AIR Presentation: Mel Benkert

Description

Mel Benkert’s creative focus is bookmaking. During her Glen Arbor Arts Center artist’s residency Benkert – a resident of Minnesota – will advance a current book project to its next phase, she said. Benkert will describe her process, and show examples of her residential work during a public presentation September 3, 10 am at the GAAC.

“During the two-week residency, I will develop a mock-up of an interactive book that maps an ecological portion of the Vanderbilt Moraine region in northern lower Michigan,” she said. “The work explores ecosystem diversity and relationships between species, inviting participants to make choices and consider outcomes while emphasizing biocultural diversity as central to human resilience. I am seeking uninterrupted time, ample work surfaces, and good light. As a Michigan native living in Minnesota, I welcome the influence of Lake Michigan and the dunes on this work.”

The GAAC has been hosting visiting artmakers as part of its residency program since the 1990s. For more information about the GAAC’s AIR Program go to GlenArborArt.org / ARTISTS.