GVSU Arts Celebration
Maria Lux
Maria Lux Exhibition Reception & Meet the Artist
Thursday, September 17, 2026, 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Padnos Student Gallery, Calder Art Center, Valley Campus
Please join us for an exhibition by the GVSU Arts Celebration Visiting Artist Maria Lux. Maria and GVSU students from the Department of Visual and Media Arts created and installed the art exhibition which will remain on view until October 9, 2026, during open hours. Free and open to the public.
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Art as a Way of Knowing (and not knowing) Animals: An Artist Talk by Maria Lux
Friday, September 18, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Grand River Room, Kirkhof Center, Valley Campus
A free luncheon with the artist will follow the presentation. Registration is required.
Always focused on animals, Maria Lux’s research-based artworks take on serious topics, often through an ‘unserious’ approach like absurdity, humor, playfulness, cuteness, darkness, horror, or narrative. Broadly, Maria’s work joins that of other research-driven artists in arguing for art as an important form of research itself, generating new knowledge through creative practice. In this lecture, learn how Maria approaches making her artwork about animals from a research-based lens.
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Animals & Art: Panel Discussion
Friday, September 18, 2026, 2:00 - 3:00 pm
Pew Library Multipurpose Room, Valley Campus
Join Maria Lux in conversation with local and regional experts who also work at the intersection of animals and art. This conversation will be facilitated by a current student from the Department of Visual and Media Arts.
Ying Quartet
Photo credit Todd Maturazzo
Ying Quartet: From Mozart to Childs
Monday, October 5, 2025, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Van Solkema Recital Hall, Haas Center for the Performing Arts, Valley Campus
Free with a reserved ticket <need link>
The Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet will present a concert that projects Mozart’s forward-looking “Dissonance” Quartet to the present time. Jazz arranger/composer Billy Childs bridges the gap between the vernacular and classical idioms and has written specifically for the Yings. This concert includes:
- W.A. Mozart: String Quartet in C major, K. 465 “Dissonance”
- Billy Childs: Variation on a Rondo
- Billy Childs: Oscuro
- Billy Childs: Agitato
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Ying Quartet: Schubert’s C Major Quintet
Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Cook-DeWitt Center, Valley Campus
Free with a reserved ticket <need link>
Truly a cornerstone of the classical repertoire, Schubert’s magnificent Quintet in C Major was published and first performed posthumously. Closing their 3-day residency at GVSU, the Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet is joined by Grand Valley professor Pablo Mahave-Veglia for this performance. This concert includes:
- Schubert Cello Quintet in C Major op. Posthumous
Craig Santos Perez
GVSU Poetry Night with Craig Santos Perez
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Wealthy Theatre – 1130 Wealthy St SE
Dr. Craig Santos Perez is an Indigenous Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the editor of nine anthologies and author of seven books of poetry, most recently Call This Mutiny [Uncollected Poems], and the academic monograph, Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization, which received the MLA Prize for Best Book in Studies of Native Culture and Literature. His work has been honored with the National Book Award, the American Book Award, a PEN award, and the Poetry Society of America Prize. Perez is a poet, editor, essayist, critic, environmentalist, and political activist. An important voice in eco-poetics, he describes his work as a mourning and desire to protect the environment from further desecration and a longing and advocacy for a decolonized, sovereign, and indigenous future. A book signing will follow the presentation.
Margin to Mainstream: Recognizing Women Artists Exhibition
Aneka Ingold, Vesna, mixed media on panel 2021. GVSU Collection, 2024.22.1
Margin to Mainstream: Recognizing Women Artists
August 24 - November 6, 2026
Haas Center for Performing Arts Gallery (PAC 1121), Allendale (Valley) Campus
Margin to Mainstream: Recognizing Women Artists, explores the shifting place of women artists within the art world, from histories of marginalization to increasing recognition and influence. The exhibition brings together a range of artistic practices, generations, and perspectives, highlighting voices that were long overlooked, underestimated, or excluded from dominant narratives.
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Margin to Mainstream: Recognizing Women Artists Exhibition Opening and Special Lecture
Thursday, September 10, 2026, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Art Gallery (PAC 1121), Haas Center for the Performing Arts, Valley Campus
Registration is required.
Join us for the opening reception and a special lecture event with Amelia Anderson, the Director of the Bennett Prize and Curator of Women's Art at the Muskegon Museum of Art.
Learn more about the Margin to Mainstream exhibition.