Great Michigan Read exhibit at Michigan Union; 826michigan presentations part of Ann Arbor Book Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- May 6, 2008
CONTACT: Scott Hirko, Public Relations Officer,
shirko [at] mihumanities.org, 517-372-0029 ext. 25

also in PDF

DATE: Friday, May 9, 2008
TIME: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
WHERE: Art Lounge, First Floor, Michigan Union, 530 S. State St., Ann Arbor
WHAT: Opening reception: Up North with the Hemingways exhibit; Council poster presentation to AABF, 826michigan; 826michigan discuss excerpts of work on Hemingway
COST: Free to the public
CONTACT: Michigan Humanities Council, 517-372-7770 or www.michiganhumanities.org; Ann Arbor Book Festival, (734) 369-3366, www.aabookfestival.org; 826michigan, 734-761-3463, www.826michigan.org

The exhibit, Up North with the Hemingways, will be on public display at the Art Lounge on the First Floor of the Michigan Union (530 S. State St.) on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Friday, May 9 through May 26, 2008. The exhibit is part of The Great Michigan Read, launched in July by the Michigan Humanities Council to help address the decline in reading literature. The exhibit will visit 29 sites, including Ann Arbor, in the state of Michigan through July 7, 2008 (for a list of exhibit host sites, visit, www.greatmichiganread.org). Hours to tour the exhibit at the Michigan Union are: Mondays through Thursdays, 7 a.m. to Midnight; Fridays and Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.; and, Sundays, 9 a.m. to Midnight. For more information on the exhibit at the Michigan Union, call the Ann Arbor Book Festival at (734) 369-3366, or visit www.aabookfestival.org

An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Friday, May 9, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. The reception will include comments by: Jan Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council; Russ Collins, board member of the Michigan Humanities Council; Kathy Robenalt, executive director of the Ann Arbor Book Festival; and, Amanda Uhle, executive director of 826michigan. Students of 826michigan will also discuss their own works inspired by Hemingway which will be presented at the Ann Arbor Book Festival May 15-18. The Michigan Humanities Council will present a limited copy of The Great Michigan Read poster to the Ann Arbor Book Festival and to 826michigan, autographed by the artists who designed them, Charlie Sharp of Lansing and Kathryn Darnell of East Lansing. The posters will be presented to recognize both organizations for their outstanding programming in support of The Great Michigan Read. Light refreshments will be served; the reception is free and open to the public.

The Up North with the Hemingways touring exhibit includes references to original artifacts about Ernest Hemingway’s life and his writings that pertain to his time in Northern Michigan. There are four themes as a focus of each exhibit: Northern Michigan in the early 1900s, the Hemingway family, Ernest Hemingway, and The Nick Adams Stories. The Great Michigan Read touring exhibit was funded in part by the MHC and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and created by the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University and the Michigan Hemingway Society.

About the Great Michigan Read

The Michigan Humanities Council is the first organization to implement a program for an entire state to read one of Hemingway’s works. To date, more than 200 organizations and more than 135 communities across the state are participating in The Great Michigan Read. Reader’s guides, bookmarks, posters, and other opportunities are available to participating cultural organizations. Additional activities include radio and television features, podcasts, speakers bureau, driving tours, a website resource (www.greatmichiganread.org), and grant programs to help engage communities in literature. And, Valerie Hemingway, author of Running with the Bulls, a memoir of her years as Ernest Hemingway’s secretary and her later marriage to his son, Gregory Hemingway, toured six cities in Michigan from April 23-29, 2008.

Share Your Hemingway Story

The Council invites people to share their personal stories about Ernest Hemingway and his time in Michigan. Stories can be submitted at www.greatmichiganread.org/memories.php and may be published on the Internet and in a future Council newsletter.

The Michigan Humanities Council, founded in 1974, is a private, non-profit organization, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For additional information, please visit: www.michiganhumanities.org or call 517-372-7770.

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