Seven events bring together global voices and emerging talent to examine design’s impact on people, products, and the planet.

The College for Creative Studies (CCS), announces its Winter 2026 programming, a four-month series of exhibitions, lectures, and showcases exploring sustainability, material innovation, and the evolving role of designers in shaping the future. From alumni exhibitions to international collaborations, the season highlights how CCS is preparing the next generation of artists and designers to integrate environmental responsibility and creative innovation across disciplines.

https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/community-outreach-and-engagement/speakers-exhibitions/

Winter 2026 Programming

Valade Speaker Series: In the Realm of Lightning, Rajni Perera & Nep Sidhu

Tuesday, February 3, 2026 | 5:30-7 p.m. | Wendell W. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium (301 Frederick St) As part of the Valade Speaker Series, CCS presents an intimate look into the shared creative trajectory of artists Rajni Perera and Nep Sidhu. Drawing from their working-class migrant backgrounds, the duo explores the intersection of spiritual community and cosmic mythmaking that defined their landmark 2021 collaborative exhibition, In The Realm of Lightning. During this exchange, the artists will discuss their unique makership and the evolution of their distinctive material forms, offering insight into their practices as both individual creators and lifelong collaborators.

NCECA National Juried Student Exhibition

Friday, March 6 – Saturday, April 4, 2026 Reception: Thursday, March 26, 6–9 p.m. | Valade Family Gallery, A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education (460 W Baltimore St.) The NCECA Juried Student Exhibition showcases innovative ceramic works by emerging artists from undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate programs across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Highlighting the next generation of ceramic talent, the exhibition celebrates creativity, technical skill, and contemporary perspectives within the field of ceramic art. The 2026 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition is in partnership with the NCECA National Conference 2026

Toyota Lecture Series Industry Exposition

Thursday, March 19, 2026 | 4:00-9:00 p.m. | Wendell W. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium (201 E Kirby) CCS’s popular multi-day lecture series brings nationally recognized artists and designers to Detroit for public presentations, coinciding with Industry Day, when Entertainment Arts and Illustration students showcase their graduating work to industry professionals and recruiters. The well-attended event offers public access to both established creative leaders and emerging student talent. Speakers include Rachelle Baker, Brandon Bidleman, Gian Galang, Eric Goldberg, Charlie Griak, Andrés Parada, Lydia Zanotti

Echoes: CCS Alumni Voices in Clay

Friday, March 20 – Saturday, April 18, 2026 Opening Reception: Friday, March 20, 5–8 p.m. | Charach Family Galleries (formerly Center Galleries) 301 Frederick St Echoes gathers work by CCS Ceramics alumni whose practices continue to expand the field of contemporary ceramics. The exhibition demonstrates how their approaches reflect both continuity and change, shaped in part by their CCS education but equally by the personal experiences, cultural influences, and creative communities that inform their work today.

Woodward Lecture Series: Adebunmi Gbadebo in Conversation with Ashara Ekundayo

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 5:30-7 p.m. | Wendell W. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium (301 Frederick St) Adebunmi Gbadebo’s practice engages with the histories embedded in land, material, and matter, using her work as a form of living archive. In this Woodward Lecture Series conversation with curator Ashara Ekundayo, she will explore how uncovering these traces allows her to connect with memory, ancestry, and the stories carried within the land itself. This conversation is presented in partnership with Artist As First Responder.

An Evening with Photographer Paul Mobley: In Conversation with President Don Tuski

Thursday, March 26, 2026 | 5:30-7:00 p.m. | Wendell W. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium (201 E Kirby) CCS will host an evening conversation and original talk exploring the work and career of photographer Paul Mobley.

Woodward Lecture Series: Loris Gréaud

Monday, April 6th | 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. | General Motors Auditorium, Taubman Center for Design Education (460 W. Baltimore) Loris Gréaud is an internationally acclaimed artist whose practice constructs immersive environments that blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, collapsing physical and mental spaces through elements such as rumor, poetry, architecture, and self-negation. In this talk, Gréaud will discuss his broader body of work while focusing on CORTICAL, an ongoing cycle developed in collaboration with international partner institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Petit Palais, the MAH in Geneva, and the Théâtre du Châtelet.

