Arts Collage returns to Lake Street Studios for second go-round

By Corin Blust
Sun contributor
The Glen Arbor art scene is traditionally dominated by landscape paintings and folk music, but during the second annual Arts Collage at the Lake Street Studios on July 21, Harry Fried will share something different with our community. Fried has organized a unique event that includes a wide array of diverse artistic media: modern dance, spoken word poetry, independent film, fusion and jazz music, and more.
After renovating the stage behind the Lake Street Studios last summer, Fried decided that the kind of things shown there would center exclusively on art. Tired of the typical commercialistic venues whose true goal in presenting an artist is to sell beer or food, Fried just wants to sell art to his patrons, and hopefully open their minds about the incredible local performers we have in our area.

One of the most important criteria that Fried follows when organizing this event is to give his audience the feeling of an intimate setting. “Most people see performance on television, so they don’t get to meet the performer, they don’t get any kind of personal interaction with the performer or the performance — that’s the normal perspective that the mainstream media gives us on this type of thing,” says Fried.
Performance has a much stronger impact when the artists are right there in real life, not digitized and manipulated by the camera. At the Arts Collage, the audience is given an opportunity to feel included in art on a level that is becoming rare in our world of mega concert venues and Hollywood films. “We aim to give the audience a look at the other stuff right in their own backyard — they might even know some of the performers,” he explains.
The evening will include Mika Perrine, poets from the Beach Bards Bonfire, Jazz North, Gen Obata, The Uborigines, Andrea Maio and Alexandance. All of the performers “have their own take on what can happen in a space,” says Fried.
Mika Perrine is a short fiction writer and graduate student at the University of Michigan where she studies English language and literature [Her partner Matthew McGovern’s pottery was on display at the Center Gallery last month and featured in the June 14 issue of the Glen Arbor Sun]. She will be sharing excerpts from her recent writing. The Arts Collage will also feature spoken word poetry courtesy of the Beach Bards, who perform at the Bonfire during Friday nights in the summer on The Leelanau School beach north of Glen Arbor. “We might not have noticed, but there are some incredible spoken word poets in our community,” explains Fried.
Jazz North is an ensemble of jazz musicians who hail from Leelanau County, while Gen Obata is a folk and roots artist who performs mainly in the St. Louis area. He takes traditional American folk music and infuses it with his own original perspective, writing many songs himself. The Uborigines are a group from Ann Arbor that includes Fried himself. Their sound is a fusion of contemporary musical styles that should be a great addition to the lineup.
It is rare to see independent film in Leelanau County, but Andrea Maio is a local artist who will be showing a clip of her work. Originally from Ann Arbor, Maio has contributed to National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” and is returning to the Collage for her second year. Maio’s contribution last year — a virtual journey down the Mississippi River — was riveting.
This special evening will also include a modern dance performance. “It’s bizarre that you can’t go into a nightclub and see a modern dance performance,” says Fried, who believes that contemporary modern dance is ignored far too often in the world of performance. Leaving out dance from the spectrum is “like walking into a forest and not hearing any birds, or seeing no leaves on the trees, but that’s what the landscape of performance has been for years. I can’t explain it but I can offer an antidote to it.”
Fried’s antidote is in the form of Alexandance, a modern dance duo who will be performing an original composition at the Collage. After meeting at the University of Michigan while studying dance, Alexandra Burley and Alexander Springer discovered that they had a natural harmony, and founded Alexandance in September, 2006. They have performed for renowned artists such as Alexandra Beller, Leyya Tawil, Doug Varone, the Umbigada Dance Company in Colombia and the Leopold Group in San Francisco.
“I think the Arts Collage brings a really refreshing sense of community back to Glen Arbor, allowing us to experience the art together,” says Hannah Clark, a Glen Arbor native who is planning to attend the unique event.
The Arts Collage is on Saturday, July 21, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the stage at Lake Street Studios in Glen Arbor, across from Cherry Republic. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Tickets are available at Lake Street Studios, or by visiting www.glenarborart.org/mmf_index.asp.