Farmland Preservation Exhibit opens Friday at Cherry Republic, followed by grand opening on Sunday

By Jane Greiner
Sun contributor
Fifteen impressively large panels of photos ten feet wide and five feet tall will decorate the walls of the new timber frame building at Cherry Republic in downtown Glen Arbor for the opening of the Farmland Preservation Exhibit on Friday, June 27th. Read Greiner’s article on how Cherry Republic’s timber frame building went up.

The Farmland Preservation Exhibit is the product of a group including Cherry Republic, led by President Bob Sutherland, local photographer Carl Ganter and his wife, writer Eileen Ganter, and regional land conservancies. The exhibit is dedicated to saving Northern Michigan’s farms and orchards.
“This exhibit is about reaching out and touching people – both locals and tourists, and motivating their hearts as well as their minds,” said Eileen Ganter. “Because this is a national problem, not just a local one. This country loses approximately one million acres of farmland every year, and this project has grown on us over time as we have seen farmland disappear.”
The pictures feature days in the lives of area farm families as they struggle to keep their land in agriculture. Rex Dobson’s centennial farm in Leelanau County and the Lyon, Seibold and Ocanas farm families of Grand Traverse County are featured.
In addition the Ganters’ video documentary “With These Hands” blends numerous pictures, recordings and commentary into the stories of the four hard-working families.
“Our passion was to communicate what we ourselves had experienced with people who didn’t know these four families,” said Eileen Ganter. “These farming families represent something that is vanishing, even though they are essential to our national character. They don’t just nurture the land, they also nurture the community.”
Carl Ganter is an award-winning photojournalist and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared in magazines such as National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Paris Match. He has also been featured on CBS, NBC and NPR.
Carl and Eileen will be present for the exhibit’s special grand opening party, which is planned for Sunday, June 29th from 3-5 p.m. Members of the four farm families are also expected to attend. Bob Sutherland and Cherry Republic staff will also attend, as well as representatives from the land conservancies. The public is invited, and refreshments will be available.
Sun editor Jacob R. Wheeler contributed to this report