Three’s the charm for Arts Collage

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Once again, Harry Fried is shaking up the local art scene and challenging the parameters of how we define art. The Manitou Music Festival will hold its third annual Art’s Collage on the stage behind the Lake Street Studios on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 29 and 30, with both shows beginning at 8 p.m.
“The basic premise of the Arts Collage is that we’ve become too complacent in our notion of what performance is,” attests Fried. “If you look at contemporary society, we’ve limited ‘performance’ to getting drunk and listening to a band or to going out to the movies and eating popcorn, which leaves precious room for anything else.

The first day’s show, titled “Image & Sound,” will feature Andrea Maio, a veteran of the first two Arts Collages, and her new film, “Sleeper Lake Fire,” which reflects on her experiences fighting fires last summer in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (At the inaugural Arts Collage, Maio, an occasional contributor to National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” led the crowd on a riveting virtual journey down the Mississippi River.) In addition this year, local artist Jamey Barnard will “perform art in the making,” and Mika Perrine, the latest addition to the nearby Interlochen Art’s Academy Creative Writing Department, will read from her latest work. St. Louis native and folk and roots artist Gen Obata will conclude the first evening with his music.
On day two, titled “Statement, Form & Movement,” Peter Sparling, a former principal with the Martha Braham Dance Company and Chairman of the University of Michigan Dance Department, will team up with Janet Lilly, formerly of Bill T. Jone/Arnie Zane Dance Company, to offer a program of Contemporary dance and video pieces. Thereafter, local poet and occasional Glen Arbor Sun writer Holly Wren Spaulding will read from her latest work. To wrap up the 2008 Art’s Collage, Frank Pahl will perform with his unique musical ensemble, “Little Bang Theory”.
“My goal in starting up the Lake Street Studio stage (two years ago) after its hiatus of many years was ultimately to present my take on what performance should look like. A performance venue should be supported by an audience that comes and watches. Although most venues can’t afford to take the risk that we’re taking here, I see the Arts Collage as a necessity.
“Spoken word, prose and poetry, I think, has suffered the most in our dereliction of duty as artistic patrons. Some people identify reading with books, but books aren’t the only vehicle for the literary word. An author or writer should have a meaningful venue to present to an audience.”
Past Arts Collages have featured the Beach Bards poets, Jazz North, The Uborigines, Alexandance, the Turtlenecks, performance philosopher Paul Spence and authors Jerry Dennis and Keith Taylor.
Visit our website, www.glenarborsun.com, and search our archives to read Andrea Maio’s essay, “The dogs of New Orleans,” written shortly after Hurricane Katrina, as well as dozens of contributions by Holly Wren Spaulding, including essays, travelogues and political activism reports from locations ranging from Seattle to Chiapas to Ireland.