MSU helped celebrate the 90th birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela on July 19 with a specially designed exhibit opening and an announcement of a curatorial fellowship at the Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu, South Africa.

Created by MSU Museum staff and project partners along with other MSU faculty, staff and students and community members in South Africa and Michigan, "Dear Mr. Mandela, Dear Mrs. Parks: Children's Letters, Global Lessons" is an exhibit of letters written by children from all over the world to human rights leaders Mandela and the late Rosa Parks.

"The exhibit is bringing together two remarkable icons that have dedicated their lives to human rights and did so with great sacrifice," said Kurt Dewhurst, MSU Museum director and one of the exhibit's organizers. "And they did so in two different ways - Mr. Mandela, a public figure, was able to rise to be president and a worldwide figure after years of imprisonment; and Mrs. Parks, through her quiet strength, was able to leave a remarkable legacy. They show how individuals can make a real difference in the world."

Learn more here:
-MSU News: http://news.msu.edu/story/5612/
-Facebook photo gallery (log-in required): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25310&id=10661457828&ref=mf
-The Times (Johannesburg, South Africa): http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=791580

MSU zoology professor and MSU Museum adjunct curator Kay Holekamp is considered one of the world's leading experts on spotted hyenas.

Holekamp and her students are in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve conducting research to answer fundamental research questions in the areas of disease ecology, evolution, behavior and conservation.

Follow along with the students of the Holekamp Lab as they blog about their experiences while conducting research in Kenya.

"Inside Out Art 2008," an annual touring exhibit of emerging artists developed by VSA arts of Michigan is currently featured at the MSU Museum's Youth Art Gallery until Aug.7. Forty-four works are included by Michigan artists of all ages from 18 communities including Ann Arbor, Detroit, Pontiac, Newaygo, Waterford, Northville, Boyne Falls, Dexter, Constantine, Flushing, Ypsilanti, St. Joseph, Grandville, Beverly Hills, Dearborn Heights, Taylor, Clio, and Mayville.

Established in 1977, VSA arts of Michigan demonstrates the need for arts education and increases opportunities for experiences and training within educational and community programs for individuals with disabilities. Each year over 70,000 individuals benefit from programs in all disciplines and in activities centered in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and arts and community centers throughout Michigan. VSA arts, founded by Jean Kennedy Smith in 1974, has been designed by the U.S. Congress as the nations coordinating agency for arts programs for people with disabilities. There are 52 VSA affiliates in the United States.

The MSU Museum's Youth Art Gallery provides an opportunity to explore, study, and express the natural and cultural diversity of the world. Artwork displayed reflects museum themes and exhibits, and recent projects have featured students' drawings, paintings, collages, and puppet creations.

The MSU Museum is Michigan's natural history and culture museum and the state's first Smithsonian Institution affiliate. The MSU Museum collects, preserves, studies and interprets cultural artifacts and natural history specimens, with collections numbering more than 1 million in four buildings on the MSU campus. One of the oldest museums in the Midwest, the MSU Museum is committed to education, exhibitions, research and the building and stewardship of collections that focus on Michigan and its relationship to the Great Lakes and the world beyond. The MSU Museum features three floors of special collections and changing exhibits and is open seven days a week free of charge (donations are encouraged). Located on West Circle Drive next to Beaumont Tower on the MSU campus, the MSU Museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. Hours are Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Visitor parking is available in front of the building and at metered spaces at the Grand River Ramp, one block away at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Charles Street. For more information, call (517) 355-2370 or see http://museum.msu.edu.

Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic parish in Michigan and second oldest parish in the country, traces its beginning to July 26, 1701, two days after the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and his party landed at the site of present-day Detroit, where they established Fort Pontchartrain.

See the July-August Michigan Stained Glass Census Windows of the Month here: http://museum.msu.edu/museum/msgc/jul08.html

The Michigan Stained Glass Census, which began in 1992, is a statewide survey of architectural stained glass coordinated by the Michigan State University Museum. Featured windows are selected based on subject matter, technique, seasonal theme, type of building, age, and region in the state -- to showcase the tremendous variety of the art form. The Census is an ongoing project that encourages individuals and groups to better appreciate and preserve the stained glass treasures in their own communities. To date, more than 1,000 buildings around the state have been documented, many with multiple windows contained in the Census.

