Individual award recipients are, from left: Mona Munroe-Younis, Roger Arnett, Amanda Krugliak, Brian Banks, Jacqueline Bowman and Jeffery Harrold. (Photo by Austin Thomason, Michigan Photography)

Amanda Krugliak, assistant director of arts programing at the Institute for the Humanities, was among six individuals, four supervisors and four teams were presented with the inaugural University of Michigan Staff Impact Awards on Monday.

Kevin Hegarty, executive vice president and chief financial officer, opened the presentation ceremony at the Michigan League Ballroom and presented certificates in conjunction with members of the award selection committee.

"The amazing dedication, effort and talent of our staff is absolutely critical for us to meet our missions of education and care," said Hegarty, addressing the award recipients. "Which is why I am so passionate about honoring and celebrating your truly transformative service with these awards. I am truly in awe of your efforts and the work we all do as a staff community."

The awards recognized individual staff members, those staff who supervise others, and teams of staff members.

From the ceremony:

Amanda Krugliak was nominated by five different individuals who had nothing but outstanding stories to share about her performance and why she was the very epitome of the Staff Impact Award here at U of M.

Sidonie Smith, previous Director of the Institute of Humanities, said that, “One of the longstanding objectives of the Institute has been to engage the world through programming and activities that boldly integrate the humanities with the arts. Under her curatorship, the gallery has become a nationally visible center of opportunity, collaboration, and prestige for artists and a source of significant links between the humanities and arts, the institute and the community.”

Over the last decade, Ms. Krugliak has worked collaboratively with faculty and departments across the university and with nationally and internationally recognized artists and performers to develop innovative exhibitions and arts programming that extend far beyond the walls of the gallery and beyond the disciplinary bounds of the humanities -- including for example, with paleontologists and zoologists, as well as with historians, anthropologists, artists, and faculty and students from many other disciplines. Her remarkable exhibition "State of Exception" co-curated with anthropologist Jason De Leon and artist Richard Barnes is both a superb example of how Ms. Krugliak works to bring the visual arts and academic scholarship together and is itself an award winning exhibition that has toured the country and was written up in the New York Times magazine.

Amanda imagined and implemented a new “Hub” series for the gallery and arts programming; she constantly thought out the box, mounting provocative exhibits, organizing public discussions and presentations on and off-site, bringing scholars from schools and departments across campus and artists together in challenging, enlivened conversations.

Amanda also led the way in the Institute’s support of programming of other UM gallery and museum spaces, including the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the galleries of the Residential College, Lane Hall, DAAS, and the Stamps School of Art and Design.

Sidonie Smith shared with us about Amanda’s efforts with the community. “Let me note her positive impact on communities in Michigan, in particular the Detroit arts community. As part of the residency, exhibition, and public lecture programming in the arts at the

Institute, Amanda remains committed to actively engaging with the Detroit community, as well as their artists and institutions, understanding the great value of community building and outreach for everyone involved.

To conclude, I will use the words of her nominator, “In all that she does, Amanda contributes to building a stronger university, instilled with the values and vision of the arts and humanities, and committed to “promoting access, equity, and inclusiveness” by showcasing the remarkable work of diverse artists and performers.

The expansion of the Institute’s reach through the gallery exhibitions and arts programming would not have been possible without Amanda Krugliak’s profoundly humanistic values, imagination, curiosity, generosity of spirit, and collaborative disposition. She has built bridges from the Institute across departments, colleges and schools in the University, the community in Ann Arbor, the arts community in Detroit, and to the galleries across the United States where exhibits first presented here have been remounted.”

Congratulations Amanda Krugliak on your UM Staff Impact Award.