Dave Brandon addressed the UM Board of Regents for the first time publicly as athletic director, speaking at their April 15 meeting at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. (Photos by the writer.)

Though most of the meeting entailed presentations and reports – focused on UM programs with links to the Grand Rapids area and western Michigan – the regents also unanimously approved several action items, with little discussion.

Increases for parking permit fees – 3% in each of the next three fiscal years – were set, as was the transfer of the Henry Ford Estate to the nonprofit Ford House foundation. The estate had been given to UM in the 1950s along with land that became the university’s Dearborn campus. Regents also approved a major expansion of the Institute for Social Research building on Thompson Street.

During public commentary, two leaders of the lecturers’ union spoke to regents, charging that UM lecturers are being asked to shoulder an unfair burden as the university tries to cut costs. The union is negotiating with the administration for a new contract – its current contract expires May 15.

After the meeting – held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel – regents, executives and staff headed over to the nearby J.W. Marriott hotel for a reception hosted by the UM Alumni Association.

Opening Remarks

Mary Sue Coleman began Thursday’s meeting by noting that many of the regents and administrators had been in town since Wednesday, meeting with community and academic leaders in Grand Rapids. She noted that there are already many connections between the university and the western side of the state, pointing out that the president of Grand Valley State University, Tom Haas, is a UM graduate.

Another link comes through the Michigan College Advising Corps, a statewide initiative that UM announced on Thursday. The program aims to increase the number of low-income, first-generation and underserved students entering college by recruiting and training recent UM graduates to work full-time for up to two years as college advisers in underserved high schools. It will launch this fall in eight communities, Coleman said, including five in western Michigan: Battle Creek, Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Muskegon.

Coleman noted that the university is preparing for President Obama’s visit to the May 1 commencement in Ann Arbor, which Gov. Jennifer Granholm will also attend – among about 80,000 others. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Big 10 Network starting at 10:30 a.m., and will be streaming live on the UM website. “It’s going to be an exciting day,” Coleman said.

Board chair Andy Richner gave brief remarks as well, saying that Thursday’s meeting underscored the strong connections between the university and Grand Rapids. He said he was especially glad to be in this particular venue – the Gerald R. Ford Ballroom – because it honors the legacy of Ford, “who just happens to be a graduate of the University of Michigan.” He promised that regents would more regularly visit the western part of the state. Their last meeting in Grand Rapids was held in 1998.

At left: Wayman Britt, Kent County's assistant county administrator, talks with UM vice president for government relations Cynthia Wilbanks and UM president Mary Sue Coleman before the start of the UM regents meeting in Grand Rapids.

Speaking on behalf of the Grand Rapids community was another UM graduate: Wayman Britt, Kent County’s assistant county administrator. Britt told regents that he had been captain of the UM men’s basketball team, which had gone to the NCAA final four in 1976. His daughters also went to school at Michigan, he said.

Britt was glad to see a strengthening of ties between the university and the Grand Rapids area, saying “we know how to get it done here in west Michigan.” One example: The State Games of Michigan, which launches in June and is co-chaired by Britt. He concluded by saying he hoped to see growing enrollment at UM from the western part of the state, and that he looked forward to regents regularly visiting Grand Rapids and Kent County.

New Athletic Director Promotes Upcoming Events

Though he was hired earlier this year and has been on the job about five weeks, Thursday was the first time that Dave Brandon had attended a regents meeting to address the board publicly as athletic director. Himself a former regent, Brandon gave an update on Michigan Stadium renovations and spoke briefly about the football program – though not mentioning or even alluding to the NCAA investigation of the program and coach Rich Rodriguez’ coaching practices.

Brandon reported that the stadium renovations will be done in time for the Sept. 4, 2010 season opener against the University of Connecticut. “I’m here to say there are plenty of suites and club seats still available,” he quipped. [The $226 million renovation project includes 83 private suites and 3,200 indoor and outdoor club seats.]

Brandon noted that tours of the suites will be given during this Saturday’s spring football game at the stadium. The free event allows fans to watch the team’s final spring practice, and will raise money for the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital through sponsorships and donations. [Brandon, with his wife Jan and Lloyd and Laurie Carr, are leading the fundraising campaign for the new hospital.]

Brandon said he’d had the chance to see some practices, and reported that the football team “looks terrific.” The players are “less young than they were a year ago,” he said, and have a better understanding of what big-time college football is all about.

In addition to football, Brandon highlighted several other UM sports. The Dec. 11, 2010 “Big Chill” will turn Michigan Stadium into a hockey arena, he said, between rivals Michigan and Michigan State. They’re hoping to break the world attendance record for spectators at an outdoor hockey game.