2026 Student Exhibition

Friday, May 15 – Friday, May 29, 2026 Opening Reception: Friday, May 15 | College for Creative Studies Campus (201 E. Kirby St.) Each year, the College for Creative Studies celebrates the talent and achievements of its students with the annual Student Exhibition, featuring thousands of original works across art and design disciplines. Artwork will be available for purchase, with all proceeds directly supporting the student artists as they launch their creative careers.

States in Play: MdW All Partners Exhibition

Monday, June 22 – Saturday, June 27, 2026 | Valade Family Gallery, A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education (460 W. Baltimore St) The States in Play: MdW All Partners exhibition at the College for Creative Studies brings together a network of artist-run and community-centered initiatives that form the backbone of the Midwest’s independent art landscape. This exhibition foregrounds collaboration as both method and ethos—an exploration of how collective action, shared resources, and mutual support can sustain artistic practice beyond traditional institutional frameworks. Central to the presentation is the recognition of artist-led organizations working together to plan and shape MdW, emphasizing the power of cooperative organizing in building lasting cultural infrastructure. Participating partners present a constellation of approaches that reflect the region’s dynamic, interdependent creative ecology.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a nonprofit, private college accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and authorized by the Michigan Education Department to grant Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. CCS, located in midtown Detroit, strives to provide students with the tools needed for successful careers in the dynamic and growing creative industries. CCS fosters students’ resolve to pursue excellence, act ethically, engage their responsibilities as citizens, and learn throughout their lives. With world-class faculty and unsurpassed facilities, students learn to be visual communicators who actively use art and design toward the betterment of society. The College is a major supplier of talent to numerous industries, such as transportation, film and animation, advertising and communications, consumer electronics, athletic apparel, and many more. Its graduates are exhibiting artists and teachers, design problem solvers and innovators, as well as creative leaders in business.

Christina deRoos, a driving force behind Kresge Arts in Detroit (KAID) for over a decade, recently stepped down as director of the program renowned for its robust, innovative, and steady support of individual artists. She leaves a legacy of increasing opportunities for artists and advancing equitable funding in Detroit.

Since 2008, KAID has been a cornerstone of metro Detroit’s artistic community, investing in creatives across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Funded by The Kresge Foundation and administered by the College for Creative Studies, the program will have provided $10 million through unrestricted awards after the upcoming announcement of the 2025 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Awards.

“It’s hard to imagine Kresge Arts in Detroit without Christina deRoos at the helm. She has been far more than a collaborator…she has been a true catalyst. Christina has challenged us, inspired us, and fundamentally redefined what this program can mean to artists and to the city. Her imprint is indelible, and our gratitude is boundless.” -Rip Rapson, President and CEO, The Kresge Foundation

An accomplished visual artist, curator, and artist organizer, deRoos joined the program in 2013, hired by founding director Michelle Perron (currently director of the executive office for The Kresge Foundation). With a holistic and responsive approach to program design and administration, deRoos and KAID’s team of artists evolved the program in service of increasing artists’ compensation and creative freedom.

Working closely with The Kresge Foundation, the program doubled its Eminent Artist Award, now $100,000 per year, and fellowship award amount, now $50,000 per year, and also increased the number of artists receiving awards each year. This culminated in the distribution of over $1,000,000 via 35 awards, marking KAID’s 15th program year and The Kresge Foundation’s Centennial year.

Additionally, KAID’s “by artists, for artists” approach was instrumental in advocating for improved working conditions for artists. As a result, KAID received W.A.G.E. certification(Working Artists and the Greater Economy), the first model of its kind to establish a sector-wide minimum standard for compensation as well as a clear set of guidelines for the conditions under which artistic labor is contracted.

