In the Spring of 2022, the Sindecuse Museum put out a call for artists to contribute to the exhibit that would become, Artistry / Dentistry: Passions of a Creative Mind.
The museum printed fliers and shared them around our buildings, shared the call via email and online, and in an ad with the School of Dentistry's alumni magazine, MDentistry. Almost immediately, we began to recieve submissions to complement some of our historical art pieces, proving the point that many who work in and around dentistry nowadays pursue artistic endeavors as well.
The exhibit was conceptualized and curated by the Museum's Collections coordinator, Adam T. Johnson. He said the initial inspiration came from the museum's paintings by Marian Spore Bush, who graduated U-M's School of Dentistry back in 1899, when she was known as Flora Mae Spore. Much of our knowledge of this hisotrical dentist and artist came from research by curator emertius Shannon O'Dell. Johnson said he "wanted to highlight that work, as well as the artistic skills used by dentists today both in their practice and in their free time."
"Planning this collaborative exhibit allowed the museum to connect with our diverse community in ways we hadn't before. It's been a pleasure getting to know members of our community and to celebrate their work," Johnson said.