EVENTS

NOTE: Event will take place at the Wendell W. Anderson Jr. Auditorium, Walter B. Ford II Building
201 East Kirby Detroit, MI 48202. Registration Encouraged / Free and open to the public

Thomas Murray (textile collector) and Kristal Hale (textile conservator), will contextualize the iconography, ritual use, historic preservation and scientific analysis of famed ship cloths including the Tampan, Palepai and Tapis. Closing remarks to be delivered by textile and fiber artist Gerhardt Knodel, followed by an audience Q&A session.

Registration Encouraged / Free and open to the public

Join Machine Dazzle, Gracelee Lawrence, and Kiwi Phong Nguyen for a walkthrough of the exhibitions. Followed by a special guitar performance by Ben Seretan and Holiday Shopping event til 6pm!

Registration Required / Tickets $20 / Doors @ 6:30PM

Pianist Justin Snyder presents Organic Encounters – a solo performance curated in response to works by artists Machine Dazzle and Gracelee Lawrence featured in the exhibition Soft Serve at Wasserman Projects.

Annual Gala Fundraiser 

Please join us for our 3rd Annual Gala featuring an exclusive VIP preview, live performances, and strolling dinner in the company of featured artists Machine Dazzle + Gracelee Lawrence.

All proceeds support WP Fund’s mission of providing funding to help artists bring to fruition special projects that might not otherwise be possible. Through immersive visual and performing arts experiences, WP Fund fosters artists of all disciplines and facilitates collaborations to generate meaningful connections throughout our community.

Limited Capacity, Please reserve tickets in advance. Valet Parking. Artful attire.

Registration Required – Tickets “Pay As You Wish”

We are delighted to welcome back artists Marina Zurkow, James Schmitz, Jasmine Murrell, Marshall Reese, and Nora Ligorano for a very special walkthrough of the exhibition Underfoot / Overhead. Please join us for an informal conversation with the artists followed by a piano concert with Justin Snyder.

Registration Required 

Join us for an afternoon tea workshop with featured artist Jasmine Murrell and her muse – the dandelion plant. A certified herbalist, Murrell will discuss the medicinal and healing properties of dandelion. Following the conversation, dandelion tea will be served. Ticket holders will receive a custom, limited edition tea cup designed and produced by exhibition partner Lisa Chan of Still Life Ceramics.

Registration Required / Tickets $20 / Doors @ 6:30pm

Jeremy Kittel returns with his five-piece string band. Join us for a performance inhabiting the space between classical and acoustic roots, Celtic and bluegrass aesthetics, and folk and jazz sensibilities.

Registration Required / Tickets $20 / Doors @ 7:00pm

Pianist Justin Snyder presents a solo performance for piano, electronics, and video in response to Ken Aptekar’s Illuminated Manuscripts in The Age of Social Media and Texting

Free to Attend / Registration Required

Please join us in welcoming back featured artists Laura Letinsky and Beth Lipman. Learn more about their individual processes and shared interests in conversation with Director and Curator of Wasserman Projects, Alison Wong. Free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Registration Required / General Tickets $20 / Student Tickets $15

In response to the works of Laura Letinsky and Beth Lipman on display in Shifting Frequencies, “Still Life” is a sonic meditation on the illusion of time.

Interpreting the complexity of sensations encapsulated in the blink of an eye, the seven compositions on the program each represent a still life reanimated through sound. As these individual worlds frozen in time begin to thaw, they unfurl to unearth an intuitive meaning that is felt rather than intellectualized.

Registration Required / Tickets $18/$20

Presented in Partnership with The Dante Alighieri Society Of Michigan

Daniela performed solo and chamber music concerts in prestigious theaters in Europe and the United States. She was the Artistic Director and organizer of the International Piano Master Classes in Palazzo San Bernardino, Rossano (Italy). She has been the Artistic Director of the Alfonso Rendano Cultural Association in Carolei, Cosenza, Italy, and she is the artistic director of the Alfonso Rendano International Music Festival held in Villa Rendano, Cosenza-Italy.

