Art grows here

The Glen Arbor Art Association expands

By Sarah Bearup-Neal
Sun contributor

The first in a year-long series of articles about local art, culture and creativity.

Suspend reality for a moment, and think of the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) as a plant. Then, think of the GAAA’s building as a container in which art, culture and creativity in the Glen Arbor region have been nurtured since 2002, the year that building behind the Lake Street Studios was completed.

“Our boards (of directors) have been moving in the direction of making this a year-round organization by making better use of the building so it’s not just a summer building,” said GAAA executive director Peg McCarty. “In the last eight or nine years, (the GAAA) has really taken off and now there are enough people around who want things to do, who are supporting it year-round. At some point we found ourselves saying we can’t add any more programs because there’s not enough staff, or room; but we didn’t want to stagnate as an organization, and that was where we found ourselves root bound.”

Now, McCarty said, the GAAA needs a roomier pot in which to thrive. Enter: “Art Grows Here” — a multi-pronged, progressive capital campaign to raise $675,000-$590,000 to construct an updated building, $75,000 to be added to the GAAA’s endowment, and $10,000 for expenses. That financial goal will be sought through grants and individual donations. The capital campaign was organized by co-chairs Jeff Gietzen, GAAA treasurer, and Linda Young, GAAA past president.

Fundraising was quietly initiated last June; but planning for the GAAA’s great leap forward began in 2014. In the winter of that year, the GAAA board of directors held a strategic planning retreat. This facilitated, visioning session was enhanced by soliciting additional input. Through focus groups and surveys, six critical areas of need were identified, according to Young:

• Create a visitor-friendly entry and lobby area.
• Improve the building’s exterior so it is accessible to all and more visible to the world.
• Expand the interior space to accommodate current and future programming.
• Create a second, accessible restroom.
• Improve energy efficiency.
• Create more efficient office space and a functional storage area.

“When the building was envisioned 17 years ago, it was built to accommodate one staff member, gatherings for artists and classes — mostly in the summer,” Young wrote in a recent email. In another document, Young further describes the building’s then-and-now situation: In 2002, this “summer organization” served an estimated 2,500 people, mostly adults. “Today, the GAAA is a multifaceted center for the arts and a hub for accessible arts education, appreciation, and inspiration. It serves a diverse population of 7,500 adults, children, family groups and seniors.”

Year-round service takes the form of concerts, theater, artist interviews, art history classes, open studio sessions, art instruction, music appreciation programs and meetings. Three paid staff run the business from one cramped office space; approximately 200 unpaid volunteers contribute about 6,000 hours each year to bring these various events to life, McCarty said.

For the most part, programming plays out in one room of the GAAA, the so-called activity room. Scheduling conflicts, from program to program, are common. This room could also be called the “chair storage room” — an ever-present stack of 65 chairs are pushed to the south wall of the room when not in use. They are splattered with paint, evidence that messiness is part of the creative process. Stacked chairs may not be aesthetically pleasing but a wall of them symbolizes the lack of storage that now plagues the GAAA.

Following the 2014 board visioning retreat, a design committee was formed. The Grand Rapids architectural firm Mathison|Mathison was selected along with Leelanau County-based Cooley Construction. This troika further defined ways in which the building could be upgraded and, by extension, could improve the delivery of services. Some of those suggestions included energy efficiency, more room to facilitate and encourage collaboration between the GAAA and other art organizations, and accessibility.

“I’m very serious about the need to be accessible,” Young said. “Think about getting a wheelchair in the front door, turned and able to get into the restroom … Imagine trying to get a stroller into the building. Forget it.”

Visibility is another matter. The GAAA building “looks like a very nice home in a suburban neighborhood,” Young said. Yet, that residential character doesn’t entice passersby to look in the windows to see what activities are taking place inside. Furthermore, the building is socked away in the woods, out of sight from the main drag, which is Lake Street, and indicated by an off-street business sign. To access the GAAA, one turns west off of Lake Street onto a humble dirt road.

“For many years, I didn’t know anything was back there,” said Leonard Marszalek, GAAA board member. The retired architect is co-chair with Peter Van Nort of the Art Grows Here Construction Committee. “Visibility is important to this building. That way it doesn’t look like a private (dwelling) that isn’t open or welcoming to people.”

Creating a visible structure was a concern when the present building was still a dream. In a detailed history of the organization written in the early 2000s, GAAA past president Rob Turney said, “A building of our own would provide a visible presence for the (GAAA) and highlight the important work done by our organization to encourage growth of the arts among local citizens.”

A wooded parcel — part of the two-acre Lake Street Woods Association — was deeded to the GAAA by the late Sarah Taggart in 1999, a decade after the GAAA was formed. An accompanying capital campaign was established by a $25,000 challenge pledge. By May 2002, fundraising efforts yielded $231,770. “Now,” Turney wrote, “we have the opportunity to command our own destiny by inhabiting a building of our own, one that will show citizens we intend to be a permanent part of Glen Arbor’s cultural life.”

Architect Evan Mathison who, with his father and business partner, Tom, created an updated design built on the bones of the older structure. “We wanted to maintain a level of respect for the existing building,” Evan Mathison said. “It’s near and dear to the hearts of the GAAA’s members.” The renovation project doubles the current main floor space to 2,166 square feet by pushing its footprint out to the existing lot lines. The new design changes the roofline with interesting angles, and opens up the front of the building with a glass curtain wall, approximately 12 feet high by 14 feet wide.

After renovation, the so-called activity room becomes a room that can accommodate multiple meetings and classes simultaneously. Additionally, it will be transformed into a working gallery space with triple the amount of wall display. The new gallery walls will be nine feet tall, topped by a continuous band of clerestory glass windows. “There will be a continuous strip of windows that will provide a cross-section view of the woods in back” and filtered northern light, said Evan Mathison said. “Looking at artwork with indirect light and the tree trunks above is like looking at a piece of artwork itself.”

Mathison said he and his father wanted to create a design with angles and “unusual intersections” that still have “a relationship to the woods around them.” And for that reason, they will not clearcut what woods remains, in the quest for greater visibility.

“What we can do is work … to reconfigure the road that approaches the building,” Mathison said. “It will feel more like a formal entrance” rather than a dirt two-track back to “a secret art association.” New curbs, and dark-sky centric lights positioned along the road are other modifications that address the visibility challenge.

Construction is scheduled to begin in September. During construction, GAAA staff will relocate themselves and the business to a temporary location in the village, McCarty said. Renovations are expected to be complete in June 2017. The capital campaign has now shifted into a more public phase. An estimated 70 percent of the financial goal has been reached.

Sarah Bearup-Neal, a regular contributor to the Glen Arbor Sun, completes her second and final term on the Glen Arbor Art Association board of directors this June.)