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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Spartan orientation station. On this week's episode, we'll be discussing the MSU Broad Art Museum. The Broad Art Museum opened in 02/2012 and focuses on art with local and global significance. Their community centered strategies work to confront implicit bias, systemic racism, and social inequalities. Hi.
Speaker 2:My name is Kate, and I am a student coordinator at the new student orientation office. I am a recent graduate with a degree in elementary education.
Speaker 3:Hi. My name is Tony Cox. I am a apparel and textile design major, and I am a student creative at the Bird Art Museum.
Speaker 4:Hi. My name is Brennan. I am a student creative and a student supervisor at the museum.
Speaker 5:I'm MJ. I am a student exhibitions intern and event assistant and a gallery guide at the museum.
Speaker 6:I'm Kristen McCool, and I'm the educator for student engagement and access at the museum. And it's just a really long way of saying I work with university students.
Speaker 2:Alright. We'll jump into our first question here. So where on campus is the Broad Art Museum?
Speaker 3:We're actually right across the street from the Student Services Building, or if you're on Grand River, we're right across the street from MoCA and CAF.
Speaker 2:Alright. Great. So moving on to our next question. What are your guys' hours of operation?
Speaker 5:Wednesday through Sunday from ten to 6PM. Lovely.
Speaker 2:Is there a fee to visit the Broad Art Museum?
Speaker 4:No. It's free. So the museum is totally free. Admissions, once you come in, you just check-in, and you're good from there. It's totally free.
Speaker 5:And that's both for students and the public, so anyone can come in for free.
Speaker 2:Oh, love it.
Speaker 3:Even during the events too, like, we well, during events, we have some after hours, also during hours as well. So, usually, we have, like, know, family days during hours and then some student nights throughout, like, semesters and everything after hours as well.
Speaker 2:Great. I love it. Alright. Are there any events that take place for students to attend?
Speaker 4:Yes. We have many different events. Actually, this year, we have a new focus of getting students excited to vote. We're gonna be one of the places on campus sites for people to register to vote. That's right, Kristen.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 6:So the National Voter Registration Day on September 17, Tuesday, September seventeenth. Yes. We are gonna be one of the host sites on that day. We're partnering with MSU Vote, which is a nonpartisan committee on campus that's organizing that event, which we're super excited about. We're gonna be screen printing tote bags.
Speaker 6:We're making postcards that are gonna go to other students on campus, encouraging them to vote. There's gonna be snacks. Yes. And most importantly, we're gonna be getting folks registered to vote there. Absolutely.
Speaker 6:And then we also have our Spartan Wellness series, which is one Sunday afternoon a month from two to four. And it offers students the opportunity to come to the museum, to de stress through art making, and we have a new activity every month.
Speaker 5:And if you don't have, like, wide access to making materials or crafting materials, almost all of the time, the museum has crafting materials and pencils, paper, markers, paint, everything that you would want to use to make some art. So you can come in at any time just during our public hours to do that. And then also all of our student events are free making activities as well that anyone can take part of.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Let's see. What else do we have going on? So many things though. Right?
Speaker 4:Like So many things.
Speaker 6:Fall welcome.
Speaker 4:Fall welcome.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Perfect transition into our next question.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So will the Broad Art Museum be hosting any events during the fall welcome specifically?
Speaker 4:Yes. So that will be the Welcome Back Spartans event. So that will be our fall welcome And yeah.
Speaker 5:And that will be Saturday, August 24 and August 25 on Sunday from one to 4PM, just at our museum, which is across from student services. Anyone can come over and screen print a tote bag. Very
Speaker 2:fun. So fun.
Speaker 6:I mean, also in relation to fall welcome events in general, we are going to be out and about and be at other events, so UFest. Awesome. And we'll also be at Wharton Welcomes, like so, yeah, so the University Arts and Collections, we are a part of that as well as the MSU Museum, the WJBeal Botanical Garden, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. We are the UAC, and we are going to be at Wharton Welcomes on Thursday, August 22 from four to nine. You can catch a music performance as well as we're gonna be there tabling.
Speaker 6:And we're gonna have a raffle, and we're gonna be doing a bunch of giveaways, including a tote bag. So you're gonna wanna check that out. Lots of fun. Lots of free stuff.
Speaker 4:A good time.
