Katie Dunn

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Art that turns INward

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Winter in Leelanau County draws life inward. In a place so deeply defined by outwardness—by land, water, and expanse—the shift, nevertheless, feels instinctive, even necessary. The season arrives not only as weather, but as a kind of inversion, reshaping both landscape and psychology. Which makes the Glen Arbor Art Center’s (GAAC) first exhibition of 2026, INteriors, so timely and so entirely relevant. The concept for INteriors was developed by Sarah Bearup-Neal, gallery manager of GAAC, whose curatorial instincts invariably have a way of calibrating exhibitions with the emotional temperature of the season. Ever the wizard behind GAAC’s most resonant ideas, Bearup-Neal had been pondering winter itself: what happens when cold and darkness bends attention toward introspection, and how that shift might be reflected, challenged, and expanded through the arts.

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Glen Arbor Arts Center’s “Whose Story” exhibition offers a reckoning

HIStory/HERstory: Whose Story? The Glen Arbor Arts Center poses this question in one of its most profound and timely exhibitions to date. Whose Story? is not simply an art show. It is a reckoning. The exhibition invites artists to examine who exactly shapes the narrative—to explore identity, legacy, and power. At its crux lies the question: who determines which stories are immortalized and which are relegated as derivative.

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Walking the ordinary and extraordinary, and what’s in between

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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.

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“You may now sniff the bride”

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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.

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Glen Arbor Sun wins seven awards from Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest

The Glen Arbor Sun won seven awards in four different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest among local news media for stories published between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. The Sun won two awards in Best Opinion, three awards in Business/Agriculture News, and one award each in Feature Story and Spot News. Winners included Abby Chatfield, Katie Dunn, Alexandra Dailey, Jacob Wheeler and Julie Zapoli.

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Glen Arbor Sun’s top 10 stories of 2022

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For Leelanau County, 2022 was a year of new businesses growing in our communities, a year of celebrating historic legacies, and a year of grieving the loss of community pillars who left us. The Glen Arbor Sun’s top 10 most-read online stories of the year included homages to Beryl Skrocki, whose family business Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak helped popularize standup paddle boarding in Empire and along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, longtime Cherry Republic general manager Kathy Baarstad, and storied Glen Arbor realtor and Sugar Loaf ski coach John Peppler.

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Katie Dunn is Local-ISH!

So, if you are Katie Dunn, and you have been coming to Glen Arbor every summer since 1976, and you have worked all over town, and you know everybody, are you still a ‘Fudgie,’ or ‘Permafudge,” or now a ‘Local?’ Katie declares, “I feel like I’m ‘Local-ish.’ When I bought a car to keep up my 1927 log cabin I own on Big Glen Lake, I got a Michigan license plate. Doesn’t that give credence to me being a local?” she asks with a smile.

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