Art Exhibitions at MSU College of Law

In December 2002, Michigan State University College of Law began showcasing the work of visual artists who raise important questions and issues confronting society. In so doing, these exhibitions have enhanced the facility as well as providing a welcoming space for students, faculty, staff and the community-at-large. The exhibits are showcased in public spaces on the 3rd and 4th floor of the Law College Building. The Law College also hosts artist lectures and receptions for the Law College community and the general public to meet the featured artists. Below is a brief chronological overview of past exhibits, starting with the most recent exhibition. For more information, contact the exhibition coordinator, Professor Nicholas Mercuro at mercuro@law.msu.edu or 517-432-6978.

Lawyers Without Rights
#41
January 1, 2024 – July 1, 2024
3rd floor gallery area

The exhibition consists of 25 panels telling the story of how many German Jewish lawyers and judges were expunged from office and the German Federal Bar during the Third Reich. In brief –some 70 years after it's horrors unfolded, the Holocaust still had stories to reveal and lessons to share. The original idea for this exhibition – Lawyers without Rights – was conceived in 1998 when an Israeli lawyer asked the regional Bar of Berlin for a list of Jewish lawyers whose licenses had been revoked by the Nazi regime. The then-president of the German Federal Bar said the regional bar decided not only to research a list of names, but also to try to find out more about the fate of all of those whose names were uncovered. Overtime, it was discovered that some Jewish lawyers were able to leave the country after the Nazis came to power; however, many of them were incarcerated or murdered. All this took place while the non-Jewish German lawyers along with their ‘lawyers organizations’ remained silent. As the story unfolded, like a puzzle – step by step – a portrait of the fate of Jewish lawyers in Germany emerged. Fortunately, at the same time, the Berlin Bar began to transform this previously overlooked history into an exhibition. Then in late 2011, the German Federal Bar asked the American Bar Association for assistance to introduce this exhibition at the U.S. capital. What emerged from their efforts was this compelling exhibit of 25 panels. The exhibition described the humiliation, degradation and purge from the German legal profession of roughly 5,000 lawyers simply – because they had Jewish ancestry. From that time forward more than 65 to 70 U.S. venues have hosted the exhibit without charge, from New York City to Los Angeles, in addition to Mexico City and Toronto. Host venues have included federal courthouses, state supreme courts, public libraries, law schools, Jewish community centers, synagogues and private venues. This new replica exhibition starts its journey from here – the MSU College of Law.

Panel 1 (PDF)
Photo #1, Photo #2

Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court
#40
August 2021-May 2022
3rd floor gallery area

The focus of this exhibition is on the women who should have been on the United States Supreme Court as early as the 1930s. Instead, most were “shortlisted” but not selected. The book – Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court – by two award-winning scholars Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson – tells the overlooked stories of these  extraordinary women. The exhibit introduces you to these women reproducing text and images from their book — it includes profiles of nine women who appeared on Supreme Court shortlists before Sandra Day O’Connor’s historic nomination by President Reagan, and three more who appeared on later lists for vacancies, along with five additional women who made it off the shortlist – four of whom were confirmed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. To date, only five of the 115 United States Supreme Court justices have been women—a mere four percent.

Book Cover (PDF)
About This Exhibit (PDF)

Scenes of South Africa’s Fight for Freedom and Democracy 1994 ... as seen through the eyes of the renowned photojournalist Leonard Freed
#39
December 2018 thru January 2019
3rd floor gallery area [next to Board Room]

This exhibition was designed and planned to be in place during Judge Albie Sachs’ visiting professorship at the MSU College of Law. Judge Sachs is a former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa appointed by Nelson Mandela. These ten original photographs are signed, vintage prints donated to MSU by Brigitte Freed (Leonard’s surviving wife and now the steward of his collection). In the 1960s Leonard Freed began to photograph the life of people fighting for freedom and democracy around the world. He quickly found that his interests lay not in recording the progress of the many other struggles for freedom and democracy, but in exploring the diverse, everyday lives of communities of people that had been marginalized under repressive regimes. It was while on this journey that Freed found himself in South Africa in the early/mid 1990s photographing the lives of those living under a system of apartheid. Freed’s work always communicates the fabric of daily existence; it portrays the common humanity of a people persevering in unjust circumstances.

