| Dear colleagues, friends, and community members,
I am writing to share the news that I will be leaving my role as Director of Stamps Gallery at the end of the summer to take on a new position as Senior Curator at the Art Museum, University of Toronto. This transition is both exciting and bittersweet. I want to take a moment to reflect on the work we have built together and to express my deep gratitude to this extraordinary community.
It has been a profound honor to lead Stamps Gallery and to work alongside so many generous, imaginative, and committed colleagues across the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the University of Michigan. My time here has been defined by a shared belief in the power of art to open difficult conversations, build relationships, challenge institutions, and imagine more expansive futures. Together with faculty, staff, students, alumni, artists, and community partners, I have worked to position the Gallery as a site of artistic experimentation, public dialogue, and meaningful civic engagement. |
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| I leave Stamps feeling deeply proud of the exhibitions, partnerships, publications, public programs, and relationships that have shaped this chapter of the Gallery’s history. Among the projects that will remain especially meaningful to me are LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Flint is Family in Three Acts, an exhibition and partnership that brought urgent attention to the water crisis in our state, premiering at Stamps Gallery, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, and the Flint Institute of Arts; and Stephanie Dinkins’ On Love and Data, an exhibition examining the ways artificial intelligence reflects questions of technology, care, race, and futurity, went on to tour at the Queens Museum in New York. |
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| It has also been especially rewarding to develop exhibitions with Stamps alumni and to help honor the depth, rigor, and range of their practices. Projects such as Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish: In Our Words, An Intergenerational Dialogue, Ruth Weisberg: Of Memory, Time & Place, and Materials on Hand: The Art of Ellen Wilt offered opportunities to celebrate artists whose work continues to shape both the legacy and the future of this School. I am equally proud of the development of Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative, which affirms the importance, ambition, and creative force of artists working in our region. |
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| Working with the Stamps faculty has been one of the great privileges of this role. I have valued the trust and creative exchange that made possible Untold Stories: Part I and Untold Stories: Part II, as well as the many events, publications, screenings, conversations, and special projects that brought faculty research and creative practice into dialogue with broader publics. Projects connected to David Chung’s Impossible Conversations, Holly Hughes’ Gender Euphoria initiative, Osman Khan’s Halal Metropolis, and Heidi Kumao’s Real and Imagined remain especially meaningful to me because they exemplify the intellectual generosity, artistic rigor, and creative vitality of this community. |
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| Most recently, I have been proud to contribute to the School’s presence at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference in Detroit through the pop-up exhibition Legacies: Contemporary Art Dialogues with Clay. Featuring Stamps faculty and intergenerational artists Nicole Marroquin, Maya Davis, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Marie Woo, and Hedy Yang, Legacies was a fitting reminder of the strength of collective vision and cross-community collaboration. |
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| None of this work would have been possible without the dedication, skill, and care of so many colleagues. I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to the faculty and staff across Stamps who have welcomed collaboration with such openness; to former Dean Nadarajan, current Dean Jackson and the School’s leadership for their support; and to our many partners across Michigan and beyond who have helped extend the reach and impact of the Gallery’s work.
I am also deeply grateful to Joe Rohrer and Haley Perkins for their work during this period of transition will help to ensure that the Gallery is well prepared for the fall exhibition season. I leave with great confidence in the continued importance of Stamps Gallery and in its capacity to remain a vital space for artistic inquiry, experimentation, public dialogue, and community connection. Be sure to check out Marianetta Porter: Breath, Fragment, Return, on view through July 25, 2026.
While I am excited for what lies ahead, I will miss this community very much. Thank you for your collaboration, your encouragement, your critical questions, your friendship, and your belief in the work of the Gallery. It has been a privilege to lead and build these projects with you, and I will carry the lessons, relationships, and commitments from Stamps with me into this next chapter.
With deep appreciation,
Srimoyee Mitra |
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60° and Clear
