Maker. Thrifter. Arts Educator.

Michelle Word finds connecting people to art, ideas, and one another incredibly rewarding. Noting the exciting moments of curiosity and collective learning that happen at art museums and studio classrooms, she observes that “a day in the life of an educator is ___________. Pick a week, day, an hour: the education Mad Lib is always shifting, unknown, full of possibility.”

Michelle currently lives in Lansing, MI where she serves as the Director of Education at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She came to the MSU Broad in 2014 after serving as a faculty member and outreach/programming coordinator in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design for nine years. There regularly taught lecture and studio courses on the creative process, drawing, painting, and the collaged aesthetic. She holds a BA in studio art and art history from DePauw University and an MFA in painting from MSU, and is a practicing artist with a national exhibition record.

She maintains an active studio practice with a national exhibition record. In 2009, her work was a

finalist for the Miami University National Young Painters Competition for the William and Dorothy

Yeck Award. In 2011, Michelle was invited to contribute a label to the artist label collection at Imagery Estate Winery in Sonoma, California. Fellow contributors include Sol LeWitt, Enrique Chagoya, Terry Winters, and Judy Pfaff. 

Originally from Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, she loves making and getting her hands dirty, whether in the studio, in the garden, or in the sandbox with her daughter. Most weekends you can find her rummaging through other people’s lives at estate sales, thrift shops, and antique stores.