In 2020, accepting The Kresge Foundation’s request to design and deliver professional development and career support opportunities for the Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients, deRoos led the KAID program to substantially expand its annual program operations. Event and exhibition opportunities, legal and accounting support, and more were developed and produced by a staff of artists in collaboration with KAID program alumni as well as local media outlets and service providers. Highlights include:

EXHIBITIONS:

  • KAID facilitated two online exhibitions, Flash Your Lights (2024) and Counterspells(2025), on view now through July 10.
  • The 2024 in-person exhibition, Representation, curated by Wayne State University, presented the work of 17 Kresge Artist Fellows in honor of the program’s 15th anniversary.
  • In 2019, a multidisciplinary exhibition, Parallel Visions, curated and produced by Wasserman Projects in honor of the KAID program’s 10th anniversary, featured 13 Kresge Eminent Artists, Kresge Artist Fellows, and Gilda Award recipients drawn from the 2008 – 2018 artist cohorts.

FILM SERIES

  • From 2017 – 2025, the award-winning KAID film series expanded to feature dozens of Detroit-based filmmakers and evolved to invite any style of film. Fellows’ films have been screened as part of film festivals locally, nationally, and internationally. Online and in-person film premieres were presented in collaboration with DPBS (formerly DPTV), Trinosophes, Cinema Detroit, and the Detroit Institute of Art’s Detroit Film Theatre.

ESSAYS, PODCASTS, & ARTIST SALONS

  • The Practice essay series paired Kresge Artist Fellow Lillien Waller with an array of fellows and Gilda Award recipients to explore and amplify the distinctions among their creative approaches.
  • An 8 episode podcast series, Subject Matters, hosted by Imani Mixon and co-produced with Red Bull Arts, explored the perspectives of 18 artists, including 11 fellows and Gilda Award recipients.
  • The 22 episode Artist Salon series, co-produced with WDET, featured 50 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients in conversation with Chris Campbell, Orlando P. Bailey, and Ryan Patrick Hooper.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS

  • KAID offered five years of support for the editors and featured artists in the Metro Times Fiction Issue(2020 – 2024).
  • Three Sidewalk Detroit collaborations took place, including a neighborhood performance series during Covid and artist support for Sidewalk Festival, featuring work by Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/BakpakDurdenphoto_LivinforMedia.jpeg Bakpak Durden

“Collaborating with Christina was a transformative opportunity for us to deepen our relationships and encourage radical place-based spatial interventions with some of Detroit’s most dynamic artists,” said Ryan Myers Johnson, former KAID coworker and current executive director at Sidewalk Detroit. “Christina was an exceptional partner, providing financial support and thought partnership on community facing initiatives that served as a powerful collision of creative experimentation, justice and artist empowerment through direct artist commissions at the Sidewalk Festival as well as an several iterations of our Now:Future Initiative, a conference and now residency that encourages artists to explore issues of economic security and spatial justice.”

Working with CCS, deRoos built intentional relationships between KAID and other CCS programs during her tenure to increase opportunities for Detroit artists while contributing to CCS’s mission as a premier art and design college. Kresge Artist Fellows have given lectures at CCS, curated CCS’ alumni exhibition, and been featured in Design Core’s Detroit Month of Design.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CA9A7234-scaled.jpg 2023 Kresge Artist Fellow Mario Moore works with CCS students on campus

“Christina has made outstanding contributions to the KAID program over the past decade, demonstrating dedication and consistent care and commitment to the metro Detroit arts community,” said Don Tuski, President of CCS. “Her guiding principle of ‘we work for the artists of Detroit’ inspired the program’s approach to engaging artists from a place of trust, service, and collaboration.”

deRoos has been planning since 2024 to depart the KAID team to focus on her artistic practice and expand her freelance work, coaching emerging and established leaders in arts and culture and supporting philanthropic initiatives advancing economic justice and abundance economies. She spent the past six months as the Director of Leadership Transition, supporting KAID’s new leadership and their preparation to ensure strong programming and resources for artists will continue.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/KGMcGowan_2025_by-Noah-Stephens-scaled.jpg Katie McGowan

KAID continues to be staffed by a team of active artists, including Asukile Gardner, Nicole Peterson, Angelina Starceski. As announced earlier this year, succeeding deRoos as director is Katie McGowan, an interdisciplinary artist and advocate.

