Glen Lake Woman’s Club holds Glen Arbor Art Fair

The 54th annual Glen Lake Woman’s Club Art Fair will be held on Wednesday, July 15, from 10 am until 4 pm at the Glen Arbor Township Hall. The Art Fair features artists carefully selected to represent a wide variety of one-of-a-kind art pieces for sale including pottery, painting, textiles, woodworking, and jewelry. Each year, thousands of people shop for that unique piece of art, either for themselves or for a special gift. Some go to their favorite artists’ booths to add to a collection, while others like to peruse vendors new to the Art Fair for a special purchase. The Art Fair is a family-friendly event with a large selection of treasures available across a wide range of price points.

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Arts Center author talk examines a changing Northern Michigan

What happens when a place is so beautiful that everyone wants to go there—and then they stay? That question is central to Leelanau County author Tim Mulherin’s book This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations On A Changing Northern Michigan. Mulherin will discuss why he wrote the book, and the conclusions he drew at the July 11 Coffee with the Authors interview at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. The program begins at 11 am.

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Lake Street Studios launch summer art openings

Just as one exhibit comes down, another rises in its place—a rhythm that defines the summer art season at Lake Street Studios Center Gallery. There is little pause between them, only a seamless moment of transition, where one body of work gives way to the next. In that exchange, a living tapestry of creative work takes shape within Glen Arbor’s arts community. That rhythm was on full display as the series opened with Traverse City-based artist Charles Murphy on June 26. Murphy’s return—his first in roughly a decade—carried the weight of both familiarity and evolution, a reentry forged by years of growth in his practice. Read the story for the entire 2026 artists lineup at Lake Street Studios Center Gallery.

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String Band returns to The Homestead’s Music on the Mountain series

The next Music On The Mountain concert at The Homestead will be a throwback. On July 8, the Blue Water Ramblers will take the stage, performing their mix of traditional favorites in the folk tradition, songs by Woody Guthrie, Tom T. Hall, John Denver and others, along with their own originals. “We come out of the Woodie Guthrie-Pete Seeger folk and bluegrass tradition,” says bandleader R.H. “Bear” Berends.

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Glen Arbor Arts Center holds Youth Plein Air Month

Following a wildly successful inaugural run last year that engaged more than 140 young creatives, the Glen Arbor Arts Center is thrilled to announce the return of the Youth Plein Air Month this July. This unique, month-long program invites children ages 6 to 15 to step outside the traditional classroom and into the fresh air to experience the historic tradition of plein air painting—the practice of painting entirely outdoors. Designed to foster creative confidence, exploration, and a connection with nature, Youth Plein Air Month gives young artists the tools and guidance to translate Northern Michigan’s spectacular landscapes and historic buildings into their own unique artwork.

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Bicentennial Barn holds July 5 open house

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Leelanau residents and visitors are invited to lock eyes with General George Washington, pay homage to the nation’s 250th birthday, and celebrate an historic Leelanau County barn that is now receiving a new round of tender loving care. Scott and Tamara Stone, residents of southeast Michigan who two years ago purchased the Bicentennial Barn on M-22 and Bohemian Road, 7.5 miles northeast of Glen Arbor, will host a rededication open house on Sunday, July 5, from 11 am until 4 pm.

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Readers declaim the Declaration of Independence

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One might wonder why people are gathered at the post office in Glen Arbor on the Fourth of July when it is closed. The story is the same across Leelanau County, in Omena, in Empire, in Lake Leelanau. Then promptly at 10 a.m. the reason is revealed. “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,” booms a voice. “And to assume among the powers of the earth,” says another. “The separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,” continues a third. Welcome to the Fourth of July in Leelanau County, where nine people—one at each post office—read aloud the Declaration of Independence.

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Woman’s Club holds annual Fourth of July flag raising at Old Settlers

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Join community members of all ages in celebrating the founding of our nation in a joyous and patriotic ceremony at 10 am on Saturday, July 4, at Old Settlers Picnic Grounds along the eastern shore of Big Glen Lake. The traditional raising of the flag by the Glen Lake Fire Department will be followed by a singalong of well-loved and familiar patriotic songs. The event is sponsored by the Glen Lake Woman’s Club. Air Force veteran Ed Peplinski will be this year’s featured speaker with an Independence Day speech titled, “Pulling Together as Americans through Gratitude.”

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Celebrate family fun on the Fourth of July

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The joy commences when the parade lines up at 10:30 am in the historic maritime village of Glen Haven; it builds along M-109 as children shout and wave, and it crescendos when the force of floats, classic cars, boats on trailers, and fire trucks arrive shortly after noon to delight the throngs of thousands gathered along the roadside in downtown Glen Arbor. Following the vehicles on foot is a Leelanau County version of a New Orleans Second Line Parade: a trumpeter, a kazoo corps, kids tossing newspapers, Elvis impersonators, environmental nonprofit volunteers, and activists whose handmade signs and electioneering messages remind us that the Fourth of July most certainly is a political holiday—an anniversary of a subversive, dangerous, and revolutionary act that shook the world—and whose founding document boasts a core message that seems more relevant today than ever. This year’s honorary grand marshal is Carol Worsley, a celebrated chef and owner of the Thyme Inn bed and breakfast who has lived at least of part of the year in Glen Arbor for more than 60 years. As per tradition, Worsley will ride in a convertible at the front of the parade.

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Leland Library Summinars partner with NMC International Affairs Forum

Leland Library Summinars will host two lectures this July, presented in partnership with the NMC International Affairs Forum, as part of a larger summer lecture series. On Thursday, July 2, at 4 p.m. historian Christina Michelmore traces the unfolding conflict in the Middle East over the past two and a half years, examining how each development shaped the next. Drawing on deep historical roots, the lecture explores why these disputes have proved so enduring, so emotionally wrought, and so hard to end.

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