U-M Stamps School of Art & Design hosts new Stamps Gallery open house, names gallery director

March 1, 2017
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The new Stamps Gallery is located first floor of the McKinley Towne Center at 201 S. Division St. in downtown Ann Arbor.The new Stamps Gallery is located first floor of the McKinley Towne Center at 201 S. Division St. in downtown Ann Arbor.ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design will host a public open house for their new downtown Ann Arbor gallery space 5-8 p.m. March 10.

Located on the first floor of the McKinley Towne Center at 201 S. Division St., the Stamps Gallery open house will coincide with the opening of “Pathways,” a thesis exhibition by Stamps second-year MFA in Art and MDes Integrative Design graduate students.

With nearly 8,000 square feet of exhibition space, the downtown location replaces the Stamps School’s Work Gallery (306 S. State St.) and Slusser Gallery (2000 Bonisteel Blvd.). Slusser Gallery has been converted into fresh studio space—referred to as the “Work Commons”—for Stamps undergraduates.

“The Stamps Gallery offers us a larger and more expansive space to support more ambitious exhibition and curatorial programs,” said Guna Nadarajan, dean of the Stamps School of Art & Design. “The space will allow us to show works that fuel our students’ education and give them hands-on opportunities in exhibition participation, promotion, curation and design.”

Beginning April 3, Srimoyee Mitra, who comes to Stamps from her previous position as curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, will assume the role of inaugural director of the new gallery.

“Since the gallery is new and there is no established culture, I see this as an opportunity to develop a framework that is solid, robust, inclusive and deep enough that we can keep mining,” Mitra said. “There is a sense of lightness, risk and possibility that we can create with this new space that is really meaningful, not just for students, staff and faculty, but for the wider community—locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.”

The Stamps Gallery will be open noon-7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and will house rotating exhibitions of contemporary art and design, including work by Stamps students, faculty and alumni.

 

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