EAST LANSING, Mich – The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University announced Aug. 28 that Aimee Shapiro has joined the museum staff as director of education.
Shapiro will oversee a wide range of programming for the Broad MSU, including family programming, a new docent training class, collaborations with university departments and community-based programming that reflects the diversity present in today's learning and creative environments.
Shapiro was most recently the Artists in Education Program manager at Southern Exposure, a non-profit visual arts organization based in San Francisco. Prior to that, she served in several capacities at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, facilitating art integration with area teachers, developing standards-based curriculum based on exhibitions and SFMOMA's permanent collection and working with high school students to create a mural project with internationally renowned artist Kerry James Marshall.
“University art museums are, at their core, educational institutions that not only engage college students across disciplines with the visual arts, but also provide educational opportunities for the entire community,” said director Michael Rush. “Aimee brings a wealth of experience in developing and implementing innovative arts education programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Broad MSU’s educational programming will intersect with and complement MSU’s arts education programs, further our mission of using international contemporary art to explore a very extensive range of ideas across many disciplines, and advance MSU’s commitment to global engagement for all of its students.”
The Broad MSU will offer a wide range of dynamic educational programming when it opens in November, with a focus on putting contemporary art into context by leveraging the museum’s vast historical collection and new acquisitions from the 21st century. Interactive programs will take place both in the museum and at off-site locations, stretching the boundaries of the gallery walls. The Broad MSU is committed to reaching diverse audiences in unique ways through partnerships and collaborations with university departments, internationally renowned artists, area schools, alternative art spaces, and other entities in the community and beyond.
At Southern Exposure, Shapiro worked with urban youth in an intensive after-school arts program, managed and taught weekly arts workshops for incarcerated youth in Bay Area juvenile justice centers, and developed an innovative one-on-one mentorship program pairing emerging artists with youth artists eager to learn what it means to be a working artist.
“I am extremely excited to apply my background and experience in museum education at an institution that is committed to providing insight into contemporary art across all media, for all audiences,” Shapiro said. “The Broad MSU’s educational programs will serve to greatly enhance the museum’s position as a cultural hub for the region and the international art world.”
Shapiro is from New York City and holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is also an independent illustrator and photographer.
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Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, a new Zaha Hadid-designed contemporary art museum at Michigan State University, is dedicated to exploring global contemporary culture and ideas through art. Opening Nov. 9, 2012, the dynamic 46,000-square-foot museum will serve as both a teaching institution and a cultural hub for East Lansing and the region. The museum is named in honor of Eli and Edythe Broad, longtime supporters of the university who provided the lead gift of $28 million.
For more information, visit broadmuseum.msu.edu/.
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Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.