26/27 Season Spotlight: Arts and Wellness
With the University of Michigan’s campus-wide theme “Human Health and Well-Being” shaping the academic year ahead, UMS is diving into the powerful ways the arts can inspire healing, foster connection, and support wellness. Throughout the 26/27 season, performances will explore the intersection of arts and wellness, inviting audiences to experience how music, dance, and storytelling can nourish both individuals and communities. There’s a growing understanding that the arts can play a meaningful role in addressing isolation, fostering resilience, and strengthening our collective well-being.
The center of this theme is a multi-day residency with the London Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble has promoted the integration of arts and wellness through their Creative Health programs in London, which help address mental health challenges among healthcare professionals, improve patient well-being through music-making in hospital settings, and combat loneliness and isolation among older adults, among other goals. In addition to their two performances at Hill Auditorium with Maxim Vengerov, violin and Alisa Weilerstein, cello, the orchestra will collaborate with the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine, and the U-M Arts Initiative in a series of activities that includes small ensemble performances at U-M Hospitals, sharing best practices with local practitioners of creative health work in clinical settings, and other activities to be announced.
Alongside our partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, two performances in UMS’s No Safety Net Theater series will explore the intersection of art, wellness, and lived experience.
In Watch Me Walk, Anne Gridley uses humor, grace, anger, and wry observation to reflect on her experience living with physical disability and others’ perceptions of it.
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In 300 Paintings, Sam Kissajukian explores mental health and personal struggle through comedy, storytelling, honesty, and visual art. Together, these works invite audiences to consider how art and creativity can positively impact connection, self-reflection, and our emotions.
In a time when many people are seeking ways to feel grounded and connected, UMS hopes this season will offer audiences not only memorable artistic experiences, but also a sense of community. Whether through music shared in a concert hall, stories told on stage, or moments of laughter that illuminate deeply personal experiences, these performances remind us that creativity can help us better understand ourselves and one another.
We hope you can join us in the new season.
