Rethought, renamed and Arts Center hosts grand opening

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Photo of Glen Arbor Arts Center director Peg McCarty by Taro Yamasaki.

By Linda Alice Dewey

Sun contributor

The Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC)—restructured, remodeled, rethought and renewed—hosted the first event in its new space during a blizzard last winter. Despite the cold night, 150 enthusiastic guests turned out to visit the space which succeeds the Glen Arbor Art ­Association.

“When the new gallery opened in January, it signaled the arrival of a physical space that allows the GAAC to plan a series of exhibitions of multiple weeks’ duration—versus creating small, quickie shows that fit in between meetings and classes, all of which took place in the same room,” said communications and gallery organizer Sarah Bearup-Neal. Since then, the Arts Center has hosted two more exhibits, each with well-attended supporting events and talks.

The building’s metamorphosis serves as a metaphor for changes within the organization itself. To handle growth, new positions have been created and staffed. The name-change itself heralds the shift from a 35-year-old association of local artists seeking support, to a membership-driven community center which supports the arts.

The GAAC is located behind Lake Street Studios and is accessible from a driveway off Lake Street, which circles around to link with Pine Street, near the Leelanau Coffee Roasters. A striking new 3-D sculpture by Angela Saxon, installed on May 2, features the Arts Center logo and lends higher visibility from the street. Outreach into community venues continues to spread the arts across the land, while the center of the organization remains anchored in the heart of Glen Arbor.

 

Growing pains

The name-change and the new space were a long time in the making.

“We were like a root-bound plant in this building,” said GAAC director Peg McCarty. “We had used every nook and cranny of this space.”

The original building wasn’t large to begin with. Built by the Glen Arbor Art Association in 2002, it did the job back then, though it was comprised only of a single multi-purpose room, an office and a bathroom. The structure was located in five-lot condominium area behind shops that fronts Lake Street.

Membership swelled, and the association soon outgrew its new habitat. “From its earliest days, the building began to be used for a whole variety of purposes,” said former association president Linda Young.

“We had that little tiny office, which wasn’t really efficient,” said McCarty. “Anybody who walked in that door while we were trying to do things …” Well, suffice it to say that any talk echoed throughout the building. “It just wasn’t functioning any more for all the ideas we had and all the things we wanted to do.”

After five years, the program had expanded far beyond the originally intended artists’ exhibitions and classes. Readers’ Theater performances, in-house music programs and popular art talks often filled the space to standing-room-only crowds.

 

Facing facts, seeking visions

“It came to the point where we just had to face it,” McCarty said. The Art Association brain trust were ready to investigate changes in 2008, but then the Great Recession hit. They didn’t revisit the issue until 2014.

Rae Dumke was GAAA president at the time. She explained that they first had to ask themselves, “What do we want? Where do we want this to go?”

Out of that emerged several goals: “Get visibility; more space to have more programing for our community efforts and art; have a gallery of space that can be multi-use—for talks, lectures, exhibitions, an art party–everything focused on art. People knowing where we are,” Dumke said.

To that latter point, McCarty remembered that people would drive in to another studio, see the building and the art association sign, then look in the window or crack open the door. “Can we come in?” they’d ask, unable to tell from the title or building façade whether the place was open to the public or just for artists.

Dumke, having been executive director for the American Institute of Architects-Michigan, was instrumental in choosing architect Tom Mathison to design the project. His firm worked through the design phase with Cooley Contracting.

But they hit a snag when they presented the projected cost of their project to the board members, who were shocked. “No one had any indication it was going to be that dramatic,” Dumke recalled. The skilled trades leaving the area after the Recession had caused construction prices to skyrocket. “Building here is expensive,” she said. “Because they’re having a hard time finding people. We have work; we can’t get people. It’s very, very difficult. Contractors are pricing it up and having a hard time getting it done on time.”

Architect Leonard Marszalek of Empire sat on the Art Association’s Building and Space Committee at that meeting. “It wasn’t very pleasant,” he remembered. “It was a very depressing day.”

 

Seeking solutions, community support

Volunteering their time and expertise, Young and Jeff Gietzen co-chaired the Capital Campaign Committee, while Marszalek was the construction chairman. They knew what they could afford and came up with new ideas. The board called back the architects.

Surprisingly, they learned it would cost far less to buy the lot next door and redesign a completely new addition than to retrofit what they already had to suit their needs (which had been Plan A). GAAA bought the lot next door in 2016, and in April of 2017, moved out so construction could begin.

Running a burgeoning but displaced organization over the busy summer wasn’t easy, but the Glen Arbor community kicked in and donated venues: board meetings at Leelanau Vacation Rentals, committee meetings at Cherry Republic, the annual meeting at the Town Hall, more events at Thyme Inn and Funistrada. The Glen Arbor Players performed at the Reformed Church and liked it so much, they continue to play there.

There were many in-kind donations as well. Karen Soderholm donated her marketing and design skills; Mike Buhler donated space at Quick Storage; Northwood Hardware sold materials and paint to the contractor at cost, Northern Lumber gave them favored pricing on materials.

 

Moving back

Construction moved along and this past October the association moved back in.

“For all the heartache and everything that you go through, you walked in here and saw it, and it gave everybody a good sense of accomplishment,” said Dumke. “So many things they had only envisioned had become reality. “Peg finally has an office; the staff has office space. You walk in the door, and there’s a front face; there’s an entry area we didn’t have.”

“There’s storage space for chairs and tables,” said Marszalek. “They’re put away, not stacked against the walls. There’s art storage space, a modified kitchen and art space area, so it’s easier to use and more accessible. The gallery itself! Having that flexible space to use!” There’s a second restroom, as well.

The biggest change is, in fact, the gallery—which is in a completely new space. “Now, because of the gallery, we can have inspirational things hanging on our walls with related programming,” said McCarty. “At the same time, we can be having a meeting, having a class, conducting business at the [office] window.” The classroom can be closed off by a windowed door. “If someone walks in and needs to sign up for a class, the sound is quite muffled.”

“The other thing we did is deferred maintenance,” said Marszalek. “There were a lot of things that were falling down. We realized that it’s time to fix this and fix that.”

“We spruced up the apartment upstairs,” said Dumke, which is used for artists in residence. New paint, new windows and the brand-new donated furniture give it a warm ambience.

 

Coming Up

A four-day grand opening event for the new Arts Center will begin on Thursday, June 7, with a party for major donors, followed by a second party the following night for everyone who contributed to the fundraising campaign. Saturday, June 9, is the official opening of this year’s fourth exhibit, “New Views: Water = Life = Art,” from 6-8 p.m. and is also the official grand opening; the public is welcome. The gallery will also be open Sunday, and the event culminates with the annual GAAC membership meeting on Monday.

Running through Aug. 4, “New Views: Water” is a juried exhibition of 2-D and 3-D work that offers an interpretative exploration of the many ways in which we intersect with water: ecologically, economically, creatively, through the lens of tourism, as a contributor to regional identity, and the basis for a dynamic and enduring creation myth symbolized by a mother bear and her cubs. In addition to the exhibition, New Views: Water offers a full complement of programs that approach the exhibition’s theme from a range of different directions.

Check out the Glen Arbor Arts Center, which is open for business six days a week and most Sundays. Hours, details on upcoming classes and events, and more can be found at www.glenarborart.org or by calling 231-334-6112.