The College Fix

Museum includes ‘button-making’ station, hosts costume party to encourage students to vote

A nonpartisan voting project with a “button-making” station, costume party, and “haunted” photo booth at the University of Michigan is being co-led by two Democratic donors, according to campaign funding records.

The project, Vote at UMMA, turned the university’s Museum of Art into “a satellite location” of the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Office and a “one stop-shop” for voters this fall. It also will serve as a polling place Tuesday, according to the project website.

At the museum, program organizers created colorful displays and exhibits to educate individuals and help them register, update their registration, request an absentee ballot, and cast their vote.

On Thursday, the museum’s Student Advisory Board hosted a “Voting is NOT Scary!” forum where students were encouraged to dress up in costumes and participate in a “frightfully fun celebration of civic engagement.” It included a “haunted” photo booth, slime-making, and pumpkin painting activities.

Jenna Bednar, faculty director of UMich Votes, told The College Fix the aim is to “demystify the voting process” and encourage more people to participate in elections.

She said most UMich students are from out of state, and Vote at UMMA provides information on how to vote in their home state if they choose to.

“Voting for the first time can be intimidating. We hope that by building welcoming spaces, and providing clear information about the process, we reduce people’s fears,” she said in a recent email.

Asked about the co-leaders’ donations, Bednar told The Fix: “University employees, like all Americans, have the right to participate in our nation’s political process. That includes the right to make political contributions. Doing so does not disqualify them from organizing non-partisan voter registration efforts.”

Professor Hannah Smotrich is a professor in the Stamps School of Art and Design and co-lead of the Creative Campus Voting Project, one of the groups involved with the museum voting hub.

The project is nonpartisan, but she and fellow co-lead, Professor Stephanie Rowden, have donated repeatedly to Democrat candidates’ political campaigns.

Since 2012, Smotrich has donated about $15,000 to Democratic candidates, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. House candidate Curtis Hertel, Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and others, according to campaign donation records on Open Secrets.

Rowden has given about $1,300 in campaign donations to Democratic candidates since 2017, including U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, and former gubernatorial candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, according to Open Secrets records.

She also donated $500 to the political action committee Voters Not Politicians, which says it is nonpartisan but supports primarily Democratic candidates.

Neither Smotrich nor Rowden responded to The College Fix’s emails or a phone message over the past two weeks, asking about their political donations and their efforts to keep voting efforts on campus nonpartisan.

But UMich College Republican member Maximilian Scheske told The Fix in a phone interview that he is not concerned about their donations as long as they keep the project nonpartisan.

Scheske said the voting hub makes it easier for students to “cross [voting] off their list” because it is on the way to classes.

For voting projects to be nonpartisan, he said they “have to present the facts and then explain why one person might see it this way, and another might see it this way and be totally honest about it.”

Scheske said there is an “unspoken truth” wherein a “well-functioning democracy where everyone can easily vote, voting registration will always be about convincing people on your side to vote.”

Professors use art to encourage civic participation

Smotrich and Rowden started the Creative Campus Voting Project in 2018 with “the idea that, as art and design faculty, our creative toolbox could help address the challenges faced by student voters,” according to the project website.

Vote at UMMA is one of those efforts. Other participants in the museum office project include the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Office and UMich Votes.

Jacqueline Beaudry, the Ann Arbor City Clerk, also emphasized that the project is nonpartisan in an email to The Fix.

The goal is to “make voting accessible and easy to navigate for everyone, with the campus sites having a particular focus on first-time voters and navigating a new experience in a fun and engaging way,” Beaudry said.

She told The Fix her office’s partnership with the Creative Campus Voting Project began in 2020 and expanded to the north campus in 2022.

“As for the Clerk’s Office role, we work with UMich Votes and CCVP on the design and operation of our two satellite city clerk offices on campus,” she said.

Through the partnership, Beaudry said these offices offer “visually appealing signage” and educational exhibits on voting and ballots. They also offer “fun button-making stations and backdrops for selfies and other photos,” she said.

Alec Hughes, co-chair of College Democrats at the University of Michigan, told The Fix the project is an “incredible benefit” to students on campus.

Hughes said it uses creative artwork to attract students’ attention and raise awareness about the importance of turning out to vote.

“We look forward to collaborating with them between now and election day to continue this work,” Hughes said in a recent email.

The university art museum did not respond to several emails asking about the project and its commitment to being nonpartisan.

Other efforts to encourage voting at UMich this fall include a “Voter Style” quiz with questions about students’ personalities and personal preferences that generates a customized “voter action” plan.

In 2018, Rowden instructed a class called “Voting is Sexy,” where a “troupe of artists, designers, performers, and passionates” attempted to “make voting irresistible,” The College Fix previously reported.

“Our students will be using their creative energy, skills (and humor!) to help their peers learn about voter registration, voting resources and the voting process,” Rowden told The Fix at the time.

MORE: Faculty at JD Vance’s alma mater donate 100 times more to Democrats than Republicans

IMAGE: University of Michigan Museum of Art

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