The Glen Arbor Arts Center is delighted to present the Kodak Quartet as their Musicians-in-Residence from June 10–21. Presented through a partnership between the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music Series and Interlochen Public Radio’s Sound Garden Project, this initiative focuses on planting classical music in unexpected places. The Kodak Quartet will bring its electrifying, genre-defying sound to the Glen Arbor area.
An annual tradition returns. The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Members Create exhibition opens June 6 at 5 pm with a public reception featuring the work of 55 current GAAC members. A showcase of members’ talent, Members Create runs through August 7. The exhibit includes work in a wide range of media: paint to fiber, clay to metal.
The four public libraries of Leelanau County are pleased to host Nita Prose on Saturday, May 17, at 7 pm at the Glen Lake Schools Auditorium. She will discuss her first book, The Maid. Prose has authored a sequel, novella, and a third book in the The Maid series, “The Maid’s Secret,” which was released in April. She will be interviewed by guest host Sarah Bearup-Neal of the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
Stroll through the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s current exhibits, Walking, and Random: Collages From The Scrap Pile. Join in a conversational discussion of the exhibitions with GAAC gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal on Saturday, May 17, at 1 pm. The Arts Center also welcomes two artists in residence this month. Seattle artist Chandra Wu will talk about her car journey east to Glen Arbor, and how that Spring trip became the heart of her artist-in-residence project. Wu, the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s first artist-resident of 2025, will share stories and vignettes of her two-week residency on Thursday, May 15, at 10 am during a conversational presentation at the GAAC.
More than mere proof of motion, walking is an act both ordinary and extraordinary. It has the unique ability to shape human experience in both subtle and profound ways. A first step marks the beginning of independence, like those of a small child—something Leah Hilton Turner, lifelong Glen Arborite, knows well. The mother of twin daughters, now almost three, recalled the pure joy and excitement of that milestone.It is this vast spectrum of meaning—walking as both instinct and intention—that is the focus of the latest exhibition of the Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC): Walking. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC’s gallery manager, is the visionary behind Walking. Predictably, Bearup-Neal infused the exhibit with her signature energy and curiosity. As with past shows, her concepts, while deceptively simple, are profoundly cerebral. The exhibit remains on display through May 29.
The Glen Arbor Arts Center has awarded Barbara Reich’s pastel, “Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook #10,” the honor of being the official Manitou Music poster in 2025. It is an acknowledgment of Reich’s exceptional ability to transform a familiar subject into something entirely unique, and a testament to her extraordinary talent, writes Katie Dunn. Every year for the past two-plus decades, the GAAC has chosen a distinguished piece of art representative of the area, reproducing the image as a poster and offering it at an affordable price.
“Blue skies smilin’ at me. Nothin’ but blue skies do I see. Bluebirds singin’ a song. Nothin’ but blue skies from now on.” Willie Nelson’s words and voice carry a certain kind of optimism that feels infinite, much like the sky itself. The Glen Arbor Arts Center is honoring the sky with its first exhibition for the 2025 calendar year: The Sky Is Always There. The show explores that vast atmospheric expanse through a variety of creative offerings. Sarah Bearup-Neal, gallery manager of the GAAC, is the visionary behind this exhibition. It fosters a reconnection with the sky’s dynamic grandeur and gentle profundity. “In the purest and most constant way, the sky is always with us. During the early phase of developing this show, I began wondering if the sky—this enormous thing—was so familiar, so very much with us, that it becomes just more psychic wallpaper. Just another screen saver in people’s busy lives. There was a time when the sky was a place of awe for people who weren’t bombarded and numbed by an infinite number of images, input, and ‘information.’ People used to look at the sky for answers to the great questions that plague humans, like: why are the gods laughing at us? The sky had the power to humble mere mortals,” Bearup-Neal said.
With 2024 in the rearview mirror and 2025 upon us, we’re recognizing 25 “influencers” we covered in the Glen Arbor Sun this past year who are making a meaningful impact on Leelanau County communities, commerce, and culture. Read below about those 25 local influencers, who include everyone from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, to Leelanau Investing for Teens, to Empire’s polar dippers, to popular new destinations River Club Glen Arbor, the Sleeping Bear Inn, and the Lively’s NeighborFood Market.
Coffee With the Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the craft and process of writing. On Sept. 14 Traverse City poet and teacher Teresa Scallon talks about To Embroider The Ground With Prayer, a collection of poems considering her father’s illness, death, and the Michigan farming community in which she was raised. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC gallery manager, leads the conversation. The interview begins at 1 pm.
What started out as farcical matchmaking between two girlfriends, Michele Aucello and Katie Dunn, steadily gained momentum, evolving into Up North nuptials to rival all others. The occasion was made all the more unique in that the betrothed, Lili and Boomer, are actually of the canine persuasion. Insouciant spitballing became semi-sacred reality on Aug. 11, a picture-postcard Sunday afternoon of cornflower blue skies suspended over the turquoise waters of Big Glen Lake. Dunn’s 1927 log cabin “Tonawatha” served as the wedding venue with the diminutive bride and her bipedal mother memorably making their arrival by pontoon. The processional required a protracted journey from the end of Towanatha’s dock up the steep steps to the deck where the ceremony took place.