With the support of the Italian American Club of Livonia Charitable Foundation (IACLCF)
Under the Auspices of the Consulate of Italy in Detroit

Free to Attend / Registration Required

Presented in Partnership with The Dante Alighieri Society Of Michigan

Born in Florence in 1936, Dacia Maraini has for many years worked as one of Italy’s most committed and widely acclaimed feminist authors. She has won various awards in recognition of her literary contributions: the Formentor Prize for L’età del malessere (1963); the Premio Fregene for Isolina (1985); the Premio Campiello and Book of the Year Award for La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (1990); and the Premio Strega for Buio (1999). In 2013, Irish Braschi’s biographical documentary I Was Born Travelling recounted the story of Maraini’s life, focusing in particular on her childhood imprisonment in a concentration camp in Japan during World War II and the journeys she made around the world with her partner Alberto Moravia and close friends Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas. Dacia was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize and a three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Week of Italian Language in the World is organized under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic by the Consulate of Italy in Detroit, 
the Dante Alighieri Society of Michigan, with the support of the Italian American Club of Livonia Charitable Foundation (IACLCF)

Free to Attend / Advanced Book Purchase $25

A Seed Takes Root: A True Story, by acclaimed artist Michele Oka Doner, is an homage to the natural world and to one very special banyan tree in particular. The lyrical text is paired with evocative original artwork by Oka Doner inspired by (and at times incorporating elements of) a much-loved banyan tree in Miami Beach that has been a presence in her life since childhood. A book and work of art that defies classification, A Seed Takes Root is simultaneously an art book, a poetic meditation, a memoir, a fable, and a tale suitable for children and for readers of all ages.

Attendance to this event is free and open to the public however copies of A Seed Takes Root: A True Story are limited and it is encouraged to purchase in advance to guarantee availability and ensure your copy is signed by the artist.

$10 event only / $75 book + event 

Join us for a transformative experience at Wasserman Projects in Detroit, MI, USA. Immerse yourself in this guided meditation led by artist Cooper Holoweski, accompanied with mesmerizing live sound by Doc Holoweski

This meditation is part of the book launch of Cooper Holoweski’s artist book Nothing Everything Nothing, which will be available for purchase at the event. Admission is included with purchase of a book.

Annual Gala Fundraiser 

Please join us for an exclusive VIP preview and strolling dinner amidst a visual feast of art and performance, in the company of featured artists Laura Letinsky + Beth Lipman + Brian Bailey.

All proceeds support WP Fund’s mission of providing funding to help artists bring to fruition special projects that might not otherwise be possible. Through programming that supports artists at all levels of their careers – from emerging to established, WP Fund fosters professional development opportunities for artists and facilitates collaborations to generate meaningful connections throughout our community.

Limited Capacity, Please reserve tickets in advance. Valet Parking. Cocktail attire.

Free and open to the public / Registration optional

Wasserman Projects is excited to share the opening reception of our Fall 2023 Exhibition with Design Core Detroit’s Detroit Month of Design. The exhibition features the work of Midwest artists Beth Lipman, and Laura Letinsky, and will be on view through December 16th. The event is free and open to the public, but we encourage you to SAVE THE DATE by reserving a spot via eventbrite.

Tickets are required / General Admission and Student ticketing options available. 

The performance will run for approximately 2 hours, concluding once the sun has set. Audience members are invited to move freely through the space, come and go as desired, or witness the evolution of the event in its entirety.

Tickets are free, with a $10 suggested donation option to support our future exhibitions and events.

Wasserman Projects is excited to partner with the Henry Ford Museum for a very special pairing of physical objects from the museum’s archives, in presentation with the paintings of our Spring 2023 featured artist, Caitlin MacBride.

We hope that you will join us on Wednesday, May 17th at 6PM, for a casual conversation with archivists from the museum, who will discuss the intriguing histories, relevance, function, and design, of the historic objects on site. Wasserman Projects, the Henry Ford Museum, and MacBride, collaborated in curating a selection of objects to be paired with her work for this special event.

Learn more about Caitlin MacBride and her work from her ARTSY Viewing Room!

Tickets are required / Limited Capacity General Seating

The concert will begin promptly at 7:00pm with a 1hour run-time.

Please join us for a live, musical program as a parallel reflection upon duality and the deep entanglement of the old with the new, and performed in conjunction with our Fall 2022 Exhibition, Ancient Entanglements, featuring Matter Design + Sanford Biggers and From Within by Alyssa Taylor Wendt.

Wasserman Projects is happy to host post fair festivities in a night filled with live musical performances, for the Detroit Art Book Fair’s eighth year. Sound by Thynk, Matthew Conzett, Maia Asshaq, and Efe Bes, and a first listen to the newly pressed record by Egyptian composer, Halim El-Dabh.

Wasserman Projects along with co-hosts, Julie Rothstein + Jennifer Hermelin invite you to join us for an exclusive VIP preview of the site-specific exhibition by Brandon Clifford + Jo Lobdell of Matter Design featuring new experimental works by Sanford Biggers, produced in collaboration with Matter Design + MIT Labs. and strolling dinner, followed by a live performance by MoonMedicin. Guests will also receive a set of two limited edition vinyl records released in partnership with Third Man Records (valued at $400).