Invite (PDF)
Course (PDF)
Photo

Who Makes the Music? ... We Make the Music?
paintings by a local Lansing artist - Julian Van Dyke
#38
Fall 2018 thru Spring 2019
3rd floor gallery area

“Music is given to us to enjoy. It can move and inspire. Some say music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. Different genres of music whether it be spiritual, gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, classical, country, rock and roll and the art form of rap, have been the cultural thread of our country since its inception. This exhibit is just my observance of those that play and sing ... who I am blessed to see and hear. I have always believed that all art forms are connected in one way or another. For those of us who are like minded and enjoy various art forms, these images are for you … Yes, They Make the Music !” JVD

Invite Poster (PDF)
Photo #1, Photo #2

Art&Soul Dreams: Making Visible Michigan’s Foster Youth
#37
Mid- April 2018 - through Summer 2018
3rd floor gallery area

Art&Soul Dreams is the sponsor of this exhibition – one that brings visibility to foster care children in need of immediate and permanent adoption. They do this through art exhibitions to inspire conversations, to create hope, and to benefit future generations of families and humanity. This traveling photo exhibit features 19 portraits by award-winning photographers. Every canvas captures their soul revealing every child is a work of art. When we ask, “What do you see?”, responses always include, “smiling children, love, future, and family.” This exhibition’s reception, talk and panel discussion were co-sponsored by both FAME-MSU and Chance at Childhood - MSU Law Clinic.

Invite
Poster (PDF)
https://www.artandsouldreams.org/

The Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215 -2015
#36
Summer 2017 - present
4th floor gallery area

This exhibition is comprised of 16 seven-foot panels and provides the history of the Magna Carta. This show was originally organized (in 2015) for the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. The exhibition is brought to you by The American Bar Association in conjunction with the U.S. Library of Congress.

Photo #1Photo #2Photo #3

Art from Nea Kavala (A Refugee Camp in Northern Greece)
#35
By Kayra Martinez
January 2018 - April 2018
3rd floor gallery area

Kayra Martinez is the founder of Love Without Borders, and has for many years been involved in the ongoing crisis of immigrants fleeing violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and seeking safe harbor in Europe. When the first waves of immigrants had landed in Greece, they found a ready reception in several European countries; but then the welcome abruptly ended as the latter closed their borders to the influx. Over 60,000 immigrants thus found themselves “stuck” in Greece which set up refugee camps where they are required to stay until granted asylum elsewhere. The camps are rudimentary, dilapidated and extremely crowded. Kayra’s efforts to help have concentrated on one camp in particular, Nea Kavala. There, she teaches English and German to the camp’s children and, at her nearby home, conducts art classes for them and some immigrant adults. This is an exhibition of paintings by immigrants (mostly children) living in the Nea Kavala refugee camp in northern Greece.

Organizer (PDF)
Exhibition (PDF)
Map (PDF)
Photo #1, Photo #2


For over a dozen years, photographer Charlee Brodsky and poet Jim Daniels have worked together to document post-industrial landscapes. We displayed three of their exhibitions in 2017.
These exhibitions were co-sponsored by MSU College of Law, Our Daily Work / Our Daily Lives, RCAH Center for Poetry and MSU Project 60-50.

The Rocks
#34
By Charlee Brodsky and poet Jim Daniels
January 2017 - May 2017
3rd floor gallery area

In 2013 Charlee began photographing McKees Rocks, a small industrial town across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh. Jim wrote the poems that accompany her photos. This project attempts to bring people and place together, to focus on the older working-class homes and the ongoing lives emerging out these doors and windows. The unfolding story fits neither the narrative of decay and ruin, nor the narrative of economic recovery relying on high-tech startups—two easy narratives latched onto by mainstream media when it gives any coverage at all to the “rust belt.” Rocks’ story is more complex and nuanced, like any true story of survival—small defeats, small victories, but always carrying on.

