The Betty Votruba Collection of Early American Lighting
Heritage Hall, Michigan State University Museum
24 July 2018-28 February 2019
War and Speech: Propaganda, Patriotism, and Dissent in the Great War
Main Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
11 November 2017-11 November 2018
Sympathetic Detail: R. F. Deckert and the Art of Natural History Illustration
Art-Science-Creativity Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
28 November 2016-22 November 2017
Useful Improvement: Preserving MSU’s Agricultural History
Heritage Hall, Michigan State University Museum
1 October 2016-15 March 2017
Up Cloche: Fashion, Feminism, Modernity
Co-curated with Lynne Swanson and Mary Worrall
Heritage Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
4 January-23 November 2016
Rejecting tradition and embracing more body-conscious styles, the young American “flapper” wore her newly won freedom to vote, earn, and learn on her body: short dresses and clear stockings, bobbed hair, and a head-hugging cloche. The cloche – a bell-shaped hat considered “clever” and “smart” – framed the face with fashionable Art Deco panache. Explore how American women of the 1920s and ’30s used consumer goods to become modern.
Seeing China: Photographic Views and Viewpoints
Co-curated with Howard Bossen
Main Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
19 January-28 August 2015
- “Dynamic exhibition on China brings together six contemporary photographers at Michigan State University,” Art Daily, February 15, 2015
From the Margins to the Core: Latino Workers in the Nation’s Auto Industry
Co-curated with Ruben Martinez and Daniel Velez Ortiz
Entry Hall Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
26 October 2014 – 1 February 2015
- Included in MotorCities National Heritage Area 2015 Award of Excellence in Education/Interpretation to Lansing-MotorCities Partnership, Lansing Stewardship Committee
#me: Silhouettes to Selfies
Entry Hall Gallery, Michigan State University Museum
27 July-5 October 2014
- Jonathan Griffith, “Selfie esteem: How cat memes and French Impressionism overlap this month,” Lansing City Pulse, August 6, 2014
School Days in Kent, Ohio, 1880-1940
Co-curated with Lauren Worona Drombetta
Kent Historical Society
20 March 2010-28 March 2011
- “KHS School Days Exhibit in Session Through December.” The Kent Historian: Newsletter of the Kent Historical Society, 69 (Spring 2010): 1, 3.
The Kokoon Arts Club: Cleveland Revels!
Stager and Blum Galleries, Kent State University Museum
19 March 2009-28 March 2010
Cleveland Artists Foundation, Lakewood, Ohio
14 May 2010-31 July 2010
- Interview with Applause, WVIZ/PBS (Cleveland, OH), on “The Kokoon Arts Club: Cleveland Revels!” 7 January 2010; rebroadcast 24 February 2011
- “Kokoon Arts Club Symbolized Era of Revelry, Artistic Revolution a ‘Splendid Time’ in Cleveland: Elegant Cleveland,” Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 28 June 2009, E1
Designing Domesticity: Decorating the American Home Since 1876
Co-curated with Terrence L. Uber
Broadbent Gallery, Kent State University Museum
5 December 2001-18 November 2002
- “How We Lived: Kent State U. Exhibit Reflects How Interior Design of American Homes Has Changed With Evolving Society.” Akron Beacon-Journal, 8 December 2001 (reprinted with different headlines in a dozen Knight-Ridder newspapers throughout the United States)
- “Room Décor Details Our Lives Over 125 Years.” Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 16 December 2001, E1
Shirley Wajda 