Opening on July 19 is the special exhibition "Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks: Children's Letters, Global Lessons" at the Nelson Mandela National Museum in Mthatha, South Africa, Mandela's birthplace in the Eastern Cape Province. Mandela, who retired from public life in 2004, will make a rare public appearance for this event - set for the day after his actual birthday, which he is reserving exclusively for time with family.

The exhibition was developed when the MSU Museum and the Nelson Mandela Museum were awarded one of the first four grants from a new program of the American Association of Museums, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, designed to strengthen connections between people in the U.S. and abroad through museum-based exchanges.

The inspiration for "Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks" came from the hundreds of children around the world who have written letters to two individuals--Nelson Mandela of South Africa and the late Rosa Parks of the United States--who are internationally known for their work in human rights. The letters reveal why children revere Mandela and Parks and also young people's desires for guidance and understanding about life.

"Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks" uses those letters to illustrate the shared values and goals held by Parks and Mandela: courage and hope, the struggle for freedom, the power of knowledge and education, faith and spirituality, pathways to and the price of freedom, and action and reconciliation. Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela greatly admired each other, shared many values and goals, and both cared deeply about youth. Mandela met Parks, often referred to as the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement" in America, for the first time in Detroit in 1990 when Mr. Mandela toured the United States after his release from prison (for anti-apartheid activities).

"The exhibit also encourages visitors - especially youth -- to understand and be tolerant of diverse cultures and traditions, become aware of the ongoing struggle for human rights around the world, and recognize ways to honor individuals in their own families and communities who--like Mandela and Parks--have contributed, in large and small ways, to making a better world," notes MSU Museum Director C. Kurt Dewhurst, one of the exhibit's organizers.
After its run at the Nelson Mandela National Museum, "Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks" is expected to tour the U.S., providing the springboard for discussion and learning about these two powerful figures and the ongoing struggle for human rights around the world.

Mandela has received more than one hundred awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary degree from Michigan State University, a university which was active in South Africa's struggles for democracy and equality and which continues to be engaged with a number of research and public education projects with South Africans.

Last year, Gregory Reed (MSU B.S., 1970), the personal lawyer of Rosa Parks, announced a planned gift to the Michigan State University Museum of a collection of letters children wrote to Parks. Reed, through his Detroit-based Keeper of the Word Foundation, works to protect the legacies of authors, artists, and activists. A book written by Parks and Reed served as the starting point for the development of the joint Mandela and Parks exhibition.

The MSU Museum, along with the staff of its project partners, has engaged other MSU faculty, staff, and students and community members in South Africa and Michigan in the research and development of this project. Through projects like this and others, Michigan State University Museum seeks to use its resources to generate awareness and understanding of local and global issues related to natural and cultural diversity and to create meaningful, experiential opportunities to address those issues.

The MSU Museum has developed South African cultural heritage partnerships formed during the 2000-2006 South African National Cultural Heritage Project. This project represents the ongoing commitment of the Nelson Mandela National Museum and Michigan State University Museum to continue to create bi-national research, exhibition, and educational programs that will increase understanding of South African and American history, art, and culture.

Learn more:
-Michigan State University: http://www.msu.edu
-Michigan State University Museum: http://museum.msu.edu/ProgramsandPartnerships/International/aam.html
-Nelson Mandela National Museum: http://www.nelsonmandelamuseum.org.za
-America Association of Museum "Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad:" http://www.aam-us.org/mcca

Highlights of the music performance schedule include:

