Lake Street Studios bring back performance with Arts Collage

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
The action is returning to the Lake Street Studios. On Saturday, July 29, the Studios, across from Cherry Republic on Glen Arbor’s Lake Street, will hold their first ever Arts Collage, featuring visual arts, wine tasting, readings, live music, multimedia entertainment and even a “performance philosopher.”
The Studios’ Center Gallery is known for its art openings every Friday of the summer, but the Arts Collage offers visitors a chance to learn more about the process. Stop by between 12-4 p.m. for the visual arts program (free admission) and watch the experts in action to learn about blacksmithing, glass bead making, fiber arts, ceramics, pastels and painting. Meanwhile, just up the street the Cottage Book Shop will host youth readings and storytelling.

J & I Wines will hold a free wine tasting in the Center Gallery from 6-7 p.m., and the real fun begins with the performing arts program from 7-11 p.m. (admission $5). Bring lawn chairs and find a spot on the green behind the Studios as a contemporary urban fusion band called the Urbaniginies warm up the night, followed by performance philosopher Paul Spence. The second set features readings by Jerry Dennis and Keith Taylor and original folk music by Gen Obata.
The Arts Collage will reach its crescendo after 9:30 p.m. with a multimedia performance by filmmaker and artist Andrea Maio and jazz and poetry by The Turtlenecks.
The brains behind this cool and unique gathering is Harry Fried, who splits his time between Ann Arbor and Glen Arbor and is married to Allison Stupka, one of the daughters of the late Suzanne Wilson, who was a stalwart on the Glen Arbor art scene before passing away two years ago.
Since the Glen Arbor Art Association and the Lake Street Studios split up and went their separate ways, the Studios have lost their classroom aspect and emphasis on performing arts, Harry feels. The Manitou Music Festival became part of the Art Association, and the stage behind the Lake Street Studios has hardly been used while the Studios have been devoted largely to the visual arts and Friday night openings.
But at the art opening and memorial for Suzanne Wilson last year Allison invited the Ellen Rowe Quartet to play, and that got Harry thinking. “The music started here at the Studios, and over the last 20 years that stage has featured many great acts, concerts and plays. I’ve always been impressed that a little town like Glen Arbor could find the quality that has come here.
Harry began re-conceptualizing the stage as another studio. “We are an art center after all, so we should have a broad palette of offerings that will appear on stage throughout the summer: readings, music of all different styles and theater.”
The Arts Collage on July 29 is the culmination of that vision, to be followed by a Latin jazz concert on August 19 featuring the hot Ann Arbor band Los Gatos.
Tickets can be purchased at the Lake Street Studios and parking is available at the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company.