Art

As the oldest professor at Eastern Michigan University, Dr. Nelson Amos says it was the current pandemic that finally convinced him it was time to retire.  When he leaves his job teaching guitar and music history at EMU next May, he will be 82 years old.

WEMU's Lisa Barry talks with the music professor, who is also an artist and owns a storefront in Ypsilanti's Depot Town, about how he has pivoted to teach online due to the current public health crisis and how life has changed since he began his university teaching career in 1975.

This week, "Art and Soul" is about the visual arts.  Lisa Barry is joined by state and local arts leader Omari Rush and Jamie Vander Broek from the University of Michigan Book Arts Studio at the U-M Library.  The University Library is partnering with the Ann Arbor District Library to capture the feelings of these difficult times using "Mail Art."

The Ann Arbor Art Center plans to add 10 new murals in the downtown area.  

The Ann Arbor area community was saddened to hear last January that the Hollander's paper goods store in the Kerrytown area of the city planned to close the following June.  Then, the pandemic hit, and the store was shut down early, and owners Tom and Cindy Hollander didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to the community or feel the necessary, emotional closure after being in business for nearly 30 years.

So, they talk with WEMU's Lisa Barry about what that was like, where they are now, and to thank the community for nearly 30 years of memories and business.

This week, "Art and Soul" focuses on the local visual arts.  WEMU's Lisa Barry and state and local arts leader Omari Rush talk with Avery Williamson, who works with many different types of materials to weave and paint and write blending her love of history, especially the history of Black women in this country.

With most museums and public art spaces closed due to the current public health crisis, people are still enjoying art in new ways.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry is joined  by state and local arts leader Omari Rush and the head of education for the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Jim Leija, to talk about how the museum is still connecting to art lovers all over the world.

With the streets of downtown Ann Arbor much emptier these days due to the current health crisis, local chalk artist David Zinn has been safely distancing and using the opportunity to keep his one-man business alive.  He's finding more places and more opportunities to bring a bit of joy to the community by drawing new chalk art creations around town.  

He spoke to WEMU's Lisa Barry about his latest efforts.

Never someone to sit idly when a call to action is raised, John Gutoskey, local artist, printmaker, and costume designer, has redirected his talents to making much-needed face masks for our local medical facilities.  On this week’s edition of "creative:impact," he joins co-hosts Deb Polich and David Fair how local medical teams are responding to polka-dot, ladybug, and other whimsical masks that can literally save their lives while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ann Arbor Art Center is offering free art resources on its website to help families get through the coronavirus pandemic. 

Another impact of the current health pandemic is on our cultural life.  In this edition of "Art and Soul," WEMU’s Lisa Barry talks with Matthew VanBesien, president of the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, about what they’ve had to do in light of COVID-19 and orders to stay home and social distance from each other.

Jill Stefani-Wagner, a master pastel artist from Saline, travels around the world painting “en plein air,” or outdoors to create landscapes and cityscapes.  She tells The Arts Alliance’s Deb Polich and WEMU’s David Fair about her award-winning adventures on this edition of “creative.impact.”

There are plans to revive the ​Ypsilanti Art Incubator​, a project started by a small group of Ypsilanti-based artists in 2012.  The incubator went dormant for several years, but Ypsilanti resident Alexa Dietz is looking to relaunch it in 2020.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry talks with Alexa and Concentrate Media’s Sarah Rigg about what this might mean to area artists for this week's "On the Ground-Ypsi." 

The Harold Haugh Light Opera International Vocal Competition does duo duty.  It attracts singers from across the country, and it introduces them to the charm of light and comic opera.  The Comic Opera Guild’s Tom Petiet and John Guidinger co-produce the competition.  They sit down with The Arts Alliance’s Deb Polich and WEMU’s David Fair to talk about managing a competition and the resulting educational impact on this week’s edition of "creative:impact."

Ann Arbor artist Margaret Parker grew up in a home awash in art and creativity.  She tells Arts Alliance CEO Deb Polich and WEMU's David Fair what is was like to be encouraged and inspired by her mother, artist and quilt-maker Pauline Parker, whose exhibition opens at the Milwaukee Art Museum in March.  Hear all about it on this edition of "creative.impact."