McGowan joined the KAID team as managing director in September 2018, was promoted to deputy director in 2022 and director earlier this year. Since 2021, she has led the selection process of the Kresge Eminent Artist Award, most recently awarding virtuoso jazz bassist and educator Marion Hayden, as well as the Kresge Artist Fellowships and Gilda Awards, which will soon include a 2025 cohort of artists to be announced later this month. McGowan created and produced the In the Air: Voices from Detroit and Beyond series with Wayne State University and the KAID Featured Photographer project, currently highlighting 2021 Kresge Artist Fellow Brian Day as he shares monthly documentation of studio practices and public art by Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients.

A native metro Detroiter, McGowan brings deep ties to the local artistic community, having co-founded the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s DEPE Space Residency program and served as program director for the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Her personal art practice explores the intersection of literary and performance art, often resulting in genre-bending nonfiction reportage. McGowan holds an MFA from The University of Iowa in Intermedia, as well as MA and BA degrees from Wayne State University in English.

Mark your calendars for the Detroit event of the summer. The largest, free, family-friendly music and cultural event is July 15-20 in Detroit and CCS is proud to be a part of it! This year, along with its homebase at the Detroit Institute of Arts and events throughout Midtown’s cultural institutions, the festival also returns for one special day to the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre to honor the theatre’s 40 year anniversary. A daylong DJ set by Detroit’s Divine 5 madams outside at the CCS Sculpture Garden is also new and will take place on Sunday, July 20, from 2-7 p.m.

In true Concert of Colors tradition, this year’s festival brings top artists from their respective countries, plus some of Detroit’s best performers, to the Motor City for shows and children and youth events that are always free.

Femi Kuti of Nigeria, Bab L’ Bluz of Morocco, Detroiter Don Was and Chicago blues star Mavis Staples headline. Bollywood dancing and singing; Reggae, Latin pop, African dance and drumming, Ethiopian and Moroccan modern music and jazz, Arab and Turkish sounds, as well as Detroit garage, blues, experimental and pop are part of the show. The full lineup is below and can be found via www.concertofcolors.com

Locations of free entertainment this year include: inside and outside Detroit Institute of Arts, Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Michigan Science Center, Detroit Historical Society/Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sosnick Courtyard outside the DSO, Scarab Club, Hellenic Museum of Michigan, The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center, College for Creative Studies, Third Man Records, Spotlight Detroit.

“This year’s theme is “Get Up, Stand up for your rights.” Fans have asked for years to host the festival at current locations but also back at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre and in true Concert of Colors style, we listen to what people want and try to provide it all for the love of free music,” Ahmed said. “Our goal has always been to let the people make the decisions, so this year you can listen to artists like Mavis Staples with her big beautiful voice right on the Detroit Riverfront; it’s the perfect backdrop for a Detroit summer evening.

“Also at the DIA, we’ve heard from fans and in response have greatly expanded our children’s entertainment and activities, vendors selling global wares and crafts from around the world and Detroit, and we are bringing back the information booth section for nonprofit organizations so people can learn about causes that interest them and how to participate, if they choose.”

Concert of Colors attracts thousands of people into Midtown annually who support local business. The festival has never wavered from providing free music to residents of Detroit. To bring major names to a free event is no easy feat as funding comes from grants, foundations and private donations. Corporate sponsorships have dwindled over the years. Last year however, the State of Michigan for the first time granted funds to the festival, seeing its economic value to the region as the largest free music fest in the Midwest.

“Not only does Concert of Colors host the largest names of artists of their genres like Femi Kuti of Nigeria, we also believe in highlighting and supporting Detroit’s top emerging and established top artists,” said Salort-Pons. “The DIA is proud to be the homebase of Concert of Colors once again because we greatly believe in free, world-class programming for everyone.”

Detroit artists include power trio Shadow Show – three women who perform modern garage psychedelic sounds; Mariachi Femenil Detroit – an all-woman Mariachi band; Sean Blackman, Victor Ghannam and Dave McMurray together performing Eastern Jazz; and Emmy Award winner Mike-E curating a “Detroit to Ethiopia’ performance where he will be surrounded by Ethiopia’s top musicians, but doing it Detroit style.

Don Was Detroit Allstar Revue this year is tributing Don’s favorite blues songs.

“The Concert of Colors is a unifying event that exemplifies everything wonderful about Detroit,” Was said. “This year’s All Star Revue will celebrate the vibrant musical legacy of Detroit Blues so you know we’re going to have fun! I look forward to seeing all of our friends there.”