Limited Capacity, Please reserve tickets in advance. Valet Parking. Cocktail attire.

For more information please call 313.818.3550 or email info@wassermanprojects.com

Wasserman Projects Fund is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. A portion of your ticket purchase is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law. Following the event, you will receive a letter of recognition.

Please join us for two live, musical concerts by Ann Arbor based pianist Justin Snyder, presenting a concept developed by Escforescent, and paired with scents by Detroit based Sfumato Fragrances.

Please join us on air, in collaboration with University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps Lecture Series, for a unique opportunity to hear the artists and director behind Ocean Body, speak about their work.

Please join us on air, in collaboration with University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps Lecture Series, for a unique opportunity to hear conversation with our Director and Curator, Alison Wong speak with

Please join us for the virtual opening on September 17th, 6-8pm of our Fall 2020 Exhibitions. Wasserman Projects in collaboration with Form&Seek is pleased to present Never Normal, a group exhibition bringing together over 20 designers across the US.

Diverging from conventional means of solving problems, the works in this exhibition seek to reexamine and reevaluate our personal relationships to our domestic landscape. Through craft or making, these designers are able to express value, preciousness, and care that offer intuitive moments of clarity on contemporary issues in response to the needs of a society in flux.

Presented in conjunction with Design Core – Detroit Month of Design, Never Normal seeks to honor Detroit’s history as the cradle of American design and to uphold the city as a platform for new experimental design.  The exhibition continues through December 12th with private viewing by appointment.

Please join us for a discussion with featured artists, Marela Zacarias and Sarah Meyohas as they share the inspiration and concepts behind their work. The talk will take place in the gallery, among the two exhibitions Zacarias’s “Coatlicue’s Return” and Meyohas’s “Speculations” with a film screening of Sarah Meyohas’s “Cloud of Petals” at 3:00pm. Discussion will begin at 4:00pm.

Wasserman Projects is excited to host a benefit for Dabls’ African Bead Museum in conjunction with the closing reception for our current exhibitions. Come celebrate collaboration, community, art, music, & culture in Detroit. This event is timed with a fundraising and awareness-building campaign for the African Bead Museum. Please join us for performances, live music, workshops, discussion, and more. The event is free & open to the public but registration is required! Donations can be made at registration, direct to campaign site, & at the event.

Wasserman Projects is pleased to present Jason Yates in conversation with LA based writer and art critic, Bruce Hainley, and Detroit based artist, Patrick Hill. In addition to discussing the artist’s personal practice, the conversation will explore themes surrounding Yates’ current exhibition at Wasserman Projects, Homemade Ice Cream. This event will be held in the gallery and is free and open to the public.

In partnership with University of Michigan Penny Stamps School of Art and Design, Wasserman Projects will be presenting an exclusive performance by Penny Arcade. Internationally respected as a performance artist, actress, poet, and theater maker, Arcade’s work is a cultural critique on class, race, and identity. She is an original member of New York’s seminal rock and roll, political theater The Playhouse of the Ridiculous and was a teenage superstar in Andy Warhol’s Factory. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us for a special event with Detroit legend, Allee Willis, a Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Webby award-winning and nominated songwriter, performer, visual artist, multimediaist, director, collector, social artist, and party thrower. Willis will be performing from the front porch of Jason Yates’ installation featured in ‘Homemade Ice Cream’. The evening will celebrate our love of Detroit through storytelling, a sing-along, and good times! Event is free and open to the public but space is limited, register today!

Visit Koen Vanmechelen’s Planetary Community Chickens in their current installation at Walkabout Farm in the presence of the artist.

The evening will include a performance by The Jeremy Kittel Quartet – featuring Kittel on fiddle, Josh Pinkham on mandolin, Nathaniel Smith on cello and Simon Chrisman on hammered dulcimer. The quartet blends traditional roots, jazz, Celtic and classical styles. Doors at 6:00 PM, concert at 7:00 PM.

Join Artists Shane Darwent + Sophie Eisner, Curator Alison Wong, and Moderator Trisha Holt for a panel discussion about the ongoing collaboration between Butter Projects + Wasserman Projects, the concept for Have+Hold, and development of selected works.

Known for their unique style that blends elements of classical, country western, gypsy, and jazz, groundbreaking trio, Time for Three (Tf3) brings a high-energy performance to Wasserman Projects.

Performance is presented in partnership with The League of American Orchestras, Park Avenue Artists, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  Limited seating, reserve your ticket today.

Wasserman Projects and The Michigan Opera Theatre invite you to join composer David Dichiera for a live performance of selected original works to be featured on the Legacy Recording.