Flyer (PDF)
Poster (PDF)
Collaboration (PDF)

From Milltown to Malltown
#33
By Charlee Brodsky and poet Jim Daniels
January 2017 - May 2017
4th floor front gallery area

This series explores Homestead, Pa. one of the most distinctive and ethnically diverse working-class communities that surrounds Pittsburgh. Homestead interested Charlee and Jim because of its rich labor history and its contemporary transformation from a dying steel town to a place that now hosts an enormous shopping complex replete with the nation’s most popular chain stores. This sprawling center of commerce, “Malltown,” sits literally on the other side of the railroad tracks from the old Homestead “Milltown” – the site once the home of the famous steel mill that Andrew Carnegie bought from Henry Frick in 1883. The mill closed in the 1980’s and it was razed but a lot of history seems to hang in the air on the streets of old Homestead.

Flyer (PDF)
Poster (PDF)
Collaboration (PDF)

American Patriot
#32
By Charlee Brodsky and poet Jim Daniels
January 2017 - May 2017
4th floor atrium

American Patriot was spurred by the turbulent presidential election in 2016. Charlee began photographing the American flag in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvanian working class neighborhoods. As she talked to residents she began to see the flag as a vessel of complicated American values. Flags are symbols, but they are also concrete objects that are displayed by a variety of people and institutions in a variety of ways. Jim’s poems help identify these many expressions.

Flyer (PDF)
Poster (PDF)
Collaboration (PDF)

Broken?
#31
By PROOF: Media for Social Justice
November 2016 - December 2016
3rd floor gallery area

Broken? is an exhibit of PROOF: Media for Social Justice in partnership with the United Nations International School (UNIS) and participating Picture Justice students. Over 6.9 million people in the US are currently incarcerated, on probation or on parole. That is one in 35 Americans and one in six Black men. In fact, there are more Black men in the criminal justice system today than there were enslaved in 1850. How did it get to be like this? How did the “home of the free” become the world’s biggest jailer? How “just” is the U.S. criminal justice system? This exhibition aims to raise difficult questions and provoke conversations about what some call is the most pressing racial justice issue of our time. Broken? explores the U.S. criminal justice system through photographs and testimonies of formerly incarcerated people and of community leaders working for prison reform. This exhibition is co-sponsored by MSU College of Law Diversity Services Office, MSU Project 60-50 and the MSU Residential College of Arts and Humanities.

Panel (PDF)
Poster
(PDF)
http://proof.org/broken-stories/

After the Destruction: Reacting to Losses of Cultural Heritage in Syria and Iraq
#30
February 2016 - November 2016
3rd floor gallery area
By Erin Thompson, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

In 2015, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) gained control of many important archeological sites and museums in Syria and Iraq. Many of these sites, including Palmyra, Nimrud, Hatra, and the Mosul Museum have suffered attacks by ISIS fighters wielding sledgehammers, earthmovers, and explosives. The destruction of cultural heritage has long been a feature of war and cultural clash, and is currently an important part of conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen, Mali, Tunisia, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and many parts of Central America. This exhibition by Erin Thompson showcased this fight with the artists and scholars featured expressing their love and need for vanished objects through the creation of artworks that react to the destruction, documenting the lost objects or creating painstaking reconstructions.

Poster (PDF)

Child Soldiers: Forced to Be Cruel
#29
January 2016 - March 2016
4th floor gallery area
By Proof: Media for Social Justice

The Lori E. Talsky Center for Human Rights of Women and Children presented this exhibit in an effort to personalize and make more accessible the plight of child soldiers around the world. The freeze-frames traumatized children in crisis. It shows them in the clutches of cruel mental pain and suffering, sometimes masked by bravado or insolence. Do not be fooled by the mask; it is the child's pathetic defense mechanism to hide a lost self inside. This exhibition is co-sponsored by MSU Project 60-50 and the MSU Residential College of Arts and Humanities. For more information about the Talsky Center's work to end child soldiering, please visit their website.

Panel (PDF)
Poster
(PDF)

Art for Charlie Foundation Exhibition
#28
November 4, 2015 - December 15, 2015
4th Floor Atrium

The Art for Charlie Foundation is a 501(c)3 that raises money through art events to support children in hospice and families bereaved by the death of a child. The Foundation also promotes advancement of pediatric palliative care in Michigan. With the generous participation of the Broad Art Museum, artists across Michigan were invited by the Foundation to submit entries (in digital form) for a 2D art competition that were judged (on October 28, 2015) by the Broad Art Museum’s curator - Caitlin Doherty. From some 80 entries, 20 pieces were selected for the final judging. The Art for Charlie exhibition at the Law College featured all 20 pieces including the winners – 1st, 2nd and 3rd, the runners-up, and three additional entries by an artist expressing grief through art.

