Ninety-nine percent of sane humans wouldn’t consider jumping through a hole in the ice into freezing water. Yet every February, 50 or more people scream and laugh and jump into South Bar Lake in Empire.
The Glen Arbor Art Association offers several residencies each year for practicing artists who would like the opportunity for creative exploration in an idyllic setting in northern Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula. The purpose of the residency program is to provide visiting artists with a respite from daily responsibilities to enable them to concentrate on their work.
Great art, wine and food are the main events of a special evening on Friday, Feb. 3 from 6-8 p.m., which kicks off the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association’s Taste the Passion weekend.
It was the time of Winterfest, mid-February, in the village of Empire, when temperatures dipped well below the freezing mark. Snow had been shoveled to clear an area for ice-skating on South Bar Lake. Earlier in the day a fire truck had been there to spray a fine mist of water making a smooth surface.
The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) continues its drama series, “Readers’ Theater” on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m., with two new Sherlock Holmes tales. “The Dead Adventuress” and “Murder in the Casbah,” adapted from stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, are co-directed by Harriett Mittelberger and Josephine Zara.
The fifth annual Roy Taghon Memorial Snowmobile Ride begins at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22, at the Empire Airport and continues to the Maple City Fitness Center, behind Kerby’s Bar and Grill, at 172 W. Burdickville Road, Maple City.
Leelanau Press, a non-profit publisher whose mission is to publish work of regional writers and artists, in conjunction with the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan, invites artists to submit work to this juried fine art competition that will result in the publication of a color, large format, hardcover book and an exhibition at the Dennos Museum Center.
Fiber artist Char Bickel opens the 2012 “Talk About Art” series on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the Glen Arbor Art Association, which is located on Studio Lane, across from Cherry Republic.
This winter will feature open skating on a new rink in Glen Arbor. Located in the Lake Street Woods (behind Leelanau Coffee Roasting and the Cottage Book Shop), the 40′ x 60′ sheet of ice will be open to skaters of all age.
This coming February, journalist Jacob Wheeler and filmmaker Aaron Dennis will follow a team of American and Palestinian athletes as they run the West Bank, from Hebron to Jenin (129 miles over five days) to raise awareness about the struggles facing olive farmers in Palestine. The “Run Across Palestine”, a project of On The Ground aims to reestablish sustainable olive growing practices in a place where the economy, culture and identity are rooted in the ancient tree.