Penny Stamps Speaker Series

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Penny Stamps Speaker Series

Respected artists, designers, and innovators from a broad spectrum of fields conduct public lectures

Respected innovators from a broad spectrum of fields come to the Stamps School of Art & Design to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities. Presentations are free of charge and open to the public, every Thursday at 5pm at the Michigan Theater.

08/31/2026

🎉 THE FALL 2026 PENNY STAMPS SPEAKER SERIES IS HERE! 🎉

A new season of artists, thinkers, storytellers, musicians, designers, animators, and cultural changemakers is coming to Ann Arbor.

This fall, we’re welcoming:

✨ Holly Bass
🪨 Olayami Dabls with Nichole Christian
🎨 Cosmo Whyte
🎻 Vijay Gupta
🌱 Amy Franceschini / Futurefarmers
🌿 Aanikoobijigan
🎭 Shane Ward
💻 Holly Herndon
🎬 James Baxter
🎮 Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
📚 Voices of Dissent
🏛️ Jorge Pérez

From visual art and animation to music, performance, technology, history, and beyond, this season brings together twelve extraordinary voices exploring how we make, remember, imagine, and shape the world around us.

📅 September 17–November 19, 2026
📍 The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts, Ann Arbor
🎟️ Free and open to the public

Save the dates. Bring a friend. We’ll see you this fall! ❤️

In partnership with: UMMA: University of Michigan Museum of Art, LSA Institute for the Humanities, Stamps School of Art & Design Gallery, Arts at Michigan, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, U-M Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Office, University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan Film, Television, and Media, U-M Inclusive History Project, University of Michigan Anthropologyy, Museum Studies Program University of Michigan, Native American Studies - University of Michigan, and the Department of American Culture - University of Michigan

Additional Support From: Design Core Detroit, Detroit UNESCO City of Design, U-M Student Life Sustainability, Ann Arbor District Library, The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts, Mary Ellen Coe, and Elizabeth Laraki

Media Partner: Michigan Public

06/08/2026

🌈 Happy Pride Month from the Penny Stamps Speaker Series! 🌈

Throughout our history, the Penny Stamps Speaker Series has welcomed visionary artists, performers, designers, activists, and cultural leaders whose work has expanded conversations around identity, community, creativity, and social change.

This Pride Month, we're revisiting a selection of remarkable past guests whose contributions have shaped LGBTQ+ culture and history. From legendary drag performers and boundary-pushing musicians to groundbreaking visual artists and multidisciplinary creators, their work reminds us that art can challenge norms, build community, celebrate difference, and imagine more inclusive futures.

Featured speakers include:
✨ Machine Dazzle
✨ Phranc
✨ Whitaker Malem
✨ Legendary Drag Queens
✨ Mx. Justin Vivian Bond
✨ Zanele Muholi

Explore their talks and performances through our archives and celebrate the artists whose creativity, courage, and advocacy continue to inspire audiences around the world.

📺 Watch these programs and more through our archives, on Facebook, or via the Stamps School of Art & Design YouTube channel.

04/23/2026

🏺🧑‍🎨 A sincere thank you to Jonathan Adler for his inspiring talk last Thursday at The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts! Adler has built an international reputation for his innovative approach to design, which deftly combines humor, impeccable style, and skilled craftsmanship.

In his talk, Adler shed light on how he synthesizes disparate inspirations into a varied yet distinctive voice and offered advice on how young designers and artists can develop their own signature styles in a chaotic visual landscape. ❤️‍🔥👐

🎥 Missed the event? You can watch the talk on demand starting Friday, 4/24 at 8 PM on the Stamps School of Art & Design YouTube channel or through our partner programs: Detroit PBS, PBS Books, and ALL ARTS.

This was our last event of the spring season! Thank you to everyone who attended. Be sure to check back soon for the fall schedule.

📸 Photography by .j.saulsberry on Instagram

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

Media partner: Michigan Public
With support from Design Core Detroit

04/15/2026

🐴🎨 What an incredible conversation we had last Thursday at The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts with Lisa Hanawalt and Samantha Irby!

Hanawalt is the production designer and producer of BoJack Horseman, the acclaimed animated series on Netflix. She’s the creator and executive producer of Tuca & Bertie, a vibrant and surreal animated show on Netflix and Adult Swim. And most recently, she’s the producer and production designer of Long Story Short, an adult animated comedy about family, spanning many decades.

Irby is the creator and author of the blog bi***es gotta eat, where she writes humorous observations about her own life and modern society more broadly. Her books We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Wow, No Thank You. were both New York Times best-sellers. ✍️🎤

🎥 Missed the event? You can watch the talk on demand starting Friday, 4/17 at 8 PM on the Stamps School of Art & Design YouTube channel or through our partner programs: Detroit PBS and ALL ARTS.

Media partner: Michigan Public
With support from Vault of Midnight

Next up: Jonathan Adler joins us at the Michigan Theater for our final talk of the spring series! Adler will shed light on how he synthesizes disparate inspirations into a varied yet distinctive voice and offer advice on how young designers and artists can develop their own signature styles in a chaotic visual landscape.
Join us Thursday, April 16 at 5:30 PM at the Michigan Theater.

