Join us for ArtLab J’s 13th Annual Spring Concert — a vibrant season-end showcase featuring our talented students in dance, art, and music, celebrating creativity and growth. As a leading academy with an integrated Creative Arts Program, we champion the transformative power of multidisciplinary arts education. Don’t miss this inspiring performance!

Ways of Seeing: Canto Ostinato invites audiences to explore new ways of ‘seeing’ through deep listening and spatial experience. Highly emotive and intuitive, this work is described by composer Simeon ten Holt as more ritual than concert. 

Over the course of its nearly 90-minute, trance-like duration, time turns into space and the music begins to hover, offering listeners the chance to enter their own transcendental space. Originally scored for four pianos, this performance reimagines the piece as a solo piano journey, weaving together all four parts into a singular, immersive experience.

Celebrate the rich historical tapestry of Taiwanese heritage in a dynamic live presentation by 4th generation tea master, Ai Fang and her sister, Kuei Fang, whose family business, now called Jhentea, has been growing and processing tea since 1850.

Explore the far-reaching and inclusive culture of tea drinking through an introduction to tea processing and brewing techniques and various tea wares and mats, tracing the development of tea culture across Taiwan by showcasing the history and lifestyles revolving around tea drinking on the island.

With tea ceremony demonstrations, tea and desert samplings this program will be an engaging afternoon of cultural exchange.

In the DIA’s Lecture Hall, followed by tastings in FJC Dining Rooms A/B as supplies last.

This program is free with museum admission. Capacity is limited – seating begins 30 minutes prior to performance start.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Join the DIA and the Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures in celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

To honor the significance of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month to the community, our Opening Ceremony features special guest speakers and three music performances that span genres and cultures.

Featured Performances:

• Mongolian Tribute Songs to Genghis Khan | Performed by The Throat Singer
• Champa Mueng Lao | Performed by Team Sitthideth
• The Drinking Song (茶花女－饮酒歌) and Altar Rendezvous (敖包相会)| Performed by Jie Wang & Jinsheng Zhang

For families with children of all ages. This program is free with museum admission. Seating is limited – arrive early as seating begins 30 minutes prior to the performance.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) programs are developed in partnership with the DIA’s auxiliary group Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures (FAAC) with support from Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (MAPAAC).

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Join the DIA and the Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures in celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

In conjunction with the AAPI performances in Rivera Court on the same day, we invite you to view the works of locally based Asian American artists in the Great Hall. With special demonstrations by Kyoko Fuji, calligraphy, and Zhongou Xu, dumi ink painting, at 11 and 11:30 a.m., this display gives insight to the ways in which cultural heritage and tradition influences visual art across varied media.

Featured artists:

• Anthony Lee
• Benjamin Byung Kim
• Boisali Biswas
• Hiroko Lancour
• JenClare Gawaran
• Julius GC Hwang,
• Kyoko Fujii
• Luzhen Qiu
• Nobuko Yamasaki
• Rhona Lee
• Shinming Shyu
• Si Mo
• Zhongou Xu

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) programs are developed in partnership with the DIA’s auxiliary group Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures (FAAC) with support from Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (MAPAAC).

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Celebrate the voices and stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities at the DIA throughout May in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! In collaboration with AAPI community groups and professional artists, the museum will showcase a dynamic mix of traditional and contemporary dance, music, art, and more. This year’s celebration and performances include Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mongolian, Taiwanese and Vietnamese cultures.  

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month programs are developed in partnership with the DIA’s auxiliary group, Friends of Asian & Asian American Arts & Cultures.

All programs take place onsite and are free with general museum admission unless otherwise noted. 

Friday, May 2

• 6–8:30 p.m. | Drop-in Workshop: Uchiwa Paper Fans – Artmaking Studio
• 6–8:30 p.m. | Drawing in the Galleries: Japanese & Korean and Indian & Southeast Asian Art Galleries

Saturday, May 3

• 10 a.m.–3 p.m. | Cultural Display & Demonstrations – Great Hall
• Noon–4 p.m. | Drop-in Workshop: Uchiwa Paper Fans – Artmaking Studio
• 1 p.m. | Opening Ceremony – Music Performance – Rivera Court
• 2 p.m. | Celebration Show – Dance Performance – Rivera Court

Sunday, May 4

• Noon–4 p.m. | Drop-in Workshop: Uchiwa Paper Fans – Artmaking Studio
• Noon–4 p.m.  | Drawing in the Galleries: Japanese & Korean and Indian & Southeast Asian Art Galleries

Friday, May 16

• 7 p.m. | Music Performance: Masayo Ishigure – Rivera Court

Friday, May 23

• 7 p.m. | Music Performance: Asian Sound Revolution – Rivera Court

Saturday, May 31

• Noon–4 p.m. | Guest Artist Workshop: Shingo Brown – Artmaking Studio
• 2 p.m. | Cultural Demonstration: Taiwanese Tea Culture presented by Jhentea – Danto Lecture Hall

Sunday, June 1

• Noon–4 p.m. | Guest Artist Workshop: Shingo Brown – Artmaking Studio

Tammy Lakkis is a producer, DJ, and songwriter based in Hamtramck, Michigan, known for her genre-defying and transnational approach to electronic music. She gained recognition for her all-hardware live sets, which oscillate between dreamy vocal house and dance floor heaters. 

Her 2021 EP Notice, released on Shigeto’s Portage Garage Sounds, put her on the map as an unconventional, one-stop-shop weaver of sound—its title track was featured on NPR Music’s 100 Best Songs of 2021. Her knack for storytelling shines through in her bold and dynamic DJ sets, which fluctuate between extremes in genre and tone, often nodding to her ancestral nostalgia for Arabic percussion and melodies.

Bring your funny bone and thinking cap as Master Storyteller Ivory D. Williams shares his trademark wit, wisdom, and humor in a fun, interactive celebration of Juneteenth.

This program is free with museum admission.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Featuring puppets, games, special guests, stories, drawings, music, and dance parties, The Rainbow Beard Show celebrates curiosity, play, and shared human experiences. Join host Ricky Rainbow Beard and their friends as they explore the fun of dressing up! What does it mean to dress up? When do you do it? Why?

This participatory live theater performance is inspired by classic children’s programming like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street, and is designed for kids ages 4–8 (and their grownups).

For families of all ages.

Pride Themed docent-led guided gallery tours will be offered one hour prior to event start time, meeting at the DIA Woodward lobby entrance. The tours will be approximately 45-minutes in length.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.

Karim Nagi has performed Arabiqa in over 500 schools, libraries, and museums across the U.S. Through a joyfully interactive performance, he shares traditional instruments, dances, geography, and vocabulary from around the Arab world. A native of Egypt now living in Chicago, Nagi has recorded 17 albums, performed on six continents, produced a play, published a book, and given a TEDx Talk. His goal is to showcase the creativity of the Arab world and dispel negative stereotypes. (60 mins.)

This program is free with museum admission. Capacity is limited—seating begins 30 minutes before the performance. In the DIA’s Lecture Hall.

Weekend Family Programs at the DIA are generously presented by the MSUFCU Desk Drawer Foundation.