Michigan women artists collaborate for multimedia event

From staff reports

The multimedia event, LORE will take place on Friday, June 18 at the historic Mills Community House Theater located at 891 Michigan Avenue in the village of nearby Benzonia. LORE will feature creative work by seven emerging and established Michigan women artists. The exhibit takes inspiration from their personal stories and includes original paintings, textile art, dance, poetry, song and film.

The gallery opens at 7 p.m. with a seated performance beginning at 8. Admission is by donation. A reception will follow, featuring local, organic cuisine provided by Still Grinning Catering.

The LORE artists are painters Amanda Acker and Kristine Harvery, textile artist Susan Barnard, filmmaker Andrea Maio, dancer-choreographer Gretchen Kudlack-Eichberger, musician-painter Melonie Steffes, and poet Holly Wren Spaulding.

The production is the brainchild of co-directors Gretchen Kudlack-Eichberger and Amanda Acker, who envisioned this event as a collective of creative individuals whose work speaks in different ways to a strong sense of place. “Lore is the story of a land and its people told in a collaborative, creative new voice,” explains Acker. “I view creativity as a natural resource, and the ‘LORE’ ladies are abundant.”

Kudlack-Eichberger, who combines the mediums of dance, music and folklore to depict socio-political and geographical concerns, sees this region of Michigan as a mecca for highly creative people engaged in a creative movement that is very much rooted in an environmental ethic. Celebrated painter, Melanie Parke, agrees, “The vast scope of vision among the women of Lore is one that at once embraces tradition and propels living culture forward.”

Visual artist, Richard Kooyman comments, “If the creative spirit resides anywhere in today’s age it certainly resides in the individual. ‘Lore’ could prove to be a culminating aesthetic vortex encompassing seven creative individuals and six different medias in a performance/art happening of the likes that Northwest-lower Michigan has never seen before. I know I will be there early.”

Inquiries may be directed to (231) 399-0099, or email us at lore.exhibit (AT) gmail.com.