With the holidays right around the corner, keep the Dennos Museum Center in mind for so, so many reasons:
If you haven’t been to one of the largest community college museums in the nation yet, make this your early New Year’s resolution to come out and see us!
What if you have a (mini)van full of grandchildren? We’ve got a wonderful 2,000 square foot Discovery Gallery for kids and visitors of all ages to get creative and let off some steam.
Seeking peace and a quiet place to reflect before the holidays are in full swing? We have over 10 galleries to satisfy your creative and visual curiosity.
How about a thoughtful gift from a local artisan, an Inuit sculptor, or a fair trade vendor? Our incredible Museum Store has you covered, with gifts perfect for everyone ages 1-100.
Want to watch the snow fall outside from the comfort of our beautifully enclosed promenade wing? We have plenty of comfy benches for reflection, too.
And finally, what if you’d like to see three terrific exhibitions featuring Dewey Blocksma, Cy Keener and Justine Holzman, and the NMC Water Studies program before they close at the end of the year? Our temporary galleries have these exhibits on display through Jan. 4.
As always, please be sure to check dennosmuseum.org for the latest operating hours and for any potential campus closures due to inclement weather.
Current Temporary Exhibitions
Beneath the Surface: Training Tomorrow’s Water Stewards
The Great Lakes Water Studies Institute (GLWSI) at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) is advancing freshwater, groundwater, and marine science through cutting-edge technology, education, and research. This exhibit highlights NMC students’ hands-on work with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), sonar mapping, and groundwater sampling.
Dewey Blocksma: Roundtable
Blocksma’s artwork is a gathering of figures and ideas, real and imagined, informed by medicine and art. Common themes include: puzzle heads, violin women, fake computers, Dutch cowboys, porcupines, voyagers, Lincoln log Lincolns, vintage cameras, angels and ambulances—all within a world assembled and reassembled, juggling toys buffeted by current events.
Ice Into Ocean: Arctic Tracings
This exhibition is the result of a seven‑year collaboration between Cy Keener and Justine Holzman, exploring how ice shifts and reshapes the landscapes of the Arctic. Through large‑scale drawings, images, and installation, the exhibit investigates the nature and movement of ice and water across this remote environment.
Doug Cannell: Selections from Backstories
What happens when a sculpture refuses to tell you what it is? Selections from Backstories is an introduction to Doug Cannell’s hybrid works that merge sculpture, installation, and storytelling into layered experiences.
Special holiday hours If you’re ready to add us to your holiday plans (and we hope you will!), I’ve included our special hours of operation for the holiday season below: Dec. 23: Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 24-26: CLOSED Dec. 27-30 : Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. CLOSED New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Regular operating days/hours resume Jan. 3 (Tues — Sun 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Mondays)
Coming up in 2026: Exhibits and more DOUG CANNELL: SELECTIONS FROM BACKSTORIES Through April 1, 2026 What happens when a sculpture refuses to tell you what it is? Selections from Backstories is an introduction to Doug Cannell’s hybrid works that merge sculpture, installation, and storytelling into layered experiences. Through fabricated histories, playful ephemera, and digital extensions, Cannell creates objects that resist easy definition—oscillating between truth and invention, function and abstraction. Visitors are invited to uncover meaning through active exploration, following threads of narrative that extend beyond the gallery walls. IMPRESSIONS OF AN ERA: PRINTS FROM THE DENISON MUSEUM COLLECTION Through May 31, 2026 This selection of prints, created between 1970 and 1990 by nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists, reflects two transformative decades in contemporary printmaking. Drawn from a larger selection of works transferred to the Dennos Museum Center from the Denison Museum in Granville, Ohio, these prints highlight the range and experimentation that defined late twentieth-century printmaking. TWELVE-BY-TWELVE Jan. 23 — April 1, 2026 When pondering the theme for this exhibition, students and faculty at Interlochen Arts Academy wanted to start everyone on equal footing. They established a simple rubric: every participant would create something—anything—as long as it fit within an imaginary 12-inch cube. See the result of a department of creatives—students and teachers alike—who spend hours daily informing each other’s creative processes, ideas, and methods. They self-imposed this limit to discover what ideas those boundaries might produce. NEW PERSPECTIVES: RECENT ACQUISITIONS FROM THE DENNOS PERMANENT ART COLLECTION Jan. 23 — May 31, 2026 In honor of the Dennos’s 35th anniversary, a selection of recent acquisitions—many of which have never been on public display—will open in the MacFarlane Gallery. New paintings and works on paper gifted through the Museum Exchange program to generous donations on behalf of museum members, friends, and NMC alumni. TRILOBITE TREASURES Jan. 23 — May 31, 2026 This exhibit presents these fine Paleozoic creatures in a way that tells a story of prehistoric life in the ancient seas. The collection, assembled over 35 years, provides a unique snapshot of life in the ancient seas from 250 to 500 million years ago. Explore the life and death of these creatures once so plentiful during the Cambrian period that it was called the Age of Trilobites through actual trilobite specimens, charts, posters, artifacts, models, interactive units, and wall texts and provides an excellent look into the ancient world of the Paleozoic seas. NMC STUDENT ART EXHIBITION April 10 — 26, 2026 & May 8 — 31, 2026 The Annual Northwestern Michigan College Student Art Exhibition features work by NMC Fine Art and Visual Communication students in a variety of media and styles including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and graphic design. Recurring events: Drop in Tours: 12 p.m. Tuesdays Second Sunday Art Projects: 1-3 p.m. monthly Special events: Kentucky singer/songwriter Joan Shelley: 7 p.m. Jan. 16 Martin Luther King, Jr. Free Day: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan, 19 Winter Opening Reception: 6 p.m. Jan. 23 Artist talk: A deeper dive into ‘Backstories:’ 2 p.m. Jan. 24 Indie Lens pop up screening of “The Librarians:” 4 p.m. Feb. 4 Michigan-based bluegrass group Full Cord: 7 p.m. Feb. 13 Mock Tours: Valentine’s Edition: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 14 Trilobyte Treasures with Paleo Joe: 4 p.m. Feb. 20 Tickets and full schedule at dennosmuseum.org