Speaker 6:The the museum's gonna be out and about. So you're gonna see us around campus too. And there's going to be more information about fall welcome events with the UAC with a whole bunch of giveaways from those orgs on campus. So definitely, you're gonna wanna stop by and check that out.
Speaker 5:In August, during welcome week, we will have three exhibitions open. Yes. We will have We
Speaker 4:just had a new exhibition actually just opened up. It's called Eyewitness by Samia Halabi. So
Speaker 2:It's beautiful.
Speaker 4:Beautiful.
Speaker 5:Late to mid September, we will be opening up something in our new Signature Commission series, which will be an exhibition by Esma Mohamed. Oh.
Speaker 4:There we
Speaker 5:An artist who's worked with us already for our resistance training exhibit. But there'll be a giant installation with lots of colored lights. There'll be some butterflies. Butterflies. There'll be some dandelions.
Speaker 6:Like 6,000 butterflies.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of butterflies. And it's important to say that, like, if you're ever curious about our events, you can go to our website.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 5:Our website has details like that. And then we're also very frequently on the UAB table tents. If you're eating in the dining halls, they normally have some information about our events. Especially if we're partnered with UAB.
Speaker 6:Yes. It's for those UAB. Yes. We often partner with UAB. You can follow us on Instagram because we're amazing on Instagram at MSUBroad.
Speaker 6:You can follow us there and find out where we're gonna be next.
Speaker 5:We very often like to repost cute pictures people have taken in the galleries. Yes. Will ask you. They'll ask you if they can repost them. But
Speaker 4:You might see your face there.
Speaker 6:That's right. Take a photo and tag us in it. Our Instagram is at MSU Broad.
Speaker 4:Yes. Our
Speaker 5:exhibits rotate every four to six months. So in your course being here, you will probably get to see a wide variety of artists from different backgrounds who focus with different mediums. So definitely take advantage of free access to art.
Speaker 3:Also, if you wanna get more information on who designed the building, we do have an exhibition that's gonna be up there for the next four years. Four years. Yeah. Zahadiz, we amazing. Honestly, you get to see more, like, stuff about her work.
Speaker 2:Alright. So how can students get involved with the museum?
Speaker 3:So we actually we've been getting more prevalent with it too is posting our jobs on handshake. So you can see like, you know, positions like, you know, mine and Brendan's or MJ's on handshake. So whether that's, you know, exhibition assistance, event assistance, which you can gradually get up to once you do gallery guiding. Also, you have student creatives, ed interns. So let's add interns fully.
Speaker 3:So it's got k to 12 as well as, student interns or creatives. So, yeah, that's one thing too. And also, you know, just coming into the museum, talking to us, getting to know us, learning more information about it, also doing, like, you know, stuff like activities at the Edwing or upstairs. We have some activities sometimes upstairs as well to collaborate with. Also, downstairs at the core.
Speaker 3:We haven't got to talk about the core yet. I just thought about that. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. And also too to add to that, you can definitely, you don't have to when you apply for one position, you don't have to stay in that position. You can, you know, eventually work in other areas of the museum, so that's really cool too. And it's something that, you know, just a lot of flexibility within the space.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it's welcome to all majors too, so you don't have to be a certain major to apply to certain things. So, yeah, we have a vast majority of different majors and everything.
Speaker 5:Yeah. We have, like, people from education majors. We have biochemical engineering majors. We have, like, a wide array of people who work at the museum. It's a really nice stepping stone if you're looking to work in any sort of leadership positions.
Speaker 5:You learn a lot about art and how art can help communicate a bunch of different things. I highly recommend working there. I work three positions there for a reason. We have great staff. But also in terms of just getting involved on campus, tell people about it.
Speaker 5:I mean, if you visit and you see an exhibit that you like, then you should share that with some people. Because we have a
Speaker 4:lot of people who do
Speaker 5:come in, but we wanna make sure that students know that it's their museum on their campus and it shares information that they're going to want to know.
Speaker 3:100%. Your campus, your museum. Also, you get a free t shirt to wear. It's kinda cool. Renny gotta know right
Speaker 4:now. Listen. So many people ask when they come in visitors, like, if they can buy this. I'm just like, no.
Speaker 5:It's just You gotta work here.
Speaker 4:You gotta work here.
