New gallery owners take over Synchronicity

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Jeff and Patty Brandt planned to retire to Glen Arbor. Jeff beat his wife to the punch, selling his business a couple years ago. He became a stay-at-home dad at their home in Connecticut, while Patty commuted to New York City. Then they found out Synchronicity was for sale. Goodbye retirement, hello art gallery. “I retired until I bought Synchronicity,” Jeff says with a laugh. The family had purchased a home on Big Glen but weren’t ready to commit to anything until they moved here. Then a friend told the Brandts that one of their favorite galleries was quietly for sale. “We knew we wanted than just a house. When the business came up, it was meant to be,” says Jeff.

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Iconic Art’s Tavern sells to Barb and Paul Olson

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When Tim Barr walked out of Art’s Tavern late on Saturday night, it represented the final time he closed Glen Arbor’s iconic establishment as its owner. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Barb and Paul Olson will officially become Art’s fourth owners since Prohibition. The storied venue will reopen on Wednesday. “The first question people have asked me is ‘Will you take credit cards?’ Nope. ‘Will you change anything?’ Nope,” Paul Olson told the Sun. Everything will remain: the pennants on the walls and ceiling, the Christmas decorations, the retractable pool table, the shot ski. All of it. It’s been so much fun to tell people who get Art’s that we’re buying it. The people who get the history, the special place it is. Art’s is an iconic restaurant. I just want to be its steward.” Read more about Art’s history and previous owners Tim Barr and Bonnie Nescot’s legacy in Glen Arbor.

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Les Dalgliesh’s “The Ways of Leelanau”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with Les Dalgliesh’s “The Ways of Leelanau,” which the singer-songwriter occasionally performed at the Leelanau School’s graduation ceremony held in early June at the private boarding school next to The Homestead resort. “My time at Leelanau was a time of learning and growth for the students—and for me. ‘The Ways of Leelanau’ became a kind of context that fostered learning, growth, and connection for all of us.”

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Jocelyn Benson, in her own words: Glen Arbor Sun interview

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Prior to her June 3, appearance at the National Writers Series in Traverse City, Michigan Secretary of State (and gubernatorial candidate) Jocelyn Benson spoke to the Glen Arbor Sun via Zoom about her book, “The Purposeful Warrior: Standing up for what’s right when the stakes are high”; about her candidacy for governor in 2026 and her leadership style; about standing up to Trump; about Michigan governors who have inspired her; about abortion rights; about state-funded school meals, and about the future of journalism. Click here to watch the interview and read a full transcription.

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Locals Lake Leelanau. Where everybody knows your name

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Customer service is important to Tony West. So too is history, making sure that the area’s residents and accomplishments are recognized. And food: don’t forget good food. Put that all together with a career spent in hospitality and you get West’s new restaurant, Locals Lake Leelanau, which is already generating buzz.

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Stepping on toes. Tariffs, boycott of U.S. goods, threaten Farmer Foot Drums existence

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Pete Farmer doesn’t project the air of someone who might lose his business—what he calls his “identity.” The founder of Farmer Foot Drums, who builds craftsman instruments from a pole barn at his and wife Kate’s property near Cedar, boasts a light, playful energy. He carries the buoyancy of a young athlete, even though the entrepreneur and musician turned 50 earlier this year. But Farmer was clear: the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese and Taiwanese goods—and the boycott of products made in the United States resulting from Trump’s policies and threats—might cost him his business.

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Touring Burdickville’s art studios

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Art is often encountered in curated stillness—hushed in museums, framed behind velvet ropes, and stripped from the context of its making. But what happens when we encounter art at its source, in the textured, paint-splattered, light-filled rooms where imagination finds form? That spirit of transparency, invitation, and intimacy echoes here in Leelanau County in the quiet corner of Burdickville. Along Bow, Lanham, and Fritz Roads, a small but vibrant community of artists has embarked on something extraordinary: opening the doors of their studios to the public. They have come together under the banner of the Burdickville Studio Tour—11 artists inviting visitors into the heart of their creative process over Memorial Day weekend.

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Jeff Maharry’s “Good Harbor Bay”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with Illinois resident and summer visitor Jeff Maharry’s homage to Good Harbor Bay. “For years my family has come to Leelanau County in early August and have explored just about every point where you can access Lake Michigan,” said Maharry, a singer songwriter and musician from Homewood, Illinois, near Chicago. He performs solo as well as with his band Falling Stars. “There are amazing spots across the whole peninsula, but there’s something just perfect about Good Harbor Bay so we find ourselves going back there again and again. I wrote this song in the summer of 2010 after we spent a simply wonderful day on the beach, and I can hear the waves and feel the sun on my face every time I sing it.”

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Lively Market, campground continue growing

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As the Lively NeighborFood Market on M-72 east of Empire prepares to enter year two, owner Jim Lively continues to build on its success by increasing the store’s stock, as well as making improvements at the campground. Don’t forget the music, and it just recently received word that funding for its solar array has been approved. Lively will host the inaugural Neighbor Fest on May 25. Lively says the free show is a way to give back to the community that has supported the market, including those who donated through the GoFundMe crowdfunding effort. The show will also serve as the monthly fundraising concert for the Empire Area Emergency Fund.

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Oomen-Yamasaki collaboration features “Innocents in Peril”

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“If art heightens our awareness or makes us more conscious of the victims of wrongdoing, then maybe we move the needle,” as writer Anne-Marie Oomen said, “one iota of one iota.” The artistic collaboration between award-winning photographer Taro Yamasaki and writer Anne-Marie Oomen—both Leelanau County residents—strives to do just that. Their exhibit, titled Innocents in Peril, is now displayed in the Erie room at the State Library of Michigan in Lansing. The exhibit consists of 22 of Yamasaki’s award-winning photographs and oral histories paired with 19 of Oomen’s poems, inspired by the photographs. The exhibit features Yamasaki’s photographs of children surviving conditions of war or living under oppressive regimes. Yamasaki’s photographs of innocents ravaged by war, disease, natural disasters, and the cruelty of tyrants, will also be featured on May 13 at the Dennos Museum’s Milliken Auditorium at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. The free event, which commemorates achievements by Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, is titled “Speaking truth to power,” and runs from 5-8 pm.

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