Gifts of Art presents the Michigan Medicine Employee Art Exhibition 2024

Each year Gifts of Art presents an in-person exhibition of artwork by Michigan Medicine faculty, staff, learners, volunteers and family members, now also available online. It showcases the exceptional talent, creativity and accomplishments of artists in the extensive (~30,000) Michigan Medicine community. There are artist-juried ribbon awards for Best in Category, Best in Show, and a People's Choice award determined by online voting. This entire show is not for sale.

This year there were 85 submissions of art by 57 different artists, nine of which were family members. The youngest artist was 2 years old, and the oldest artist is 96 years old. Over 405 votes were cast for the People's Choice Award. This year's jurors were wife and husband team, Deb Polich & Russ Collins.*

For more information about Gifts of Art and our programs, please visit Gifts of Art.

*ABOUT THE JURORS –
The Gifts of Art program is grateful to have Deb Polich and Russ Collins, wife and husband, and renowned local arts champions, jury this year’s Michigan Medicine Employee Art Exhibiton.

Deb Polich has 30+ years of professional arts administration experience, including serving as the president/CEO of Artrain, Inc., and working with The Arts Alliance since 2013. Polich earned a B.S. in arts administration with a business minor from Eastern Michigan University. She began her professional arts management career at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor beginning as the box office manager and leaving seven years later as the managing director. She has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit arts and community organizations. She currently serves on the boards of Creative Many Michigan as treasurer, Michigan Works! Southeast, and three boards at EMU: the College of Arts & Science Advancement Board, the Advisory Boards for the Masters of Public Administration and the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. She serves on the City of Ann Arbor’s Economic Development Advisory Committee and Destination Ann Arbor’s marketing and community grants committee. She is a University of Michigan and EMU Arts Management guest lecturer. Deb recently retired as Executive Director of Creative Washtenaw and continues to host an arts podcast, creative:impact on WEMU.

Russell B. Collins, long-time Executive Director of the Michigan Theater Foundation (now known as Marquee Arts), will retire in December 2024. Since 1982, he has led the theater for 44+ years, from its origins as a fledgling passion project of theater organ restoration volunteers, to the award-winning cultural institution it is today. He helped restore and grow the operations at the Michigan and State Theaters and in 2008 founded of the Art House Convergence – a groundbreaking professional society for independent cinema operators. In 2012, he started the Cinetopia Festival, the international film festival for the Ann Arbor metropolitan area. Collins taught arts administration and film studies at Eastern Michigan University for 10+ years, and has for over 30 years co-hosted “Cinema Chat” with Morning Edition host David Fair on NPR station WEMU. He has also been a regular keynote speaker at independent cinema conferences in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Over his long career, Collins has been recognized with numerous honors and awards, both locally and internationally.

Russ and Deb both recently retired to spend more time with their eight grandchildren who all live in Washtenaw County, and to explore travel opportunities and adventures with family and friends.