Barstow Artists and Speakers
Through the Barstow Endowment, we bring world-recognized artists and thinkers to our campus for lectures, workshops and residencies.
Midland architect Stephen L. Barstow (1941–1992), donated his estate and endowment to the CMU Department of Art & Design upon his death. His generosity has provided students with invaluable exposure to practicing contemporary artists from a variety of disciplines. His contribution continues to fund student Art and Design scholarships, the Barstow Artist-in-Residence Program, the Barstow Lecture Series, and Barstow Artist Workshops.
Artist-in-Residence
Each year The Barstow Artist-in-Residence Program provides a residence, studio and university resources to a professional working artist. As the artist-in-residence dedicates time to their studio practice and research, they also engage directly with you through mentorship, individual workshops, studio visits and exhibition opportunities.
To learn more about our current Artist-in-Residence and the AIR program, or to view a list of past AIR recipients, watch this space for updates.
Lecture series
The Barstow Endowment brings in nationally and internationally recognized artists who speak about their diverse fields of research.
The goal of the lecture series is to expose our students to a broad range of approaches to creating, thinking, and talking about art and design. Nationally and internationally renowned artists, designers, and art historians visit the campus of CMU to speak and engage with our students, faculty, and community. In addition to giving a lecture, the visiting artists also participate in critique sessions and portfolio reviews with students in our programs, giving the students the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on their work from an experienced, practicing artist. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Past Barstow Lecture Series participants have included Stefan Sagmeister, Shana Parke Harrison, Eduardo Kac, Pedro Meyer, Sandy Skoglund and many others. For a complete list of past speakers, click below.
Artist workshops
The Barstow Workshop Series emphasizes demonstrations and exhibitions conducted on a regular basis throughout each semester, each of which are open to the public. Workshop artists include designers, photographers, painters, sculptors, art historians,
printmakers and interdisciplinary artists.
Artists are chosen by the faculty based on student input, and the events work to enhance the theories and techniques being taught in studio courses.
Past Barstow workshop leaders have included: Jeremiah Britton, The Beehive Design Collective, Robin Schwartzman, Cassie Hester, Thomas Allen, Mark Menjivar, Michele Champagne, Kenneth Fitzgerald, Stephanie Milanowski, Douglas R. Ewart
Current Artist-in-Residence
Bodyknots, 2022.
Bio/Statement
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe is a queer feminist artist working between performance and soft sculpture. She received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently the Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University. From 2023-25 she taught drawing, sculpture, and photography as a Lecturer in the Department of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park. During this time, she completed residencies at Montgomery College, VisArts, Stamp Gallery, and the Torpedo Factory Arts Center. She has shown work at the Hirshhorn Museum, the Peale Museum, MOCA Taipei, Auckland Pride Festival, NextNow Fest, Culture Lab LIC, StableArts, Rhizome DC, Source Theatre, VisArts, Phaze 2 Gallery, NE Sculpture, Maryland Art Place, and more.
Artist Statement
Working through soft sculpture and performance, I mingle bodies and bodily sculptures.
Growing up, I performed aerial arts in a circus, where a web of interdependence keeps you off the ground.
In my own body now, I feel the residual stretch, tension, and ache the circus left in me—remnants of bodies defying gravity by holding one another up.
I exaggerate bodies and replicate limbs, making visible the ways humans connect and relate to one another.
