sarah bearup-neal

Posts

Art that turns INward

,

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.

Read more
/by

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.

Read more
/by

Glen Arbor Art Center’s Sky exhibit more than just cosmic wallpaper

“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.

Read more
/by

Glen Arbor Arts Center hosts Coffee with the Authors

Coffee with the Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the writing craft and process. The series kicks off Saturday, May 27, at 11 am at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. Traverse City Record-Eagle journalist, essayist, and author Mardi Jo Link will talk about memoir writing with GAAC gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal.

Read more
/by

The things they carry: exploring the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s VESSELS exhibit

,

The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s current VESSELS exhibit offers an out-of-the-box look at bowls, baskets, urns, pods, and other objects that store and carry things. This juried exhibition is on display until Oct. 27 and features 28 exhibitors from Michigan, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Of particular note, the exhibit includes the Creation of the World 6/9, a needlework tapestry from Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”—a feminist initiative from the early 1980s, in which Chicago collaborated with more than 150 artists to create dozens of images combining painting and needlework that celebrate various aspects of the birth process; from the painful to the mythical. This series celebrated the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit. With women’s reproductive rights under siege, and the arts reemerging as a forum of social and political expression, we chatted with the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal about VESSELS and the inclusion of a work from “Birth Project.”

Read more
/by

Glen Arbor Arts Center inaugurates new gallery

,

The Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC)—formerly the Glen Arbor Art Association—inaugurates its new gallery and exhibitions space with “New Gallery/New Work,” on Friday, Jan. 12, from 6-8 p.m. A reception to open the exhibition begins at 6 p.m.

Read more
/by

Kradel, Bricker, Bearup-Neal display “Rock, Scissors, Paper”

“Rock, Scissors, Paper” brings the work of three visual artist working in narrative forms to Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor, from Sept. 15-Oct. 8. A reception to open the exhibition is Friday, Sept. 15, 6 – 8 p.m.

Read more
/by

Glen Arbor Art goes on the road to Frankfort

Thirty-three paintings and photographs selected from the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) Artist-in-Residence Collection (2008-present) will be exhibited at the Elizabeth Lane Oliver Center for the Arts in Frankfort, Oct. 21-Nov. 26. The show opens with a reception Oct. 21, 5-7 p.m. at the Oliver Art Center, 132 Coast Guard Road.

Read more
/by

Glen Arbor Art Association’s Talk About Art series features Jesse Hickman

In the Talk About Art series Sarah Bearup-Neal conducts live interviews with local and regional artists about their art making and thinking. These insightful interviews take place monthly at 7:30 p.m., at the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) at no charge.

Read more
/by