Collaboration with UMMA activates an archive

February 24, 2026

The opening of the exhibit American Sampler: Activating the Archive in January 2026 launches a new partnership between the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) and the University of Michigan Library’s Labadie Collection, one of the world’s largest repositories of materials documenting political dissent and social movements.

Artist, curator, and researcher Julie Ault — recipient of the inaugural UMMA Labadie Artist Research Residency — has developed an immersive investigation into the architecture of American protest. In close collaboration with Labadie Collection curator Julie Herrada, Ault brings her decades-long commitment to cultural activism and historical inquiry to an expansive installation that reframes the visual language of protest as a driving force in U.S. history.

Over its two-year span, the exhibit will offer a rotating selection of artifacts, artworks, and archival documents from UMMA, the Labadie Collection, and elsewhere. Ault’s American Sampler is a living installation that illuminates the strategies, visual vocabularies, and effective methods of protest.

Ault’s focus spans the Black freedom struggle, civil rights organizing, and antiwar activism — particularly the resistance to the U.S. war in Vietnam — and traces how these movements connect to ongoing efforts for justice and the social landscape of contemporary activism.

Among the exhibition materials are Freedom Rider testimonials, GI and war veteran resistance materials, printed matter from the Black Panther Party, courtroom records from the Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial, pacifist statements, and more. These are juxtaposed with art and documentary materials by various artists, mounted on and around a 40-foot tall wall in UMMA’s Vertical Gallery and extending into the UMMA Café.

The exhibit opening comes as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, offering an important and timely reflection on the role dissent plays in shaping American identity.

“This is a moment when the mechanics of democracy are under intense scrutiny,” said UMMA Director Christina Olsen. “Julie Ault’s American Sampler reminds us that the imagery and tactics of protest and the power of organized resistance are not only our political inheritance, but a vital part of the cultural imagination.”

This exhibition is the first in a three-part series under the UMMA and Labadie partnership. The second project will debut in fall 2026 with a newly commissioned installation by artist Tomashi Jackson in UMMA’s Tisch Apse. Jackson’s work explores themes of racial justice and community activism. The third installment, still in development, may include a published volume or a public symposium, extending the dialog around American protest and social justice to new forms and audiences.

About Julie Herrada

Julie Herrada has been part of the Labadie Collection since her appointment as assistant curator in 1994, and brings to the work a deep commitment to the value of preserving and making accessible this history of social movements.

As curator of the library’s most frequently used archival collection, she partners with students, scholars, researchers, artists — anyone who needs help navigating Labadie’s holdings. “If it has to do with the Labadie Collection,” she says, “chances are I’m involved in some way.”

About Julie Ault

Julie Ault is an artist, curator, editor, and writer focused on mobilizing art, artifacts, and documentary materials to broadcast underestimated cultural histories. Her projects include exhibitions, publications, writing, and historical chronicles.

Ault has edited, authored, and collaborated on over twenty publications and organized and collaborated on over 100 exhibitions. She co-founded the artists’ collaborative Group Material, active from 1979 to 1996. She received a 2018 MacArthur Fellows Program grant for her achievements “redefining the role of the artwork and the artist by melding artistic, curatorial, archival, editorial, and activist practices into a new form of cultural production.”