EAST LANSING, MI.- Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University will exhibit The Impressionist Era: Works on Paper from January 7 through March 16, 2008. An opening reception, hosted by Friends of Kresge Art Museum, will be held 3–5 p.m. on Sunday, January 13. This reception is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Several gallery walks, guided by museum staff, will be hosted throughout the exhibition, one on Thursday, January 31, 2008, at 6 p.m. and another on Thursday, February 21, at 12:10 p.m. Other programming, including lectures and films, is scheduled throughout the exhibition and listed below.

Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and Corot are represented in this exhibition, drawn from the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, and Kresge Art Museum . The exhibit has been organized by the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh , and is sponsored by the MSU Federal Credit Union and the College of Arts & Letters.

Between 1874 and 1886, eight Impressionist exhibitions were held in Paris . The Impressionist Era: Works on Paper exhibit features 75 pieces by 33 artists, many of whom participated in the Parisian shows. While their styles, subjects and techniques were diverse, they were united in their willingness to experiment and question traditional aesthetic standards and art world practices. Many of the artists were mentors, friends, competitors, and followers. Some were forerunners of the Impressionist movement, revealing how the movement emerged out of established trends in the mid- 19th century. Others were from the generation that followed, the 1890s, growing out of developments that paved the way for the avant-garde art.