Glen Arbor Art Association unveils New Views exhibition
Logo Credit: Pryor Design Co.
By Sarah Bearup-Neal
Sun contributor
A big wind swept through Glen Arbor on Aug. 2, 2015, and one of the things it left behind was a different perspective. “New Views: A Storm of Art” opens June 10 at the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA), and presents work by 26 artists who interpreted the storm.
This juried exhibition opens with a reception June 10, from 6-8 p.m. at the GAAA, which is located at 6031 S. Lake St. The show runs through June 23.
The Aug. 2 storm brought a combination of rain and hail to Glen Arbor, with winds nearing 100 miles per hour. In a matter of minutes it felled thousands of mature hardwoods and conifers. The immensity of the destruction — both in the natural and built worlds — left broken homes and broken hearts in its wake. A week after the storm Shira Klein, a seasonal resident, approached Peg McCarty, GAAA executive director, and planted the seed for an exhibition — a show of art predicated on the hopeful belief that there was beauty to be found in the storm’s destruction. That seed-of-an-idea grew into New Views.
There were 61 entries from 43 people living in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. A total of 26 pieces were selected, representing both 2- and 3-D media, and writing. New Views gives form to the belief that artmaking offers a way to address difficult events, and provides an avenue for transformation and hope. New Views showcases a wide range of responses.
“I thought we would receive a lot of wood objects,” Klein said in an email, now speaking as chairperson of the GAAA committee that organized New Views. “We did receive some (wood objects) but the artists who applied used so many different mediums — oil and acrylic painting, gouache, encaustic, fabric, pastels — and the works are so expressive.
It’s apparent that it wasn’t just thought that went into these pieces, it was love. And these artists represent this community. The art represents the destruction, the pain, and the turmoil of the August 2 storm. But it also represents brightness and forward motion.”
Responses to New Views came from at least three non-applicants: The Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, the Leelanau Conservancy, both of which are providing support for the exhibition; and Scott Pryor, a Glen Arbor homeowner and head of Pryor Design Company in Ann Arbor. Pryor created the exhibition’s iconic logo, a stylized rendering of a mature tree bending in the wind. He said he was halfway to Ann Arbor on Aug. 2 when he called his wife, still in Glen Arbor, from the car.
“It was in the middle of the storm,” Pryor said. He returned to Glen Arbor four days later to inspect the downed trees in his own backyard as well as the damage throughout the village.
“The thing for me was seeing what the straight line winds did, how they took down the trees. That hurt the most,” Pryor said. “When I was designing the exhibition logo, I was trying to grab for one visual icon that captured that.”
New Views is open during regular GAAA office hours, Monday through Friday; and Saturday, June 11 and 18, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, please call the Art Association at 231-334-6112.