Flyer (PDF)

We Animals: Examining the Human Relationship with Animals
#27
Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur
March 2015 - April 2015
3rd floor gallery area

We Animals is part of a larger project that includes an emotional photography exhibition that focuses on how animals are used in the human environment for food, clothing, research, experimentation, work, entertainment, and companionship. The project spans over a decade of work from award-winning Canadian photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur. It uses photography to document human interactions with animals in an attempt to change the perspective of how humans view animals from simple objects or items of property into sentient beings worthy of moral significance. The We Animals project has spawned the book (We Animals) and a documentary – The Ghosts in Our Machine. As part of the show, MSU College of Law Student Animal Legal Defense Fund hosted a screening of The Ghosts in Our Machine on April 2, 2015 featuring special guest speaker Jo-Anne McArthur.

Flyer (PDF)
Photo #1
Photo #2

Bought & Sold: Voices of Human Trafficking
#26
By Kay Chernush, ArtWorks For Freedom
February 15, 2015 - March 31, 2015

Bought & Sold: Voices of Human Trafficking speaks to the experiences and suffering of the millions of men, women and children caught up in slavery's web. By drawing on personal experiences from human trafficking survivors, Kay Chernush has created a thought-provoking, beautiful ensemble of photographic artwork. Each layered, constructed image reveals the story of a survivor of human trafficking. The exhibition challenges all of us to imagine the daily horrors, tedium, desperation, and ambiguities of their lives. It also includes impactful narratives from those who lived through the ordeal of modern slavery. Listening to their stories and looking outward through the victims’ eyes, the ensemble of work hopes not only to give voice to survivors, but to transform public attitudes and inspire anti-trafficking action. Kay Chernush gave a public lecture: About Human Trafficking: A Photographer at the Intersection of Art & Human Rights on March 17, 2015 at 4:00 p.m., MSU College of Law Boardroom. The exhibition was co-sponsored MSU Project 60-50 and 12 other MSU campus units (see panel).

Panel (PDF)
The Exhibit (PDF)

Canada’s Arctic: Vibrant and Thriving
#25
October 19, 2014 – November 20, 2014
3rd floor gallery area

The exhibit captures Canada’s North – a region as vast as it is diverse. Modern conveniences exist alongside thriving traditional cultures in a region that faces both challenges and opportunities. In light of the region’s rich natural resources, Canada’s North is poised for an unprecedented economic boom. Careful planning, however, will be necessary to achieve economic and environmental sustainability. To that end, Canada is working hard with its partners in the Arctic Council to ensure that its economic and natural resource development will be sustainable throughout the circumpolar region and that the benefits to the health and well-being of Northerners and Northern communities will be lasting.

This exhibit was organized by the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, with support from the Consulate General of Canada-Detroit. It was on display at the MSU College of Law in conjunction with the 2014 Midwest Association for Canadian Studies Conference – Common Problems, Working Solutions Across Borders held at Michigan State University College of Law on November 13th-15th, 2014.

Pic Michelle Valberg

One of Michigan's Own: Viola Liuzzo: An Exemplary Woman in Extraordinary Times
#24
March 2, 2014-April 30, 2014
3rd floor gallery area

Viola Liuzzo was the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement yet we hear so little about her. She was a 39-year-old Detroit teamster's wife and mother of five, who, in 1965, joined thousands of people converging on Selma, Alabama for the March on Montgomery led by Martin Luther King, Jr. But shortly after the historic Voting Rights March had ended, while driving on a deserted highway, she was shot in the head and killed by a car full of Klansmen. This exhibition helps bring back memories of one of our own – Detroit’s Viola Liuzzo. The exhibition is cosponsored by MSU Project 60-50, MSU College of Law Diversity Services Office, and the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Poster (PDF)
Panel (PDF)

Black in White America
#23
By Leonard Freed (1929-2006)
February 25, 2014 - June 1, 2014
4th floor atrium

This is a powerful and evocative photographic essay on African American life during the Civil Rights movement by Leonard Freed – one out our nation’s finest photo journalists. Freed's photographs present a composite of the daily lives of black people in the north and south, on the city streets, in housing projects, and in rural communities, living joyously, peacefully, and defiantly during one of the greatest social struggles of our times. The exhibition is cosponsored by MSU Project 60-50 and the MSU College of Law Diversity Services Office.

