Drop-in Workshop for All Ages: Glass Vessels 6–8:30 p.m. throughout January Make your own colorful glass vessel. Collector's Conversation: Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu 1 p.m Nancy Olnick, Giorgio Spanu and Graham W. J. Beal, DIA director, will discuss the joys of collecting. Gallery Serenade: Verdi Opera Theatre of Michigan A Musical Salute to Murano and Venice 2 p.m. The island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon was the birthplace of librettist Francesco Maria Piave. Giuseppe Verdi collaborated with Piave on some of his most famous operas between 1844 and 1862. The Opera Theatre will play selections from Ernani, Attila, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Simon Boccanegra, which all premiered at La Fenice Theatre in Venice. Artist’s Choice: Herb Babcock 2 p.m. Herb Babcock, a professor in the crafts department and section chair of the glass studio at the College for Creative Studies, will discuss contemporary American studio glass and his own glass work. He will also explain his art-making processes in relation to some of the 20th-century Venetian glass objects in the exhibition. Community Choice 2 p.m. Becky Hart, DIA assistant curator of Contemporary Art, will discuss other DIA glass works currently on view. ArtSeen 7–11 p.m. Join the DIA’s Founders Junior Council for an evening of art, music, food and fun at the DIA, featuring the exhibition Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection. Tickets are $35 in advance, and $40 at the door. For more information, call 313.833.6760. Lecture: Murano: A Tradition that Reinvents Itself 2 p.m. Jutta Page, curator of glass at the Toledo Museum of Art, will discuss the stylistic and technical histories of works included in the exhibition. Co-sponsored by Friends of Modern and the Visiting Committee. Artist Lecture: Laura de Santillana 7 p.m. Venetian born Laura de Santillana found her direction as a sculptor from her experience in her family's glass works, Venini and Company, and as a student in New York at the School of the Visual Arts. Santillana’s attraction to the color field paintings of Mark Rothko informs her work to this day. Her simplified rectilinear forms recall a painter's canvas while inviting the viewer to imagine that the human body is also her subject. Santillana will discuss here work in this artist lecture. Co-sponsored by Woodward Lecture Series at College for Creative Studies and Friends of Modern Art.