• Crooked Road Revue: based on a popular theme created by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, Washington, D.C., (which brought the GLFF predecessor, the traveling National Folk Festival, to East Lansing). Old-time musical artists - Eddie Bond, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Wayne Henderson and Kirk Sutphin -- from the Crooked Road region of Virginia will play as a combo, and also in individual sets showcasing vocal and musical mastery.
• Cephas & Wiggins: who also brought their Piedmont-style blues to the National Folk Festival in East Lansing, will be back for this year's GLFF.
• Roots and Generations: a number of family connections where traditions flourish -- including Lansing's own Singletons gospel group, Vishten's LeBlanc twins, Réveillons! Berthiaume brothers, and emerging artists, twin brothers James and Shaun Richardson of Cats & The Fiddler, from Milford, Mich.
• Chinese culture: since GLFF opens the same day as the Beijing Olympics, MSU Museum planners wanted to spotlight traditional Chinese culture with George Gao playing the erhu, sometimes called the Chinese fiddle.
• French connections: a variety of cultures, traditions and communities come together at GLFF with Quebecois and Acadian from French-speaking Canada, and transplanted Cajun and Zydeco from New Orleans.
• CraftWORKS! crossover: A new feature at this year's event is based on an MSU Museum program where masters and apprentices demonstrate how traditions and artistic expressions are taught and sustained in Michigan -- story-telling, carving, lace-making, weaving and more. Many of these will include musical traditions, with performances and meet-the-artist sessions planned.
• Fun fact: whether we realize it or not, virtually everyone has already heard Wylie Gustafson sing. He performs the catchy, "Ya-hoo-ooh-ooh!" yodel in the Yahoo.com TV commercials.

In addition, GLFF will present the popular Fiddle Traditions showcase, bringing together fiddlers from many different groups to share and compare traditions, techniques and influences. New this year is a Guitar Masters showcase.
Music and dance from across America and around the world come together throughout the weekend with the unique mix of bluegrass, blues, gospel, western swing, polka, Zydeco, Mexican, African, Chinese and more. The music program is sponsored by the City of East Lansing. See the complete GLFF musical schedule at http://www.greatlakesfolkfest.net/Schedule/ , where sound clips are also available to preview. The schedule may be subject to change and festival-goers should check the stage schedules at the event.

The Great Lakes Folk Festival also features the Taste of Traditions food court, Folk Arts Marketplace, Michigan Heritage Awards, Children's Folk Activities Area and a new CraftWORKS! program, featuring master artists and apprentices.

Admission is free (donations are encouraged). For more information, call the MSU Museum at (517) 432-4533 or learn more at www.greatlakesfolkfest.net.

Festival hours are: Friday, Aug. 8, 6 - 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 9, 12 noon - 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 10, 12 noon - 6 p.m. For more information, call the MSU Museum at (517) 432-GLFF (4533) or learn more at http://www.greatlakesfolkfest.net , or on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10222494617 (log-in required).

The Great Lakes Folk Festival is produced by the Michigan State University Museum, Michigan's first Smithsonian affiliate. The festival is coordinated by the MSU Museum's Michigan Traditional Arts Program, which researches, documents, preserves, and presents our shared heritage and cultural expressions. Primary financial support for GLFF comes from the City of East Lansing, Michigan State University Office of the Provost and University Outreach and Engagement, and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. In addition, nearly 100 corporations, foundations and organizations also support GLFF annually, as well as individual donors, "Great Friends."

The MSU Museum needs volunteers for a variety of positions for the three-day annual community event. More than 400 agile and spirited volunteers help produce the festival, filling three- and four-hour shifts in a variety of areas, including staffing information booths, artist transportation, children's areas, bucket brigades, and site set-up and tear-down. For information on volunteering, contact (517) 432-GLFF or email glffvolunteer@museum.msu.edu . Volunteers can also sign up online at http://www.greatlakesfolkfest.net/Volunteers/About/ (click on the "registration" tab.)

Festival hours are: Friday, Aug. 8, 6 - 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 9, 12 noon - 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 10, 12 noon - 6 p.m. Some volunteer shifts extend before and after festival hours.

Music, dance, art, and culture from across America and around the world come to downtown East Lansing for the Great Lakes Folk Festival. The event features a variety of traditional music and dance -- from blues to bluegrass, gospel, Zydeco, Acadian, African and more -- as well as the Taste of Traditions Food Court, Folk Arts Marketplace, Michigan Heritage Awards, and Children's Area featuring arts and crafts and hands-on activities.

The award-winning Great Lakes Folk Festival is one of the region's premiere arts programs and a summer-time high note -- and is expected to draw more than 90,000 visitors throughout the weekend to celebrate culture, tradition and community. GLFF was named the state's top public humanities program by the Michigan Humanities Council and the event received an artistic excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to help produce this year's activities.