Poster (PDF)
Panel (PDF)

Art@Work
#22
October 11, 2013 - November 30, 2013
3rd floor gallery area

Peckham, Inc. is a nonprofit vocational rehabilitation organization in Lansing, Michigan that provides job training opportunities for persons with significant disabilities and other barriers to employment. As part of the Peckham Community Partnership Program, Peckham is presently in collaboration with MSU's Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and the MSU College of Engineering. This innovative program is creating a dynamic public arts project entitled Art@Work. In the fall of 2013, twenty five of the Art@Work paintings were on display at the Michigan State University College of Law. The exhibition was co-sponsored by MSU Project 60-50 and the MSU Residential College of Arts and Humanities.

Panel (PDF)
Pic (PDF)

It Takes a Village: From Gondar to Jerusalem
#21
May 19, 2013 - June 7, 2013
4th floor atrium

The photographic exhibition recounted the resettlement of Ethiopians from Ethiopia to Jerusalem. Most of the Ethiopians who emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel did so during two massive waves of immigration mounted by the Israeli government – "Operation Moses" in 1984 and then again during "Operation Solomon" in 1991. These striking photos depict the traditional tribal lifestyle that these Ethiopians left behind for life in a modern, high-tech, democratic society in Israel.

Invitation (PDF)
Brochure (PDF)

Time Out .... photographs by Trisha R. Wilcox
#20
March 2013- June 2013
3rd floor gallery area

Many can snap a pretty picture. Trisha Wilcox's photographs of Michigan take us much further than the feelings evoked from beauty. Her work brings us to linger for a while in a state of transition between thought and emotion — a Time Out for solitude.

Photo #1, Photo #2
Poster (PDF)

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts - Molly Dilworth 36 ° 30'
#19
January 2012 - March 2012
3rd floor gallery area

This was a two-part exhibition. The four text panels describe the history and mission of an arts advocacy organization - The Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. In addition, it included the works of one of the many VLA Art & Law Residency artists - Molly Dilworth – in her show titled 36 ° 30' These eight banner compositions are constructed from visual references to global trade and labor. Each reflects the hybrid iconography drawn from states' flags and emblems as well as the logos of companies with a relationship to the 36 ° 30' parallel, cumulatively weaving together a history of global trade.

Panels (PDF)
Photo
Poster (PDF)

Nora Chapa Mendoza ~ Artist, Elder, Activist
#18
January 2013 – March 2015
3rd floor gallery area

This exhibition showcases the artistic talents of Nora Chapa Mendoza. Although she began painting as a child, her career as an artist began at the age of 47. A longtime Detroit resident and social activist, Ms. Mendoza’s work often deals with themes such as conditions confronting poor people in Latin America, the plight of American Indians, migrant workers, and women's affairs. This exhibition includes her work with figures, landscapes, abstracts, and a collection of miscellaneous paintings.

Photo #1, Photo #2
Poster (PDF)

Gardens: From the Backyard to Rooftops
#17
By Brad Temkin
January 2012- April 2012
4th floor atrium

This colorful photography exhibit featured the work of Chicago-based photographer Brad Temkin. Temkin teaches photography at Columbia College in Chicago, and has been a lecturer and visiting artist at numerous institutions in the United States. Much of his work has gone toward documenting the human impact on the landscape. The Law College displayed two different collections of Temkin in the 4th floor galleries. One titled Private Places ... the other Rooftop: The Rise of Living Architecture addresses what contemporary urban pioneers are doing to mitigate the consequences of non-renewable energy consumption and drawing attention to living architecture.

Poster (PDF) Rooftop Private Places
http://www.bradtemkin.com/rooftop/ http://www.bradtemkin.com/private-places/

Hope Against Odds and Rules
#16
September - November 2011

In 2011 we displayed a pair of exhibitions featuring the paintings of Michigan State University College of Law student Colin Darke (class of 2004), now a practicing lawyer.

