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
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Serigraph print, 1974
Gift of Gilbert M. Frimet,
Collection of UM-Dearborn (1980.065)
Photographed by Tim Thayer
This powerful serigraph print from the permanent collection was created by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of this century's most widely acclaimed artists.
Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but moved to Harlem, New York, at 13. He is among the few painters of his generation who grew up in a Black community, received instruction primarily from Black artists, and was influenced by the experiences of Black individuals.
Lawrence's artwork portrays the lives and struggles of the Black community, capturing their experiences through several series focused on figures such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman, as well as themes related to life in Harlem and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His style is characterized by vibrant colors and abstract forms.
In the 1940s, during a time of widespread segregation, Lawrence broke racial barriers by becoming the first Black artist whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
He stated, "If at times my productions do not express the conventionally beautiful, there is always an effort to express the universal beauty of man's continuous struggle to lift his social position and to add dimension to his spiritual being."
Researched and written by:
Julianna Collins, Stamelos Gallery Center former intern, UM-Dearborn art history/museum studies graduate, Class of 2025
