Ahead of Election Day, a project at several universities is fostering a different type of civic space to encourage young people to discuss issues, engage with each other, and vote.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown went to the University of Michigan to see how this works as part of our series, Art in Action,

exploring the intersection of art and democracy and part of our canvas arts and culture coverage.

Last Saturday in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, a campus alive with energy amid the crisp beauty of fall,

a big football game that evening against Michigan State,

and something else, the first day of early voting, with a long line of students in an unexpected

place at the University's art museum.

Museum Director Christina Olson.

Because we are in a state that is hyper-polarized, because there has been a kind of more recent

history here of violence and extreme rhetoric around elections, around politics generally,

I think that art museums are fantastically great places in which people can, especially

students, especially young people, can begin their careers as voters.

In an ugly time in American politics, can beauty play a role, even a small one, in serving democracy?

That's the goal in a large-scale, nonpartisan project of art and civic engagement, involving

university museums from across the Big Ten, many in Midwest battleground states, like here

in Michigan, where principles of design are being applied to voting itself.

One of the early things that we realized was that on our campus there was a big gap between

registration rates and voter participation rates.

Some of the barriers for students are logistical in terms of clarifying information, and some

of them are the psychological barriers.

So where can design

play a role? Where can art and design play a role? Stephanie Rowden and Hannah Smatrich, professors

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