The University of Michigan-Dearborn Department of Art Collections and Exhibitions preserves, displays, and interprets a treasured art collection that has been acquired by the university over the past four decades. The collection consists of 20th and 21st century artwork of all media and styles with a large portion being studio glass. Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Jacob Lawrence, Electra Stamelos, Vera Sattler, Howard Ben Tré, Fred Birkhill, Herb Babcock, and Dale Chihuly are just a few of the globally known artists represented.
The university owns more than 4000 pieces of artwork, many of which were donated by Alfred Berkowitz and Bill and Electra Stamelos, close friends of UM-Dearborn and curator emeritus Joseph Marks. The many prized watercolor, acrylic and oil paintings by late artist and former art professor Electra Stamelos are a collection highlight. Generous glass donations from William and Nancy Culp and Richard and Louise Abrahams have been notable recent additions.
The Art Collections and Exhibitions Department enhances the academic and educational experiences of students, faculty, staff and the general public by displaying this remarkable collection throughout campus, loaning it to other institutions, making it accessible for research, and curating and managing a thriving exhibition program in the Stamelos Gallery Center. Exhibitions featured in the art gallery, located on campus in the Mardigian Library, utilize artworks from the permanent collection and on loan from other institutions, as well as current work from renowned regional and national artists.
Many gallery exhibitions are designed to complement and augment university curriculum. UM-Dearborn students and faculty have the unique opportunity to directly research and interact with the artwork in the collection. In addition, the gallery allows museum studies students the opportunity to gain professional experience curating and installing exhibitions within a working art gallery, as well as writing and publishing exhibition catalogs. The department also offers internships for students interested in curation and collections management.
Taketori Tale,
Kyohei Fujita (b. 1921), n.d.,
Mold blown glass with gold and silver foil inclusions
Gift of Richard and Louise Abrahams,
UM-Dearborn Collection (2014.1.17),
Photograph by Kip Kriigel
Taketori Tale,
Kyohei Fujita (b. 1921),
n.d.,
Mold blown glass with gold and silver foil inclusions
Gift of Richard and Louise Abrahams,
Collection of UM-Dearborn (Adp39),
Photograph by Kip Kriigel
World renowned artist Kyohei Fujita was born in Japan in 1921. He is known as the father of Japanese studio glass. Many of his works, including this one, were inspired by early Japanese boxes that were richly decorated with lacquerwork and mother-of-pearl inlays, and traditionally used to store Buddhist writings, jewelry, inkstones and brushes. Fujita's celebrated ornamental glass boxes revive conventional Japanese aesthetics in a contemporary form. This breathtaking piece was mold blown with gold and silver foil inclusions. Whenever asked by collectors what to keep in the boxes, the artist usually stated "You should put your dreams in them."
---Laura Cotton, Art Curator and Gallery Manager