Speaker 3:This is like You gotta work the squad. You gotta work the squad.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 5:Of course.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So all jobs posted on Handshake. So check us out there if you're looking if you're looking to work with us.
Speaker 2:Alright. Gonna move to our last and final question. What is your favorite thing about the Broad Art Museum?
Speaker 5:Now, we're all gonna try to talk at the same time because we all have so many things to share. But I can just start, and I'll wrap it up quick in, like, a sentence, which is that I love how accessible we have made art to students Yes. To the public, and to faculty and staff members on campus. I think it's so important to not only have art visible to people, but to have art that matters to people on campus and the ways to interact with it, like getting to share, like, your favorite part of an exhibit or learn about an aspect or identity that you haven't been exposed to before. That's my favorite part of the museum.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I'd have to piggyback with you, MJ. I think definitely I love the community that we've built at the museum, and like you said, the accessibility, I think is so important. We do great, I think, at that. So that's really cool.
Speaker 4:I think that's probably my favorite as well, I have to I have to say.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Think mine is, like, getting to talk to people, also getting to know people. I see a lot of alum come to the Broad Art Museum that been there before it even was built and just say they love it. Especially going to the core, it brings a lot of memories. I actually met someone who actually took a lot of pictures of the pieces that we had in the core at the time.
Speaker 3:So back in the day when we had the Kresge Art Museum, which is really beautiful and just amazing to talk about because it's it's a part of history that's, you know, part of, like, the art on campus as well as, you know, just in general MSU itself. So just to see that also just as, you know, take the time to, like, appreciate the art with people, you know, with my peers as well as my, you know, friends that come in. I tell them come in. I I force my friends to come in a little bit sometimes.
Speaker 4:But they do love it. They do love it. They do love it. It. Get those pictures in.
Speaker 4:They they get those pictures in. Have a of friends in them. That's staircase. We have a staircase, Kristen.
Speaker 6:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:You're you're Famous.
Speaker 5:My favorite thing. My Oh, yes. Your favorite thing is well,
Speaker 6:okay. So I was gonna say well, a couple of things, which I should not say a couple of things. But I'm grateful at the opportunity to support MSU's vibrant student community. Yes. And in this extraordinary space, our building, designed by Zaha Hadid.
Speaker 6:And the best spot in the museum is that floating staircase. Yes. And you're like, what's a floating staircase? I'm gonna guarantee you, unless you've been in one of her buildings or you've been in our building, you have never experienced one. And you're not gonna experience one anywhere else unless, right, one of those two things or both are true.
Speaker 6:And a floating staircase is a staircase that has no external supports. It's literally suspended in space. And so I often tell folks who come in the museum, if there's a lot of people in the staircase at once, you can sometimes feel it move because it has to be able to have bend and flex in the design. Because that's how it was engineered. And I think that speaks volumes to Zaha Hadid in her practice.
Speaker 6:Right? She was always ahead of her time, always pushing the boundaries. And I mean, that you can see in the architecture itself. Right? I mean, intentionally, MSU chose that design because it embodies the future.
Speaker 6:Like all of you, students, embody our future. And so I think it's this beautiful sort of poetic
Speaker 4:Of course.
Speaker 6:Right? Try
Speaker 3:to talk to Kristen too. I'm not gonna lie. Every time I'm, like, doing a tour with her, she gives me,
Speaker 4:like, new information for some reason.
Speaker 3:I'll I I tell you, like, I introduce myself, do my little skit, and then, like, she comes in and, like, she's like, this cement was, like, never used before. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4:I didn't even know that. Like, it was crazy. Like, it's actually really crazy.
Speaker 5:Am guilty of stealing many lines from Kristen having heard the tours as a gallery guy. When people ask me questions, I consistently am like, well,
Speaker 2:I know you're taking a picture
Speaker 5:of the staircase. Did you know it has no external supports? A lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Shout out to Kristen. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4:No. Seriously. Shout out to Kristen. Oh, thank you. That's what we mean about community.
Speaker 4:It's, like, great. Yeah. It's really great.
Speaker 3:She really inspired me a lot. I'll say the faculty too was amazing there.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Very supportive. Yeah.
