UMMA’s Impact Report
UMMA puts art and ideas at the center of campus and public life — creating a true gathering place where everyone can Feel Free.
Your Support In Action.
See how the power of art came alive in 2024-2025.
UMMA is the place where art, ideas, and community connection pulse through campus life. In 2024-25, we energized classrooms and galleries, we sparked conversations, and we created spaces where students and visitors alike could gather, reflect, and celebrate the power of creative expression, all thanks to your catalytic support.
Learn more about how you can deepen your impact at UMMA today.
“I am proud to share this report highlighting UMMA’s impact over the last year. We are truly becoming the cultural heart of the University of Michigan.
With your support UMMA has emerged as more than an art museum. We are a true campus crossroads, where art, ideas, and community meet. We bring Ann Arbor alive with opportunities to connect with art; build civic engagement muscles; find community; discuss, disagree, learn; and explore the most important topics of our time.
Our exhibitions, residencies, and programs are now woven into both the campus and community creating dynamic opportunities for students, faculty, and visitors to connect with art and with one another. Together, we’re not just imagining more just and vibrant futures, but creating them here, at UMMA, with all of you.
Thank you for supporting us.”
UMMA is a Welcoming Hub For All
UMMA is the Creative Heartbeat of Campus
UMMA is doing such creative work and you will change the creative world as we know it!
UMMA is Critical to All Students
Thank you for offering us the chance to come to UMMA. It was most likely the first museum experience for most of the children, and it was perfect—varied, hands-on, caring, and relatable.
UMMA Empowers Voters
The meal I shared at UMMA led to one of the most remarkably candid yet in-depth conversations with people I’d never met before. It was an honor to hear their stories.
Building A Vital Collection For The Times We Live In
Thanks to the generous support of donors and the members of the UMMA Director’s Acquisition Committee, UMMA continued to diversify and expand the collection in exciting ways that make the art at UMMA more responsive, accessible, and meaningful to more people.
192 New acquisitions, including:
- M’barek Bouhchichi, La société de métayage
- Tanaka Yu, Tsutsumimono Bajōhai
- Frank Stella, Juam State I
- Helen Frankenthaler, Mirabelle
UMMA Hosts Trailblazing Artists
Through extended residencies, UMMA weaves artists into campus and community life, fueling courses, sparking public dialogue, and creating collaborative moments where we all learn, imagine, and push ideas forward together.
2024-2025 Artist Residencies included:
Philippa Pham Hughes
Fred Wilson
George Vargas
Jarod Lew
La Raza is not just an exhibition — it’s a platform for our histories, our activism, and our creativity. It’s powerful to see our stories take center stage at UMMA.
2024-2025 Highlights Exhibitions & Programs
UMMA’s exhibitions and programs in 2024-2025 turned the museum into a hub of creativity and energy. Crowds packed in to celebrate, argue and get inspired together. Our galleries were buzzing with new ideas, proving that UMMA is where the most exciting conversations at Michigan begin.
Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection
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An exhibition spanning more than 100 years and showcasing the rich history of African American art production in the United States.
The exhibition was presented alongside A Love Letter to Blackness, a series of public programs developed with local activist and non-profit leader, Yodit Mesfin Johnson.
Hey, We Need To Talk
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Artist in Residence Philippa Hughes
The flower wallpaper in UMMA’s gallery was a hit—but so were the more than 20 meals artist Philipa Hughes hosted in the space, where guests came together for honest conversations about identity, community, and justice.
85% of participants said their participation made them more open to having conversations with others whose political views differ from their own.
Jarod Lew: Strange You Never Knew
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The first solo museum exhibition for Detroit-born artist Jarod Lew brought audiences face-to-face with a deeply personal story of family and identity. Through intimate portraits and a quiet, poetic lens on Midwestern Asian American life, Lew invited visitors to reflect on the stories we inherit, and the ones we choose to create for ourselves.
Feel Good Friday
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Thousands gathered to be surrounded by art and community at our three Feel Good Friday events!
Your Support Matters Most!
None of the important work UMMA does would be possible without the support of incredibly dedicated members and donors such as you. UMMA is able to change lives and re-imagine what a campus art museum can mean for its community because of the generous support from people around the world–people like you.
Thank you for supporting our mission in so many ways—by visiting the Museum, by participating in our virtual programs, sharing news about UMMA with friends and family, and through your financial support—we couldn’t do it without you!
If you are able, please consider making a gift to help us continue this important work!