The Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC) is keeping the lights on a little longer this summer. Late Night Fridays continues Friday, June 21, with open galleries and a front porch concert from 5-8 pm. A to Z Music performs on the GAAC’s front porch stage. Zinnia Dungjen and Audrey Mason are a singer-songwriter duo from Interlochen Arts Academy, and will perform a unique blend of original songs and covers. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring their own seating, and refreshments.
The Glen Arbor Arts Center and Interlochen Public Radio are once again bringing free community pop-up performances to businesses and public locations around the region. Between June 3-15 the Fivemind Reeds Quintet will play at spots including the Glen Lake Narrows (pictured here), the Arts Center front porch, the Leelanau School beach, and the Glen Lake Library in Empire. For more information, click here.
The Glen Arbor artist community will hold a reception at Lake Street Studios on Saturday, June 1, from 3-6 pm for an exhibition that runs until June 26 with proceeds from all works sold benefiting Beth Bricker, co-owner of Forest Gallery and a pillar of the local artist community who is battling cancer. Beth’s parents, the late Ananda and Ben Bricker, were founding members of the Glen Arbor Art Association 40 years ago. “Beth has always been a champion of the artists in her community, and it is our hope that we, as artists and friends, can send love and support back to Beth and her family in this emotionally and financially difficult time,” the Lake Street Studios friends wrote in a statement.
The Leelanau Peninsula, with its saturated colors and resplendent landscape, has long been a magnet—and perhaps, even a torment—for countless artists. This magical corner of northern Michigan offers a rich, resonating color palette: from the azure blues of Sleeping Bear Bay to the chartreuse fields of Port Oneida to the lavender orchards flanking Center Highway. George Peebles of Grand Rapids is one such artist who has long been drawn to Leelanau County, and who so masterfully depicts its terrain with his vibrant, bold oil paintings. In recognition of Peebles’ enormous artistic talent, the Glen Arbor Arts Center has selected his work, Empire Bluffs, as the image for the annual Manitou Music Poster. Empire Bluffs—like the whole of Peebles’ body of work—is distinctive for its blazing, almost electric color. It is a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sorts. Indeed, the employment of high-octane hues is very much Peebles’ signature. That his work is so deeply color-driven is especially remarkable given that Peebles is colorblind.
Coffee With The Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the craft and process of writing at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. On May 18 Brittany Cavallaro, the author of seven Young Adult [YA] novels, explains this stand-alone genre, and how she approaches it. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC gallery manager, leads the conversation, which begins at 11 am. Cavallaro is a creative writing instructor at the Interlochen Arts Academy, her alma mater [her New York Times bestselling Charlotte Holmes series is set in a boarding school]. YA fiction is geared to readers ages 12 to 18 years, but it tackles mature themes and subjects the sets it apart from traditional middle school literature. Cavallaro is also the author of three volumes of poetry, and frequently collaborates with other writers.
Leelanau County artist Dana Falconberry is exhibiting “Native Plants,” a group of painted and stitched canvases, in the Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC) lobby gallery this summer. This small show runs until August 29. Falconberry, a musician, printmaker and painter, has been, in the last few years, creating textile works that combine hand-painted imagery with machine chain stitch embroidery. “Native Plants,” and a recorded interview with Falconberry, may also be viewed online.
Pete Farmer, founder and owner of Farmer Foot Drums, brings his menagerie of hand- and foot-operated percussion instruments and music to the Glen Arbor Arts Center on Saturday, May 11, for a family-friendly program. This concert of interactive songs begins at 11 am. A Leelanau County resident, Farmer performs at the GAAC as part of “By Hand,” a project exploring the creativity of human hand work in a techno-centric age.
Coffee With The Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the craft and process of writing. The 2024 series kicks off April 6 at 1 pm at the Glen Arbor Arts Center with Heather Spooner, owner of Ampersand Lettering Lab, an art and hand lettering business in Traverse City. Spooner will talk about The Letter League, an adult pen pal project she created to encourage writing letters by hand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC gallery manager, leads the conversation.
Scott Bouma, a resident of Cedar, is the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) new executive director, as announced last week in a media release. Bouma joined the GAAC staff in 2013 as an office manager and rose to the position of operations manager. He replaces Sarah Kime, who served as GAAC’s executive director from 2019 until this month. Kime leaves the GAAC to join the staff of North Carolina Outward Bound School as director of advancement.
How can a creative practice help one navigate the grief that accompanies the death of a loved one? This topic is explored during Exploring Grief Through Creativity, the third in a series of retreats hosted by the Glen Arbor Arts Center and focused on increasing wellness through a creative practice. This retreat takes place on Saturday, March 9, from 9 am-5 pm at Pine Street Studios, next door to GAAC in Glen Arbor. The cost is $175 and includes all materials.