Speaker 5:But also, the extent that students are involved within the museum, how we run our exhibitions, installing exhibitions, curating exhibitions, like, just being in the galleries, talking to people about the art. I think another one of my favorite things is the fact that students are so involved in the processes.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We care about your opinions too whether it's for the art, you know, and I'll say we love, like, hearing, you know, both sides of, like, you know, the stick and everything because I feel like that helps us grow as well as, you know, a more understanding because not everyone's gonna have the same perspective of each piece of art, like, it's it's, you know, impossible. Like, we have to understand that, especially in this art world. You know? So that this one thing, like, I love getting new perspectives and everything too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I always love hearing about the museum. I've gone there for a few, during a few of my classes. I always love going in Oh,
Speaker 5:I will. Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm getting a tote bag. I get a button. Awesome. And I get to see the floating staircase. I will be back for sure.
Speaker 4:Perfect. Big elevator too.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes. We have a thing.
Speaker 3:Oh, We
Speaker 4:decorated too during events and all that stuff. Exhibitions. It's fun.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first.
Speaker 5:Yes. Not enough about what it is. Do want to?
Speaker 6:Yeah. You know what? Let's throw that in there. So, yeah. So the core.
Speaker 6:So we opened the core, the Center for Object and Research Engagement, which was opened this past November. So it's a brand new space. We were under construction over the summer, and it was all in us creating the space and home for our collection, which spans from the beginning of time to the present. And you can see almost 300 works all in one space. It's a lot.
Speaker 6:It's really exciting. It's a range
Speaker 5:of works. There's a bunch of different mediums. Yes. Works from different cultures, works by very famous artists, works from not as well known artists. I know we have, like, a Paul Sejean piece.
Speaker 3:We have a we have a Dolly piece too.
Speaker 2:We have
Speaker 5:a Dolly piece.
Speaker 3:Love crazy.
Speaker 5:Have do we have any Picasso pieces? We may have some Picasso pieces.
Speaker 4:I know we had one
Speaker 3:during History Toe Slant. I know we for sure had one there then. Yeah. Mhmm.
Speaker 5:Louis Bourgeois, one of my favorite artists.
Speaker 4:Come on, French? Wait, do we?
Speaker 5:I mean
Speaker 6:But we have Michigan artists like Detroit or Tyree Guyton from the Heidelberg Street, which is amazing.
Speaker 3:We have Lansing Artists too. Right?
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 6:So we have just a range of artists, and there's ways to engage with art in that space that you may not have ever done before. And so what I mean by that is is we have sensory stations, for example. Yes. And so each station is based on one of the five senses. So we have one station that's based on scent.
Speaker 6:And so what we did is we three d printed one of our objects. So you can pick it up. You can touch it. I mean, it's an exacting replica. So you can interact with that in a way that you couldn't otherwise.
Speaker 6:Usually, when you come into an art museum, you're asked to not touch the art. That's a whole thing. But we are actively thinking of ways that we can engage with work. Right? In ways that you may not have otherwise.
Speaker 6:And so that active engagement is important. And to think about the works in ways that you may not have otherwise. And that's what that space is all about. We're gonna do a lot of experimentation in that space too.
Speaker 4:Yes. Being accessible, our core.
Speaker 6:Yeah. And accessibility, right, as part of that. Right? And being able to, like, touch works and yep.
Speaker 3:It was really fun. And
Speaker 6:access them in different ways.
Speaker 3:Before I knew that it was three d printed, I thought that was the real piece. And I was really thrown off. I'm like, did they really
Speaker 6:Okay. That's
Speaker 2:how It looks really good.
Speaker 5:It looks really good.
Speaker 3:Oh my god.
Speaker 5:All the things that you can interact with in the
Speaker 5:that museum have
Speaker 1:been designed to, like, be interacted with Mhmm. Which is just a big treat coming in, especially for, like, people who want to get involved or learn more about an art piece. Like, there's nothing
Speaker 5:better than getting to hold a replica of it.
Speaker 6:And being able to smell something that's connected to the object.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Like
Speaker 5:And to hear how a sound sculpture sounds.
Speaker 6:And to be able to actually touch it and make the sound yourself. Yeah. Which is cool.
Speaker 4:It's incredible.
Speaker 5:I do recommend.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Spartan orientation station. Join us next week to discuss all things self care and mental well-being.
Speaker 4:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan orientation station on impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.