Marianetta
Porter

Marianetta Porter Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & DesignUniversity of Michiganmptr@umich.edu M.F.A. (Textile Design), University of Michigan, 1983B.F.A. (Art), Hampton University, 1975Marianetta Porter has worked as a product designer, first for Armstrong World Industries, Inc. and later for the Ford Motor Company. She served on the faculty of the School of Design at North Carolina State University and later joined the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design faculty where she is a full professor.My research and scholarly investigations are grounded in the study of African American history, culture and representation. These themes encompass various genres ranging from ethnography and folklore to visual culture, language and religious traditions. I am particularly interested in the ways these complex relationships are woven into the fabric of everyday life. Through the language of visual art, my work seeks to draw a correlation between historic memory and modern African American life, giving voice to the history of the Diaspora and acknowledging the importance of its influence in the birth and blooming of American culture.Porter is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Smithsonian Senior Research Fellowship Award, the Smithsonian Laureate Award, the Atlanta Life National Arts Competition and Rockwood National Fellowship Awards. She has served as a visiting artist at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the Art Institute of Chicago’s Ox-Bow Program and East Carolina University. Porter was a Helmut Stern Fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities and recently received the university’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. Her work has been exhibited widely including Bremen, Germany and Beijing, China, as well as at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Charleston’s Spoleto Festival, the Harriet Tubman Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum, and the Hampton University Museum of Art.