Stories indexed with the term ‘artists’

An artist in a cherrypicker whitewashes the brick facade of The B.O.B. to prep for painting a mural there. The Big Old Building, known as the "Bob," will be an ArtPrize venue for more than 150 artists, including eight from Ann Arbor. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Starting on Wednesday and running through Oct. 10, the city of Grand Rapids is turning itself into one huge urban art gallery. The concept is ArtPrize – an art competition open to anyone who wants to enter, at any location offered up as a venue, with a $250,000 top prize that’s awarded by people who actually visit the city and take the time to vote. Another $200,000 will be given out in smaller amounts, also based on votes.

It’s about as public as art can get.

The Chronicle has been covering Ann Arbor’s own public art initiatives, reporting on the monthly meetings of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission, which oversees the city’s Percent for Art program, and tracking the saga of German artist Herbert Dreiseitl, who’s being commissioned – for over $700,000 – to make three art installations at the new municipal center. So the question of how another city in Michigan is promoting public art was a natural one to pursue.

That led The Chronicle to Grand Rapids last weekend.

Over two dozen Ann Arbor area artists are among the 1,200 or more who’ve entered the ArtPrize competition. We hoped to observe artists setting up their work prior to Wednesday’s opening, and to motivate others to make the two-hour trip up I-96 to check out what happens when a city opens itself quite dramatically to art. Here’s a sampling of what we encountered. [Full Story]

One of the many notecards tacked to the inside of a large, cardboard "room" in the warehouse at the art show Forth From Its Hinges. (Photo by the writer.)

On the opening day of the art show Forth From Its Hinges, the people putting on the show experienced what Steve Hall, one of the main organizers, called “a nightmare.”

The third annual Forth show, like the previous two, was set to take place in a warehouse on Plaza Drive, just off Ellsworth Road in Pittsfield Township. Hall explained that the organizers held it there with the permission of Jacob Haas, described in the show’s program as their “beloved landlord.”

Hall said they also routinely give the police a call to let them know the show is going on.

“Somehow, this year, word got to the building department and the fire department,” Hall said.

The good news: The show opened as scheduled – it runs through Sunday, July 26. But the saga of those hours prior to its opening is a nail-biter. [Full Story]

Shary Brown, with gifts from her staff and artists of the Street Art Fair, at an awards breakfast on Thursday. (Photo by the writer.)

“We live with your art every day of our lives,” Shary Brown told a group of artists from the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, “and that’s a tremendous gift you bring to us.”

There was lots of mutual affection at an awards breakfast on Thursday morning for artists and staff – a breakfast which included possibly the largest bowls of hard-boiled eggs in town. Brown praised the people who sweat the details for this four-day cultural marathon, but this year the awards event also included an emotional send-off for Brown herself, who is stepping down from the role of executive director this year.

“Not only in this show, but in our industry as a whole, Shary’s been a big influence,” said artist Dale Rayburn, as he presented Brown with a bouquet of fresh flowers, an album of cards and a “wad of cash” collected from artists. [Full Story]

A wire sculpture of Jake Woods, better known as Shakey Jake, inside The Peaceable Kingdom at 210 S. Main Street.

Last week The Chronicle reported that Dream On Futon planned to close next month, and during our interview with owner Doreen Collins, she shared some memories from her nearly 15 years as a downtown Ann Arbor retailer. Among those were affectionate recollections – and several photos – of Jake Woods, better known as Shakey Jake.

She asked us if we’d seen the life-size wire sculpture of him. When we returned a blank look and said, “What?!” she filled us in.

First, some background: Jake died in September 2007. Then in his 80s, he’d been a fixture around town for decades, instantly recognizable in his shades, hat, suit and bow tie, often carrying or playing his beat-up guitar. Everyone wanted to say they knew Shakey Jake. He had his own “I Brake for Jake” bumper stickers. Hundreds showed up for his funeral at Muehlig Funeral Chapel, and many brought instruments that afterwards they played joyously in an impromptu parade in his honor.

Many knew of Jake, but few knew him well. Among those few were Collins and Carol Lopez, owner of the Peaceable Kingdom on South Main Street, around the corner from Dream On Futon. Collins wanted to pay tribute to her friend, and proposed to Lopez that they commission Stef Kopka to create a wire sculpture of Jake, just chilling, as he often did, in a white plastic lawn chair. [Full Story]

Three of five pieces that form "Orion," a steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero that was installed Monday in front of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

The Chronicle understands that art can require heavy lifting, but usually that’s meant in a metaphorical sense. Not so on Monday, when workers hoisted 23,000 pounds of steel sculpture in front of the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s new wing on South State Street.

The work being installed was “Orion” by artist Mark di Suvero. It’s the first of two large outdoor sculptures by di Suvero that will be on long-term loan to UMMA – the second, “Shang,” will go up later in the plaza between the old museum and its new building. [Full Story]

Entrance to Saturday's fundraiser.

If you’re an artist who’s passionate about politics, and you’re looking to contribute in a concrete way to the presidential campaign, what do you do?

That was the question six local artists kicked around this summer. They’d been meeting as a critique group, but “being a bunch of liberal Democrats, we’d been talking politics, too,” says Leslie Sobel. As for that question, she says, “Well, the obvious answer is to sell art.”

So sell art they did. Saturday night’s Obama Art-O-Rama fundraiser featured a silent auction of donated work from more than 80 local artists. The event was held at the Ann Arbor home of Carl Rinne and Tamara Real, executive director of the Arts Alliance. Before a single piece of art had been sold, they were already halfway to their goal of $10,000. (An update from Sobel came a bit after midnight – their total reached $10,500 for the evening.)

[Full Story]