Arts Initiative
Arts Initiative

Arts Initiative Workshops 2026 - 2027

The Arts Initiative is university-wide, and we believe the arts are for everyone. One of our goals is to make creative experiences accessible across all three University of Michigan campuses and beyond by connecting students, faculty, staff, and community members through meaningful artistic opportunities.

Throughout the year, we support hundreds of free or low-cost events, workshops, performances, exhibitions, artist talks, creative wellness programs, and public art experiences. Whether someone has been making art their entire life or is trying something creative for the very first time, there's a place for them here.

We believe that creativity helps us build community, explore new ideas, reduce stress, and connect with one another in meaningful ways. There's no expectation to be an artist when attending our workshops —just come as you are, stay curious, and enjoy the process.



Autumn in Verse: A Poetry Workshop W/ Caroline Harper New

Available Seats 14
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Nichols Arboretum 1610 Washington Hts. Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Caroline New

Join us for "Art in the Arb", a special workshop series designed to welcome U-M students, staff, and faculty to Nichols Arboretum through a shared arts experience. In this poetry workshop, artist Caroline Harper New will guide us through a series of writing meditations that ask us to reflect on our relationship to the natural world. We will think about time, memory, and seasons of transition, as well as the ways in which we become entangled with the beings around us. You will have the opportunity to read poems by others and share our own work. Everyone is encouraged to explore Nichols Arboretum before or after the workshop. No prior art or writing experience is required; all levels are welcome.  All materials are provided. Bring your curiosity and love for the outdoors!


Artist Bio

Caroline is a scholar and artist from southwest Georgia. She is the author of A History of Half-Birds (Milkweed Editions, 2024) and If I Call This Cave a Garden (YesYes Books, forthcoming 2027).


Her creative work is rooted in the precarious landscape of the Gulf Coast, where her practice spans poetry, sculpture, painting, film, choreography, and the tendons in between. As a Ph.D. student in anthropology, she studies in beyond-human entanglements, ruptures in temporality, and death and extinction in wetlands. She earned her M.F.A. in Poetry at the University of Michigan.


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