Poster (PDF)

Give Me Your Hands: The Legacy of the Barre Sculptors and Their Stone
#15
By Leslie D. Bartlett.
October 1, 2011 – December 15, 2011
4th floor atrium

This photographic exhibition by Leslie D. Bartlett documented the lives and crafts of immigrant master stone sculptors who had labored with the granite stone from the quarries of Barre, Vermont.

Poster (PDF)

Living Under the Trees: Images from the World of Migratory Labor
#14
By David Bacon
January 16, 2011 – April 1, 2011
4th floor atrium

This photography exhibition by David Bacon revealed the faces of indigenous Mexican farm workers living in California with text panels and photographs of farm workers and their families.

Poster (PDF)
dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgr00c.html

Suburbia Mexicana: Cause and Effect
#13
By Alejandro Cartagena
September 6 – November 2010
4th floor atrium

“Suburbia Mexicana” is an exhibition that explores the urbanization of Mexico through photographs from Dominican-born Mexican photographer, Alejandro Cartagena. With photographs taken between 2005 and 2009, Cartagena provides us a unique view of the state of Nuevo Leon focusing on the outskirts of Monterrey and the other 8 cities that form the metropolitan area. The exhibition is comprised of five integrally connected series: Topographies of a Fragmented City, People of Suburbia, Lost Rivers, The Other Distance and Urban Holes.

Poster (PDF)
http://alejandrocartagena.com/suburbia-mexicana-people-of-suburbia

Year of the Miracles: Austria and the Cold War
#12
November – December 2010
4th floor atrium

Curated by Günter Bischof and Lorenz Mikoletzky and underwritten by the Austrian State Archives of Vienna, this exhibit explores Austria’s geostrategic location on the periphery of the Soviet sphere of influence and recounts the role Austria played in helping to open the iron curtain along its borders which ultimately lead to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Photo
https://www.austria1989.org/

The Presentation of Evidence as Art
#11
By Karl Gude
October 2009 - November 2009
3rd floor gallery area

Curated by Karl Gude, this is a unique exhibition of media images and legal graphics – some were used to tell a narrative in newspapers while others were presented as evidence in trials throughout the nation.

Poster (PDF)
Overview

Faces from an American Dream
#10
By Martin Desht
October 2009 – December 2009
4th floor atrium

This exhibition was part of a series of events on the MSU campus dedicated to a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion of "Economic Justice." It hosted a variety of lectures, and workshops on both local and global topics such as poverty, social welfare, globalization, work and labor, social welfare, equity and financial disparity and uncertainty. This collection of photographs by Martin Desht depicts the shift from America’s industrial economy to a modern service and information-oriented economy at the end of the twentieth century and the impact of that transformation on cities and towns – ultimately on the American dream of skilled and unskilled workers across the nation. The events were co-sponsored by Michigan State University College of Law Diversity Services Office, James Madison College, Labor and Industrial Relations, Peace and Justice Studies, and The Center for Professional and Personal Ethics at Central Michigan University.

Poster (PDF)
Economic Justice

Speak Truth To Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World
#9
Spring Semester 2009
4th floor atrium

Curated by Kerry Kennedy and Nan Richardson, this exhibition is part of a larger project underwritten by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial which brings people face-to-face with powerful portraits of 35 women and men from countries across the world who are courageous defenders of human rights. These powerful portraits were taken by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Eddie Adams. As part of the exhibition, the Law College also sponsored a play, Speak Truth To Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, written by Ariel Dorfman and performed by students from MSUs Department of Theater. In addition, the Law College hosted Sister Helen Prejean, a strong advocate of human rights and leader of the worldwide campaign against capital punishment. She is the author of the book Dead Man Walking that was made into the highly acclaimed motion picture. She addressed the MSU community on March 18, 2009.

Website

The Innocents: Headshots
#8
By Taryn Simon
October – December 2007
4th floor atrium

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Innocence Project, in the fall of 2007, Michigan State University College of Law in conjunction with Thomas M. Cooley Law School and MSU's School of Criminal Justice were pleased to present The Innocents: Headshots. The Innocence Project was founded by noted attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufield who, at that time, had liberated over 100 innocent people from prison and from death row based on DNA evidence. This exhibition of 45 photographs of headshots of individuals who had been exonerated from death row, based on DNA evidence acquired by the Innocence Project through the efforts of Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck.