DiChiera founded Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971 with a mission to create a world-class opera company that served and represented the diverse community where it resided. His priorities included championing artists of color, mentoring the next generation of opera singers, and supporting Detroit’s revitalization. After many years of dedicated service to the opera theatre, DiChiera will now move on to become the MOT Artistic Director Emeritus.

Featuring Angela Theis (soprano), Briana Elyse Hunter (mezzo soprano), Yury Revich (violin), Aleksey Shadrin (cello), Ivan Moshchuk (piano).

In lieu of a ticketing fee, we invite you to contribute to the DiChiera Legacy Recording Fund at Michigan Opera Theatre.

Wasserman Projects will host an intimate concert with performances by both Rebecca Foon and Jesse Paris Smith, Thursday March 2nd, 2017. This concert will take place in the gallery among the current exhibition “After Industry”.

Cellist and composer Rebecca Foon has been a fixture of the Montréal music community for two decades, since moving to the city from her native Vancouver in the late 1990s. She co-founded the Juno Awardwinning contemporary chamber group Esmerine in 2002 and was a core member of the celebrated cult post-punk band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra from 2001-2008 and the experimental instrumental collective Set Fire To Flames. Foon is a dedicated climate activist, and her passion for climate justice is a focal point of A Common Truth, the artist’s upcoming solo album (to be released March 31, 2017). For more info about Saltland click here.

Jesse Paris Smith is a composer, instrumentalist, activist,  producer, and co-founder of Pathway to Paris, a fundraising initiative and multi media event series focused on bringing awareness to climate change. She has performed globally in many configurations, collaborating with other musicians and artists, including Soundwalk Collective, Tenzin Choegyal, Tree Laboratory, Shyam Nepali, Raju Lamag, her brother Jackson Smith, and mother, Patti Smith. For more info about Jesse Paris Smith click here.

Doors at 7PM
Performance by Jesse Paris Smith 7:45
Performance by Rebecca Foon 8:15

Wasserman Projects is pleased to host Creative Many’s Critical Context Summit. This event will engage local, national and international presenters in panel conversations focused on the relationships between artists and those representing, presenting, commissioning and contextualizing their work. Creative Many is a statewide organization that develops creative people, creative places and the creative economy for a competitive Michigan through research, advocacy, professional practice and communications.

 Koen Vanmechelen will be speaking at this year’s TEDxUofM event at the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts. The TEDxUofM conference showcases many of the most fascinating University-affiliated thinkers and doers for a stimulating day of presentations, entertainment, art, and discussion. This year’s theme of the conference “Dreamers and Disruptors”,  unifies speakers of different disciplines to share their discoveries and ideas with the audience.

Join us for an artist talk with Koen Vanmechelen, whose recent exhibition Energy/Mass was featured in the New York Times. Koen Vanmechelen believes that art is a vital aspect of society and core to creating vibrant and healthy communities. His wide-ranging creative practice marries exceptional artistry, technological experimentation, and scientific research. Internationally renowned, Vanmechelen is best known from his ongoing Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (CCP), which he first launched in 1999 to explore cultural and biological diversity. A crossbreeding program-through which the artist breeds chickens from around the world-CCP fosters a dialogue on national identity and the interdependence of different cultures, species, and the environment.

Join authors Julian English and Natasha Moulton-Levy as they launch their book “No Limits No Boundaries: My Journey through the ABC’s!” Julian English, is a preemie, special education student, athlete and now author at 12 years old. After surviving brain bleeds at birth, reading does not come easily for Julian. In No Limits, No Boundaries, Julian and co-author, his mom Natasha, take you along their journey, internationally and domestically, as Julian tackles his ABC’s with the help of family and friends.

 Esther Shalev-Gerz returns to Wasserman Projects Saturday June 18th to give an artist talk at the gallery.  The artist will discuss select works from her current exhibition at Wasserman Projects, ‘Space Between Time’. The exhibition features eight major artworks spanning three decades of Shalev-Gerz’s career in photography, video, sound, and sculpture, including the debut of two new works.

 Wasserman Projects will partner with The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival to present a dynamic musical performance at the gallery. The strolling performance will transform and reinvent British folksongs, through the different imaginations of a traditional folk singer, a cello/piano duo, a jazz ensemble and an electronic musician. The concert will be accompanied by a reception.

 Please join us for an exclusive performance by New York orchestral collective, The Knights. The 60 minute program will include music from sources as diverse as Armenia to Appalachia to Sicily and spans from the 17th century to  present, including works written and arranged by members of The Knights.

About The Knights: The Knights are an orchestral collective, flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Engaging listeners and defying boundaries with programs that showcase the players’ roots in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery, The Knights have “become one of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products… known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory” (New Yorker)