This week, "Art and Soul" is about the local performance arts scene.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry and Wendy Wright talked to the creator and director of “Wine, Women & Song,” which is in its 18th year at the Kerrytown Concert House, Monica Swartout-Bebow.

This week, "Art and Soul" is about the local performance arts scene.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry and Wendy Wright talk with Tim Hamann of Washtenaw County’s “Out Loud Chorus” and share a number of different opportunities to enjoy local theatre, music, and comedy in the coming weeks.

This week, "Art and Soul" is about the local visual arts community.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry is joined by state and local arts leader Omari Rush and special guest Kay Yourist of Yourist Studio Gallery in Ann Arbor.

The studio gallery is one of several places holding special events and sales the weekend of December 13-15 in Ann Arbor to purchase unique gifts of art and support local artists.

This week, "Art and Soul" is about the performance arts.  WEMU's Lisa Barry and Wendy Wright talk about the many different performances taking place locally from theatre to jazz to community concerts.

As the owner and artistic director of Motawi Tileworks, Nawal Motawi has been playing with clay and fire for decades.  To this day, Motawi art tiles are still handcrafted.  Hear how she started her business in her garage and sold her tiles at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market and now sells in more than 300 locations across the country and Canada when Nawal joins David Fair and Deb Polich on this week’s edition of "creative:impact."

When young people experience physical and/or emotional trauma, it becomes difficult for them to express themselves.  After seeing a group of former inmates perform theatre and poetry, Deborah Gordon-Gurfinkel developed the "Telling It" program, which helps kids cope with their experience through the visual and performing arts.  She, along with fellow counselors Cozine Welch and Kelly Kundrat, talk about what the program seeks to achieve in this week's "On the Ground-Ypsi" with WEMU's Patrick Campion and Concentrate Media's Sarah Rigg.

Activating and engaging the creative talents of the community, the 4th annual ypsiGLOW is taking place October 25th.

WEMU's Lisa Barry talks with one of the originators of the light-up community event, Jeri Rosenberg, and event producer Jennifer Goulet.

Meet Sophie Grillet, one of the originators of Westside Art Hop .  Twice a year, she and a handful of indispensable colleagues manage to organize one of Ann Arbor’s unique neighborhood-based arts events.  She gives WEMU's David Fair and Arts Alliance CEO Deb Polich an insider view on this edition of "creative:impact."

This week, "Art and Soul" focuses on the many local performance arts activities taking place.  WEMU’s Lisa Barry and Wendy Wright talk to local playwright Joseph Zettelmaier about his latest production of locally gathered ghost stories.

Ypsilanti Community Schools students are heading to Washington, D.C. to exhibit their art at the U.S. Department of Education.  Patrick Campion and Sarah Rigg speak with some of the students and a teacher involved in the project to find out how this happened, what the students are inspired to create, and how they're getting 60 students and teachers and chaperones to DC.  Listen here and find more pictures and information about the project at Concentrate Media's site.  

Ilana Houten and Jessica Tenbusche, two of the three co-founders of Ypsi Alloy Studios, chat about how a business born of each artist’s need for studio space developed into a cooperative and supportive business model serving other “dirty” artists in Ypsilanti.  On "creative:impact,"  WEMU’s David Fair and The Arts Alliance’s Deb Polich  learn about what makes Ypsi Alloy Studio’s model work.  

Heat is typically a factor during the annual Ann Arbor Art Fair.  But this year, strong storms had an impact as well.  WEMU's Lisa Barry talks with Maureen Riley, executive director of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original, about the just-ended annual event.

There are paintings and sculptures and many different forms of creative art at the Ann Arbor Art Fair running July 18-21st.

But art comes in many forms, and, as 89.1 WEMU’s Lisa Barry reports, one local musician has been performing on the street and now in his own “art” booth for the past four decades!

It's not easy to describe exactly what FestiFools and FOOLmoon, which take place each spring in Ann Arbor, are all about.  89.1 WEMU's Lisa Barry talks with artist and organizer Mark Tucker and University of Michigan artist-in-residence Lavinia Hanachiuc about the annual public arts event coming up in early April.

It's a special week in Ann Arbor.  It's Art Fair week which kicks off tonight with a special gathering for residents with the "Townie Street Party."

The 58th annual Ann Arbor Art Fair opens today.  I visited with some of the artists as they were setting up and says everyone is excited to show and sell their work.