CCS Announces Winter 2024 Lecture Programming

The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is pleased to announce its Winter 2024 Woodward Lecture Series and Toyota Lecture Series lineup. This year’s Woodward Lecture Series will feature distinguished poet, biographer, editor and filmmaker, Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd and visual artist Janine Antoni. The Toyota Lecture Series will feature accomplished alumni and industry professionals from the disciplines of Communication Design, Advertising Design, Entertainment Arts, Illustration, User Experience Design, Film and Photography. All lectures are free and open to the public. Seating and parking are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

On Tuesday, January 23, the Woodward Lecture Series will begin with distinguished University Professor, Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit and Kresge Eminent Artist Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd,  “Turning Poetry Into Film” at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd will discuss how two art forms converge in “The Black Unicorn: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press,” by illustrating how verbal imagery was transferred into cinematic language, reflecting the creative complexity of a poet.

Next in the Woodward Series will be Janine Antoni’s “At Home in the Body,” on Tuesday, February 27 at 6:00 p.m. A MacArthur Fellowship and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award-winning artist, Janine Antoni has been featured in numerous international biennials, including the Venice Biennale, documenta14 and the Whitney Biennial. Antoni will give an overview of her artwork, with a focus on her creative process, identity and embodiment.

Both Woodward Lecture Series events will take place on the Walter and Josephine Ford Campus in the Wendell W. Anderson, Jr. Auditorium. The Woodward Lecture Series is supported by an endowed fund to bring three visiting artists to campus each semester. Visitors may be selected from the areas of Studio Art & Craft, Photography, Illustration, Art History and Criticism, and History. Since 1998, The CCS Woodward Lecture Series has remained one of Southeast Michigan’s most prominent visiting speaker series.

On Friday, March 29 at 9:30 a.m., the Toyota Lecture Series will present Morning Boost. Working professionals from the disciplines of Communication Design, Advertising Design, User Experience Design, Film and Photography will speak about their work in a series of lectures at the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education’s Knight Gallery.

The Toyota Lecture Series was established through a generous $1 million endowment gift to the College for Creative Studies from Toyota Motor Corporation. The endowment is used to bring prominent designers and scholars in all fields of design to speak at CCS.

These lecture series represent CCS’s commitment to investing in the community, engaging with students and all who are interested in art and design. The Woodward and Toyota Lecture Series contribute to the cultural vitality of Detroit and southeast Michigan by extending the educational resources of the College to the entire metropolitan area.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES

The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a nonprofit, private college authorized by the Michigan Education Department to grant Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. CCS, located in midtown Detroit, strives to provide students with the tools needed for successful careers in the dynamic and growing creative industries. CCS fosters students’ resolve to pursue excellence, act ethically, engage their responsibilities as citizens, and learn throughout their lives. With world-class faculty and unsurpassed facilities, students learn to be visual communicators who actively use art and design toward the betterment of society. The College is a major supplier of talent to numerous industries, such as transportation, film and animation, advertising and communications, consumer electronics, athletic apparel, and many more. Its graduates are exhibiting artists and teachers, design problem solvers and innovators, as well as creative leaders in business.

ABOUT DR. MELBA JOYCE BOYD

Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd, a native Detroiter, is the 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist, a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan. She is a poet, biographer, editor and filmmaker. She is the author of two biographies, nine books of poetry, and the editor of two poetry anthologies. Her poetry has been translated into German, French and Italian. She has received awards or honors from the Library of Michigan, The Independent Publishers, the NAACP Image Award, the ForeWord Book Award, and Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

ABOUT JANINE ANTONI

Janine Antoni is a visual artist who was born in Freeport, Bahamas in 1964. She received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is known for her unusual processes. Her body is both her tool for making and the source from which her meaning arises. Antoni’s early work transformed materials like chocolate and soap and used everyday activities like bathing, eating, and sleeping as sculptural processes. She carefully articulates her relationship to the world, giving rise to emotional states that are felt in and through the senses. In each piece, no matter the medium or image, a conveyed physicality speaks directly to the viewer’s body.