ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan features the latest news and features about the arts, creative endeavors, collaborative projects and upcoming events on its website, Montage.

This week’s top features include:

• Portraits of an empire: How is it that an American painter came to define the British Empire? When Benjamin West’s painting “The Death of General Wolfe” was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1771, it was received with great acclaim and quickly became one of the most famous paintings in 18th-century Britain, serving for generations as the consummate projection of its military, moral and cultural supremacy and a celebration of empire. The exhibit, “Benjamin West: General Wolfe and the Art of Empire,” opens Sept. 22 at the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s A. Alfred Taubman Gallery I.
• Defining melodies: In the field of American music research, there is no more respected publication than “The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.” A team of U-M music scholars contributed significantly to the first updated and revised edition to be published in early 2013.
• Centennial celebration of legend: Beginning in September, the University Musical Society and units across campus will pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of Hill Auditorium, a venue that has featured a who’s who of international performing artists, and a home to students and some of the most compelling speakers of our times.
• Like a rock: Through Sept. 16, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology presents a special exhibition, “A Man of Many Parts: The Life and Legacy of Francis Willey Kelsey,” which offers an homage to the museum’s founder and visionary.
• Critical access: A new grant enables Michigan entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses to more readily obtain critical information from journals, conference proceedings, books, and other research library holdings at greatly reduced prices.
• Getting creative about creativity: U-M’s ArtsEngine receives a $500,000 Mellon grant to support an initiative that aims to integrate the work of artists and their creative practices into the culture of U.S. research universities.

For more information, visit montage.umich.edu.