonging. Open to all levels of experience, this workshop invites participants to examine how the politics of bureaucracy intersect with our lives—and how poetry can serve as both a site of power and resistance. 

Through creative, ekphrastic prompts, participants will discuss how bureaucracy affects our lives and explore how poetry can be used to reflect on these experiences. Attendees will practice turning artwork into written pieces and consider the political aspects of art and writing.Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning to explore poetry, this session offers a welcoming space to discover new approaches to writing and expression.

This workshop is offered in support of the 2025 Roman J. Witt Artist-in-Residence Stacey Kirby’s installation, The Bureau of Personal Belonging. The Bureau utilizes bureaucratic forms, postures, and language in vintage office environments to engage participants and community performers in exploring questions of civil authority.

Experience Stacey Kirby’s The Bureau of Personal Belonging at her exhibition in the Stamps Gallery, on view September 27 through November 8. 

During this session of the Be Well: Art, Design & Wellness Series at Stamps Gallery, participants will begin with a rejuvenating yoga workshop led by Zion Well Yoga, focused on promoting wellbeing and mindfulness. Following the yoga session, participants will embark on a guided tour of the gallery's exhibitions Untold Stories, Part II: A Stamps Faculty Exhibition and Stacey Kirby: The Bureau of Personal Belonging

This workshop is thoughtfully designed to foster inner balance and community, inviting participants to connect with themselves, with each other, and with art in a new and meaningful way. This workshop is presented in partnership by the Stamps Gallery, and the Arts Initiative.

Free and open to the public. All abilities and skill levels are welcome, prior experience is not required. Please note that participants will need to bring their own mat. This workshop is designed for ages 18+.

Experience the Untold Stories, Part II: A Stamps Faculty Exhibition September 12 through December 13 and Stacey Kirby’s The Bureau of Personal Belonging September 27 through November 8 at Stamps Gallery.

No prior experience required, all materials will be provided.

Learn a basic pop-up technique and make your own spooky Halloween pop-up. Follow the directions to make a collection of ghosts, bats, and pumpkins, or use the structures you learn to create something completely unique! Hosted by Jamie Vander Broek, co-curator of the William A. Gosling Collection of Pop-up and Movable Books at the University of Michigan Library.

This workshop is presented in partnership by the U-M Library, and the Arts Initiative.

No prior experience required, all materials will be provided.

In this 90minute introductory workshop, participants will learn about the cyanotype process and create their own unique cyanotype prints! Developed in 1842, the cyanotype process — so named because of the characteristic blue color of the prints — is one of the oldest photographic techniques. Inspired by early cyanotype practitioners like the botanist Anna Atkins, participants will gather flora from Nichols Arboretum to create dynamic compositions of leaves, nuts, and flowers. Pre-coated cyanotype paper and all necessary supplies provided. The workshop is open to all UM students, faculty, and staff; no prior experience required. 

Artist Bio: Angela Chen 陳勇氣 is a Taiwanese-American photo-based artist, writer, and educator from the ethnoburbs of the San Gabriel Valley, California. Incorporating personal narrative, alternative photographic processes, and recycled and found material, her practice enacts what she calls thinking and making with the ground–a process of sustained attention to place that is rooted in the photo walk. Her work foregrounds what is typically in the background, showing how what we consider “beneath us” comprise multiple, entangled, more-than-human kin. She often prints her photographs on fabric dyed with foraged, fallen material, such as nuts and oak galls, immersing her images in the specific ecologies in which they were taken. Angela is a graduate of the Yale School of Art, where she was an Alice Kimball Traveling Fellow and Art and Social Justice Grantee.

This workshop is presented in partnership by U-M’s Matthei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, and the Arts Initiative.

This workshop is presented in partnership by the gallery at the Institute for the Humanities, the U-M Library, and the Arts Initiative.No prior experience required, all materials will be provided. Artist Narsiso Martinez (b. 1977, Oaxaca, Mexico) will lead a workshop on painting and drawing portraits on salvaged materials such as cardboard and paper bags. As in Martinez’s own work, the use of these humble materials honors both the impermanence and the significance of our everyday lives and the people within them. Participants are encouraged to bring a photo reference for their portrait.Martinez’s drawings and mixed media installations often feature multi-figure compositions set amidst agricultural landscapes. Drawing from his own experience as a farmworker, Martinez focuses on the people performing the essential labor required to fill produce sections and restaurant kitchens across the country. His portraits of farmworkers are rendered in paint, drawing, and sculpture on discarded produce boxes collected from grocery stores.This workshop is offered in support of the exhibition "Narsiso Martinez: Best Used By". The exhibition highlights timely issues related to worker invisibility and anonymity. As part of his project, Martinez will be researching archives related to regional agricultural history and engaging with local food service workers.Experience Narsiso’s work at his exhibition "Narsiso Martinez: Best Used By" in the Gallery at the Institute for the Humanities, on view from November 13 through December 19.

***No prior experience required, all materials will be provided***

Come together around the fireplace to share a poem you’ve written and gain feedback from other writers. Poet and U-M Anthropology graduate student Caroline New will lead small groups in which each person will read their poem and have a conversation with other writers about their work. This will be a safe space to share, ask questions, and uplift fellow writers in our poetry community. New writers are welcome!

No prior experience required, all necessary materials will be provided.

In this workshop, Kara Roseborough will lead participants in an immersion into the energetic world of Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican dance form that emphasizes improvisation and individual expression. This 60-minute workshop, featuring live accompaniment, will guide you through the fundamentals of Bomba, focusing on rhythm, body movement, and personal storytelling. No prior dance experience is required—just bring your enthusiasm and willingness to explore this powerful and liberating dance style!

Kara Roseborough is a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in dance, creative writing, and theatre. She holds an MFA in Dance and a Certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan, and currently teaches as a Lecturerer in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, at the University of Michigan.

This workshop involves periods of continuous movement and prolonged periods of standing. Comfortable clothing is highly recommended.

Participants with specific mobility needs are encouraged to email Félix Zamora-Gómez (felixzg@umich.edu) in advance for accommodations.