Bob Hope: An American Treasure
Runs through Sunday, June 10, 2012
Hours: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Location: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, 303 Pearl St., NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
(616) 254-0400
www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov

The traveling exhibit tells the story of Bob Hope's achievements in entertainment, his passion for golf, relationships with the military, and his friendships with a number of U.S. presidents, including President Ford. It includes more than 400 golf, entertainment and military related artifcats, including an original vaudeville contract from 1922, his Ellis Island medal, the final set of golf clubs used in his life, Emmy Awards, Honorary Oscars, an outfit he wore during USO tours, gifts and awards from presidents and other celebrities, his Congressional Gold Medal awarded by President John F. Kennedy, and his "Honorary Veteran Citation" from Congress, which he called the most important honor of his life. In addition, the exhibit includes a 30-stop audio tour, reproductions of more than 200 vintage photos and six videos. This new feature exhibit is on loan from the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum.

Grand Rapids Public Museum: Facing Mars
Runs through Sunday, May 6, 2012
Hours: Monday, Wednesday-Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm,
Tuesday 9:00 am-8:00 pm,
Sunday 12:00 pm-5:00 pm
Location: 272 Pearl Street, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
www.grmuseum.org

Visitors will experience the physical, psychological and scientific challenges of traveling to and living on Mars - selecting the optimal flight crew, building and launching rockets, “flying over” the Martian landscape, “walking on Mars” and trying their hand at mission control. With more than 20 thought-provoking and interactive exhibits guests conduct their own personal analysis to decide whether or not they would survive a journey complete with isolation, space sickness, medical emergencies and more.

“Essence: The Horses of Deborah Butterfield”
Runs through Sunday, April 29, 2012
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am-9:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am-5:00 pm
Location: Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, 1000 E. Beltline Ave, Nem Grand Rapids, MI 49525
(888) 957-1580
www.meijergardens.org

Known for her incredible craftsmanship and creative use of materials, Butterfield is among the most respected and acclaimed artists of her generation. Eleven major works spanning four decades of Butterfield’s career are the focus of her first major Midwest exhibition in recent years. Both large scale and pedestal-size horses explore the breadth of her career and inventive scope of creativity. Butterfield’s willingness to explore a variety of materials is evident: utilizing mud, straw and clay in her early work, and more recently, found objects, wood, welded steel and bronze. Initially torn between veterinary medicine and art, Butterfield earned her BFA and MFA from University of California, Davis. Although her passion began as a child, she purchased her first horse during her undergraduate work, while she studied ceramics. Horses have been her primary subject ever since. In contrast to the stallions, warhorses and sentinels of art history, Butterfield largely concentrates on the female counterpart and specific horses with which she has developed a personal relationship. The works aren’t portraits in the traditional sense, but representations of the essence of the creature, physically and psychologically.

Grand Rapids Public Museum:
All Dressed Up – 1950s Style
Runs through February, 2012
Hours: Monday CLOSED
Tuesday 9:00 am-8:00 pm,
Wednesday-Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm,
Sunday 12:00 pm-5:00 pm
Location: 272 Pearl Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
(616) 456-3977
www.grmuseum.org

Get a flashback of 1950s social circles when the Grand Rapids Public Museum unveils its newest exhibit , All Dressed Up - 1950s Style. Grand Rapids native Doris Cole donated to the Museum’s collection 18 mid-century party gowns, along with photos, invitations, yearbooks and mementos from the era. The collection includes stylish “New Look” inspired dresses with pinched waists and full skirts that were worn by Doris and her sister Janice to events at East Grand Rapids High School, Ottawa Hills High School, the University of Michigan and Radcliffe College.  The excellent condition of the garments some 60 years later is testimony to the value Doris and her mother, Helen Cole, placed on maintaining the gowns and preserving the memories of the happy celebrations to which they were worn.  They also evoke fond memories of shopping trips to former local retail establishments like Jacobson’s, Steketee’s, Wurzburg’s and Herpolsheimer’s. The dresses will be on display in the Museum’s 2nd floor Bradford gallery. The exhibit is free with Museum general admission.