This year WDET will broadcast live from the festival throughout the week along with Don Was and Ann Delisi hosting their popular “Motor City Playlist” the festival.

Concert of Colors at the DIA includes two outdoor stages, a large children’s tent, music and film inside the DIA’s Detroit Film Theatre including a whirling dervish from Turkey; Eastern jazz at the Scarab Club, dance lessons and exhibits at Michigan Science Center, experimental sounds at Third Man Records, a freedom discussion at Spotlite Detroit presented by the Arab American National Museum, live music at the DSO and Detroit Historical Society and Museum among others.

The upbeat, six-day festival showcases Detroit’s top cultural institutions while aiming to unite southeast Michigan’s diverse communities and ethnic groups through music, dance and art from around the world. Its goal is to create a dialogue where participants embrace freedom of expression. Over its significant 34 year history, Concert of Colors has strategically grown into a celebrated, beloved Detroit summer festival – one of the few remaining large-scale, free-admission music festivals in the nation. Every year, the anticipation of who will perform in the lineup creates excitement among music fans of all ages.

Concert of Colors was originally launched by New Detroit Inc., and Detroit’s Cultural Exchange Network (CEN)- both which still exist today – with Ahmed as the festival’s executive director. It was founded in response to the 1982 racial murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin. The inaugural festival drew a modest crowd to Detroit’s then-Chene Park on the Detroit River, but by 1999, tens of thousands of attendees were coming out each year. The festival expanded to three days in 2001, when it was part of the official festivities for Detroit’s 300th birthday, drawing an audience of 100,000. In 2019, the concert expanded to nine festive days. The festival went virtual during Covid-19 with bands from around the world performing from their respective countries attracting huge online audiences worldwide. Today it is live again and always free and evolving.

Concert of Colors is made possible by its partners Culture Source, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, WDET 101.9 FM, WTVS-DPTV, ACCESS/Arab American National Museum, International Institute, Michigan Science Center, Kresge Artists, Michigan.com, the University of Michigan Detroit Center, Detroit Historical Society/Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Marx Layne & Co., Scarab Club, Hellenic Museum of Michigan, the City of Detroit Department of Arts, Culture & Entrepreneurship, Visit Detroit,, The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center, Third Man Records. Arts & Scraps, WHFR.FM, College for Creative Studies, The LowRiders of Detroit and West Indian Caribbean and Carnival Association.

Generous Sponsors include Kresge Foundation, DTE Foundation, Wayne State University, Utopia Gardens, Mark Bernstein and Rachel Bendit, Zingerman’s, AARP, University of Michigan Arts Initiative, Arts Midwest, Henry Ford Health, Carr Center, Margot European Spa.

As the festival has always remained free, the event is created through donations, grants, sponsors, partners, and volunteers. Individual contributions, corporations, or nonprofit organizations who want to support music and art can donate via the Concert of Colors website. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. To donate, visit https://www.concertofcolors.com/donate.

For more information, visit www.concertofcolors.com Facebook.com/concertofcolors Instagram: @concertofcolors

CCS has earned the 2025-2026 Military Friendly® School designation. Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. More than 1,800 schools participated in the 2025-2026 survey with 830 earning special awards for going above the standard.

The 2025-2026 Military Friendly® Schools list will be published in the May and October issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and found at www.militaryfriendly.com.

Methodology, criteria, and weightings were determined by Viqtory with input from the Military Friendly® Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for Student Retention, Graduation, Job Placement, Loan Repayment, Persistence (Degree Advancement or Transfer) and Loan Default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.

For more information about CCS’s student veteran programs, visit our website.

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About Military Friendly® Schools:

The Military Friendly® Schools list is created each year based on extensive research using public data sources from more than 8,800 schools nationwide, input from student veterans, and responses to the proprietary, data-driven Military Friendly® Schools survey from participating institutions. The survey questions, methodology, criteria and weighting were developed with the assistance of an independent research firm and an advisory council of educators and employers. The survey is administered for free and is open to all postsecondary schools that wish to participate. Criteria for consideration can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.