Pamphlet (PDF)
Poster
(PDF)

Building Islam in Detroit: Foundations, Forms, Futures
#7
By Elshafei Mohamed
Fall 2006
4th floor atrium

Building Islam in Detroit: Foundations, Forms, Futures is a multi-media exhibition designed for public audiences in an effort to help us all understand how Detroit’s Muslim communities have evolved over time. The exhibition catalogues the diversity of Detroit’s Muslim communities as well as documenting and reinterpreting the building of mosques and the creation of Muslim spaces in Detroit as a deeply historical process. This is a collaborative research exhibition sponsored by University of Michigan International Institute and the Rackham Graduate School

http://biid.lsa.umich.edu/exhibit.html

Displaced Sudan: The Cost of Silence
#6
By Ryan Spencer Reed
Fall 2006
3rd floor gallery

In the years before 2006, much of life in South Sudan was shattered and strewn across the Central and East African landscape. At that time more than two and half million people had been killed and another five million had been internally and externally displaced by the conflict. "The Cost of Silence," a photographic exhibition by Ryan Spencer Reed collates a large body of images in order to construct a narrative of one of the most critical social issues of our time - genocide.

Poster (PDF)
sudanproject.ryanspencerreed.com

State of Mind
#5
By Robert Sestok
January 2006 – March 2006
4th floor atrium

Robert Sectock is a genuine, passionate artist who, working through sculpture and painting, seeks to achieve the realization of his subconscious and creative thoughts. The 30 paintings were the outcome of a 5-year study of different types of painting with the goal of enhancing his knowledge of art. The paintings reflect his ideas on geographical locations and abstract art. State of Mind is thus responsive to geographical locations and inspired by his environment.“This process helps me to understand my state of mind.”RS

Poster (PDF)

Mich-ART@cmu.wmu.msu
#4
February 2005 -April 2005
4th floor atrium

This art exhibition featured 46 works by student artists from Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University, and Michigan State University. The works were in any medium – photography, digital design, drawing, or printmaking The works of art from the self-nominated students from each university were selected by 6 faculty referees / 3 each from each of the two other universities.

Poster (PDF)

An American Show
#3
By Tyree Guyton
September 2004 – December 2004
4th floor atrium

This exhibition featured the works of Detroit artist Tyree Guyton. The artist, a native of Detroit, is known for his open-air installations and paintings on Heidelberg Street where he was raised. Guyton worked to transform Heildelberg Street into a work of art, decorating houses, cars, and trees.

Poster (PDF)
The Heidelberg Project

The Bregenz Art Exhibition
#2
Fall 2003
4th floor atrium

Professor Mercuro together with Dr. Wilhelm Meusburger, Director of the Association of Artists of the City of Bregenz in Austria organized the Bregenz Art Exhibition. This exhibition featured 59 contemporary paintings, all by Austrian artists who live and work in the Bregenz area (the western most area of Austria). The paintings for this exhibition were selected by members of the MSU Kresge Art Museum, the MSU Department of Art and Art History, and by the proprietors of the Hankins Art Gallery of East Lansing – 12 paintings were selected by and displayed at the Hankins Art Gallery.

Poster

2nd Overture: MSU Student Art Exhibition
#1
December 2002 – May 2003
4th floor atrium

The MSU College of Law’s first exhibition was titled 2nd Overture: MSU Student Art Exhibition. It included many pieces from a summer 2002 exhibition titled Overture: MSU Student Art Exhibition held in Bregenz, Austria. Overture was organized by Professor Nicholas Mercuro of the Law College and Dr. Wilhelm Meusburger, the Director of the Association of Artists of the City of Bregenz in Austria. It featured the paintings and photographs of 21 MSU student artists and was on display in the State Parliament Building in Bregenz for six weeks. Upon return to MSU in December of 2002, that exhibition was incorporated into the 2nd Overture which then included 57 paintings and photographs by 27 MSU student artists. Thus, 2nd Overture: MSU Student Art Exhibition became the Law College's first exhibition and the show which began this venture.

Poster
Poster (PDF)