Grand Rapids Public Museum:
Thank God for Michigan! Stories from the Civil War
Runs through Thursday, April 12, 2012
Hours: Monday CLOSED
Tuesday 9:00 am-8:00 pm,
Wednesday-Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm,
Sunday 12:00 pm-5:00 pm
Location: 272 Pearl Street, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
www.grmuseum.org

This interactive exhibit showcases more than 100 artifacts from the Museum's permanent collection – uniforms, weapons, photographs, letters and more, and tells the personal stories of Michigan’s involvement in the historic conflict. History buffs of all ages can try on uniforms and a field pack to feel to weight of war; get a whiff of the battlefield from coffee, to gun powder and beyond; grab drumsticks and tap along to unique marching cadences in the “music from the battle field” section; and explore new looks in Civil War-era facial hair.

Exhibits of Robert Rauschenberg
Runs through Sunday, May 20, 2012
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday 10:00 am-5:00 pm
Thursday, Friday 10:00 am-8:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am-4:00 pm
Monday Closed
Location: Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
(616) 831-2920
www.artmuseumgr.org

Three distinct exhibitions celebrating the work of American artist Robert Rauschenberg, providing a rich introduction to the defining aspects of Rauschenberg's art. Rauschenberg in Context and Rauschenberg at Gemini will be on view February 3 through May 20, 2012. Robert Rauschenberg: Synapsis Shuffle begins March 3, and remains on view until May 20, 2012. Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was one of the most important American artists of the twentieth century. He worked in a broad range of media as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, draftsman, photographer, performance artist, choreographer, and theater designer. In each of these media, Rauschenberg made innovative use of materials that led to radical new formats—the early "combines," mixing painting and ordinary objects like a chair, radio, or taxidermied goat; the silkscreen paintings with their transfer of photographic imagery to the canvas; and, the use of electronics and other means to create participatory works of art that prompt audience interaction. A chronicler of contemporary life, particularly the American experience, Rauschenberg's great themes were the city, technology, multiculturalism, and the environment. The provocative and poetic collisions of images, things, and ideas in Rauschenberg's art are layered with personal reflections on the social, political, and cultural currents of our time.

1934: A New Deal for Artists
Runs through Sunday, May 6, 2012
Hours: Sunday 12:00 Noon-4:30 pm
Monday and Tuesday Closed
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10:00 am-4:30 pm
Thursday 10:00 am-8:00 pm
Location: Muskegon Museum of Art, 296 W. Webster Ave., Muskegon MI 49440
(231) 720-2585
www.muskegonartmuseum.org

The Muskegon Museum of Art will host the only Michigan appearance of 1934: A New Deal for Artists, a nationally touring exhibition from the Smithsonian American Art Museum that celebrates the 75th anniversary of the first New Deal arts program-the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). The exhibition opens at the MMA February 16, 2012 with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and a special lecture at 7:00 p.m. The reception and lecture will be free and open to the public. The 55 paintings in 1934: A New Deal for Artists are drawn from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of artworks created for the PWAP and form a visual record of America in 1934-the worst year of the Great Depression. The 1934 exhibition was requested from the Smithsonian for the MMA's 100th Year exhibition roster as a fitting complement to the MMA's collection, particularly one of its best-known paintings, Tornado Over Kansas. The great American Regionalist painter John Steuart Curry created this painting in 1929 at the beginning of the Depression.

Wish You Were Here: Selections from the Mike Van Ark Postcard Collection
Runs through Saturday, August 4, 2012
Hours: Monday, Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 am-5:00 pm
Sunday and Tuesday Closed
Location: Holland Museum, 31 W. 10th Street, Holland, MI 49423
(616) 796-3329
www.hollandmuseum.org

American postcards were created as an easier way to send quick notes and were printed only by the U.S. Postal Service, until May, 1898. The first postcards were called “private mailing cards” and cost one penny to send. The sender’s message was written over the image itself because writing was not permitted by law on the address side. The first souvenir postcard was created in 1893 to advertise the World’s Fair in Chicago. Postcards are now one of the most collected items, along with coins and postage stamps. Mike Van Ark began collecting in the 1970s, by adding to his mother’s collection. After attending shows in Michigan and Chicago, Mike’s collection soon reached 5,000 cards. Within recent years, Mike sold his collection of South Haven, Grand Haven, Saugatuck/Douglas, New Richmond, Fennville, Allegan, and Hamilton images. Mike’s collection, featured in this exhibition, begins in the year 1900 and includes images of the city of Holland, around the north and south side of Lake Macatawa (Black Lake), and the Lakeshore.