Time to ‘Fall Into the Arts’

The calendar is flipped, the classrooms are open, and thoughts are turning to the colorful, golden days of autumn. What better time to explore, engage, enjoy, and share our region’s robust cultural resources. Join me in celebrating Northern Michigan’s creative spirit with those that share arts, culture and their many talents to build our communities every day. We invite you to Fall Into the Arts with the members of the Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network all season long.

Fall Into the Arts is a region-wide celebration of arts, culture, and the creative sector throughout the 10 counties of Northwest Michigan: Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, Wexford.

Using the umbrella term, along with common branding and cross promotions, the Network hopes to raise awareness, further the arts, and encourage all to discover the region’s many collective offerings — by discipline, by geography, by interests, by dates — in an informal festival of the arts running mid-September – mid-November.

September always marks the beginning of new performing and exhibition seasons, and 2023 is no different. New seasons are being launched by the City Opera House, Old Town Playhouse, Traverse Symphony Orchestra, National Writers Series, Benzie Symphony, the Alluvion, Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, Great Lakes Performing Arts Center, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Harbor Springs Festival of the Books, the Antrim Writers Series, and many more. New exhibitions are opening at the Dennos Museum Center, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Oliver Art Center, Glen Arbor Arts, the Old Art Building, Northport Art Center, Manistee Regional Center for the Arts, Charlevoix Circle of Arts, Jordan River Art Council, Cedar North, Au Sable Artisan Village, Higher Art Gallery, Twisted Fish Gallery, Long Lake Artisan Gallery, and other galleries and studios stretching across the map.

Autumn is also an ideal time to experience art and history via bike, hike, and road trip. TART Trails are dotted with a growing number of sculptures, murals, and other public art through its Art on the TART program. Among the newest additions on Leelanau County portions of the trail are poetry and quotes stenciled onto the pathways in tandem with Michigan Writers. Hikers can marry art, nature, and trails at Art Rapids’ Walk of Art in Elk Rapids or by exploring Michigan Legacy Art Park’s 50 sculptures along its 30-acres of trails on the Crystal Mountain grounds in Thompsonville. History buffs can find tours, stops, museums, and lighthouses with Leelanau Historical Society, Benzie Historical, Old Mission Lighthouse, Mission Lights, Beaver Island Historical and Little Traverse Historical Museum as well as the many historical venues like the Ramsdell and Historic Vogue Theater in Manistee, the Garden Theater in Frankfort, and City Opera House in Traverse City.

Tours are new Fall Into the Arts options. The Network will be conducting its first NoMI Art Bus Tour in partnership with Northwestern Michigan College’s Extended Education Services with an all-day trek through Benzie County. A series of self-guided tours with maps and apps are being developed, including various county art tours, history tours and other interests.

More can be found at the new Fall Into the Arts website – www.nwmiarts. org/fall-into-the-arts — along with an online calendar, filterable by interests, dates, organization, and locale. The site will be continually updated with new events, tours, and offerings, so this is a great starting point to find your next arts and culture adventure.

October also marks National Arts and Humanities month. Spearheaded by Americans for the Arts, the month promotes the crucial role that the arts and humanities play in promoting individual wellbeing, addressing trauma, connecting cultures, highlighting inequities, and making our communities healthier and stronger.

All dovetails with the Network’s Fall Into the Arts efforts and offers the chance to advocate for the integral and essential role arts, culture and so many creative endeavors play every day building community.

Whether the performers are neighbors or national, many of our venues also serve as community centers for neighbors to gather. The same is true for pathways through art parks and public art, and local galleries, shops or a favorite pub that shares space with local artists and musicians. All offer a bridge to shared experiences, camaraderie, and community culture. But, with this important creative work is the ongoing need for funding and support. Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the state agency which provides funding support for many of our regional organizations, begins its new fiscal year Oct. 1 and will announce funding that impacts so many of our organizations at its Council meeting on Sept. 22.

Private support goes even further.

National statistics show that for every dollar invested in the arts, $43 is returned in economic activity.

Investment can range from event attendance to purchases to philanthropic support, but it is so essential to an artist’s or an organization’s livelihood.

There is not a day that I don’t worry whether we can sustain our Network’s operations and our creative sector’s vitality long term. I’m not alone. Recovery from the pandemic has been long and difficult. Yet, the artists, culture bearers and creative organizations continue to infuse our region, our communities, and our lives with music, art, stories, creativity, and a resiliency that is awe inspiring … even when bottom lines are challenged.

Let’s join together to strengthen our arts and cultural sector. We can’t do it alone. We need our communities, our audiences, and our supporters to join us — to engage, share, support and invest into our creative resources.

Mary Bevans Gillett is the convener/ director for the Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network. Connect at arts@nwmiarts.net or www.nwmiarts.org. Learn more about Fall Into the Arts at www. nwmiarts.org/fall-into-the-arts

MARY BEVANS GILLETT

Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network