Author: Scott Bouma

As part of the GAAC’s Telling Stories exhibition [January 13 – March 23, 2023], Gallery Manager Sarah Bearup-Neal talked with Northern Michigan residents about stories told in the sky and on the ground.

Sky Stories: Every Monday morning, at 6:45 and 8:45 on Interlochen Public Radio, Star Lore Historian Mary Stewart Adams tells stories about the night sky, and illuminates the connections between the cosmos and the humans down below. In this video interview, Mary talks about those stories, and why dark skies matter.

Alison Kysia is the creator of the multi-media visual art and storytelling project 99 Clay Vessels.

In 2017, Kysia – a potter and educator living in Maryland – experienced sustained anti-Muslim bigotry. She channeled her anger and sadness into her artwork, and out of that the 99 Clay Vessels project was born.

Kysia’s project uses clay, which is changed through physical touch and fire – and becomes a powerful symbol of transformation. Kysia talks about how she was transformed by the work and process of creating this project; and how visual language is sometimes more powerful than just stating the fact.

GAAC Exhibitions Manager Sarah Bearup-Neal talked with Kysia as part if the VESSELS exhibition. Read more about VESSELS here: https://glenarborart.org/events/exhibit-vessels. Read more about the 99 Clay Vessels Project here: https://www.99clayvessels.com/

In 1987, the Leelanau Historical Society began documenting, interpreting, collecting, and preserving birch bark and quillwork baskets, and black ash baskets. In 2005, a conservation grade exhibit space was created to display this collection.

There are now 600 + historical objects in the collection, that give insights into the late 19^th and 20^th century culture of the Odawa and Ojibway people whose ancestral lands in the upper Great Lakes include Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties.

Laura Quackenbush played an instrumental role in the creation of the collection and the space in which it is displayed. Quackenbush is a Leelanau County curator with a special interest in traditional Anishinaabe arts. GAAC Exhibitions Manager Sarah Bearup-Neal spoke with Quackenbush about the role of the baskets in Anishinaabek life as part if the VESSELS exhibition. Read more about VESSELS here: https://glenarborart.org/events/exhibit-vessels

Read more about the Traditional Arts of the Anishinaabek Museum in this virtual exhibit here: https://www.leelanauhistory.org/taar/

A conversation with painter Linda Alice Dewey and poet Anne-Marie Oomen about their collaborative project On The Precipice, a small exhibition of four paintings and four companion poems on display in the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Lobby Gallery [April 29 – August 11, 2022]. The GAAC’s exhibition, and this conversation, is an exploration of how artists collaborate, and the tradition of ekphrasis – the practice of creating a literary description of a work of art.