📸 Photography by A.J. Saulsberry Photography

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

04/13/2026

🍶 Jonathan Adler makes everyday objects unforgettable. From playful pottery to bold furniture and décor, his work blends humor, glamour, and personality in every detail.

He’s built a global design voice without taking life too seriously.. AND he’s coming to the Michigan Theater to share how joy, craft, and creativity can change the way we live!

📍 Michigan Theater
🗓 Thursday, April 16
🕠 5:30 PM
🎟️ Free and open to the public

Series partners: Detroit PBS ALL ARTS PBS Books
Media partner: Michigan Public

With support from Design Core Detroit

This project was made possible by a grant from Michigan Arts

04/06/2026

🎨 Big ideas meet big laughs with Lisa Hanawalt.

From shaping the look of BoJack Horseman to creating Tuca & Bertie and working on the animated comedy Long Story Short, moves effortlessly between comics, animation, books, murals, and more. Her work is full of wit, emotional honesty, and unexpected visual twists that make you see the everyday in a whole new way.

She’s one of the voices defining what animation and illustration can be - playful, strange, and totally human.

📍 Michigan Theater
🗓 Thursday, April 9
🕠 5:30 PM
🎟️ Free and open to the public

Series partners: Detroit PBS ALL ARTS PBS Books
Media partner: Michigan Public

With support from Vault of Midnight

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

04/01/2026

🎭🪄 A huge thank you to Shana Moulton for her incredible talk and screening last Thursday at The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts! An artist who works in video and performance, Moulton's practice blends feminist sensibilities with surrealist imagery and sound to probe the complexities of the contemporary psyche.

Her ongoing Whispering Pines series investigates self-help culture, the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment, and the often comical absurdities of personal wellness rituals. Across performances, videos, and installations, Moulton uses her alter ego, Cynthia, to craft narratives that are both deeply personal and widely relatable, exploring the shifting boundaries between the mundane and the mystical in an era of global digital capitalism. 📽️💫

Next up: Lisa Hanawalt joins us at the Michigan Theater, an artist and writer, best known for her work in animation. She will be joined in conversation by comedian and writer Samantha Irby.
Join us Thursday, Apirl 9 at 5:30 PM at the Michigan Theater.

📸 Photography by A.J. Saulsberry Photography

In partnership with Ann Arbor Film Festival
This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

03/25/2026

📸🕊️ What a brilliant talk we had last Thursday at The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts from artist Sheida Soleimani! The daughter of political refugees who escaped Iran in the early 1980s, Soleimani makes work that excavates the histories of violence linking Iran, the United States, and the Greater Middle East.

In working across form and medium—especially photography, sculpture, collage, and film—she often appropriates source images from popular/digital media and resituates them within defamiliarizing tableaux. 🎞️🦉

🎥 Missed the event? You can watch the talk on demand starting Friday, 3/27 at 8 PM on the Stamps School of Art & Design YouTube channel or through our partner programs: Detroit PBS and ALL ARTS.

Next up: Shana Moulton joins us at the Michigan Theater, an artist who works in video and performance blending feminist sensibilities with surrealist imagery and sound to probe the complexities of the contemporary psyche.
Join us Thursday, March 26 at 5:30 PM at the Michigan Theater.

📸 Photography by A.J. Saulsberry Photography

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

03/23/2026

🌈 Ordinary objects. Everyday rituals. Surreal worlds.

Shana Moulton’s art lives in the space between the mundane and the mystical, using video and performance to turn self‑care culture, consumer objects, and wellness rituals into strange, playful, and deeply human landscapes. Her ongoing Whispering Pines series follows Cynthia, an alter ego whose search for fulfillment mixes humor, vulnerability, and uncanny surrealism.

📍 Michigan Theater - part of the Ann Arbor Film Festival!
🗓 Thursday, March 26
🕠 5:30 PM
🎟️ Free and open to the public

Series partners: Detroit PBS ALL ARTS PBS Books
Media partner: Michigan Public
In partnership with Ann Arbor Film Festival

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

03/18/2026

📚💫A big thank you to Shaka Senghor for his incredible talk last Thursday at The Michigan & State Theaters - Marquee Arts! A sought-after resilience expert and recognized "Soul Igniter" in Oprah's inaugural SuperSoul 100, Senghor captivates and transforms audiences worldwide with his extraordinary journey from incarceration to influence.

Through raw authenticity and profound insight, he shares not only his story but also the resilience practices that fueled his own remarkable transformation, showing that reinvention is not just possible—it is within everyone’s reach. 🙌🔥

🎥 Missed the event? You can watch the talk on demand starting Friday, 3/20 at 8 PM on the Stamps School of Art & Design YouTube channel or through our partner programs: Detroit PBS, PBS Books, and ALL ARTS.

Next up: We welcome Sheida Soleimani, an Iranian-American artist, educator, and activist, at the Michigan Theater.
Join us Thursday, March 19 at 5:30 PM at the Michigan Theater.

📸 Photography by .j.saulsberry on Instagram

This project was made possible by a grant from Arts at Michigan.

Address

603 E Liberty Street
Ann Arbor, MI
48104

Opening Hours

5:10pm - 6:30pm

Website

http://pennystampsevents.org/

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