Spring sports teams are doing well, he said. Women’s softball, coached by Carol Hutchins, consistently ranks No. 1 or 2 in the nation – the previous day, they’d given Central Michigan an 8-0 “drubbing,” Brandon noted. Among the other sports he cited were the women’s gymnastics team, which recently won the Big 10 championship, and women’s water polo, which won its division title for the third consecutive year. There’s a lot of positive energy in the athletics program, he said.

In wrapping up, Brandon said that while they’d been making Michigan Stadium more beautiful, that made Crisler Arena look “even less beautiful.” He was looking forward to starting a major renovation project there. [Regents previously approved a $23 million addition to Crisler – a two-story, 57,000-square-foot basketball training facility that will include offices for men’s and women’s coaching staffs, locker rooms, two practice courts, film-viewing and hydrotherapy rooms, conditioning space and other amenities. Another $20 million will be spent on renovations to the existing arena.]

Brandon said the Crisler project will get underway as soon as Obama departs.

Parking Rate Increase

Regents unanimously approved were informed about increases for parking permits – 3% in each of the next three years. The change means that the highest-level Gold permit will increase from $1,443 this year to $1,577 by FY 2013, while Blue permits jump from $611 to $667 over that same period.

UM parking permit increases 2010-2013. (Links to larger image)

Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, told regents that the additional revenues were needed to help pay for the university’s parking infrastructure. He noted that in FY 2010, they’d held rates flat for all permits except Gold, which had increased by 4.5%.

According to a cover memo about the increases, parking revenues help fund debt service for new construction, as well as operations and annual maintenance projects. Capital projects include an addition to the Thompson Street parking structure and the Fuller Road Station, a joint UM/city of Ann Arbor project that includes a large parking structure.

The memo states that fees for Gold permits are in line with rates charged by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. [The DDA charges $130 for monthly parking permits to city structures, or $1,560 per year.]

Other Capital Projects

Two other major projects were approved on Thursday: an expansion to the Institute for Social Research (ISR), and an upgrade to the pneumatic tube system at the UM hospitals.

Institute for Social Research

A four-level, $23 million expansion is planned for ISR, adding 44,700 gross square feet to the existing building at 426 Thompson St. Another 7,200 square feet will be renovated. The project, to be designed by the architectural firm of Lord, Aeck & Sargent Inc., will be paid for in part by federal stimulus funds via a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The expansion will allow the institute to house its research programs under one roof.

ISR’s director, James Jackson, attended Thursday’s meeting but did not address the regents.

Pneumatic Tube Upgrade

This $3 million project will entail improvements to an extensive pneumatic tube system that’s used to transfer patient materials among 120 stations in multiple buildings at UM’s medical complex, including the University Hospital, Cancer Center, Taubman Health Care Center, and Maternal Child Health Center. It will also integrate the system into the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.

According to a cover memo about the project, the upgrade is expected to increase delivery times by 30-40%, and increase the system’s throughput during peak times from 150 to 200 transactions per hour.

Handing over the Henry Ford Estate

Regents unanimously approved transferring the Henry Ford Estate – Fair Lane to the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, a nonprofit foundation. The property – originally the residence of Henry and Clara Ford – had been given to the university in 1957 by the Ford Motor Co., along with a $6.5 million donation. The gift helped UM establish its Dearborn Campus, located adjacent to the estate.

The transfer includes the main house, powerhouse, greenhouse, dam, garage, boathouse and surrounding property. Also included in the transfer are personal property on the estate, and endowment funds that had been restricted for use on the estate.

UM has been paying more than $300,000 annually for upkeep on the estate, and an estimated $12 million investment is needed over the next 10 years in infrastructure improvements. The estate is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Several regents noted that it was unusual for the university to give away property – it’s a deal that’s been discussed for several years. Mary Sue Coleman said she was pleased that they were able to arrive at this outcome.

Public Commentary: Lecturers’ Union

At the end of the meeting, two speakers during public commentary focused on current negotiations between the university and the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO).

Elizabeth Axelson: Noting that she’d been a lecturer at UM for 20 years and is currently lead negotiator for LEO, Axelson said they’d initially been heartened to hear the provost say that budget goals could be met without layoffs, with resources for some new initiatives, and a “moderate salary program.” But that’s not what’s being offered to lecturers, she said.

Elizabeth Axelson, lead negotiator for the Lecturer Employees Organization (LEO).

Minimum salaries for the classification of Lecturer I or II are $31,000 in Ann Arbor, $26,000 in Dearborn and $25,000 in Flint, she said. The median full-time lecturer salary in Ann Arbor is $44,000. This is less than the starting pay for new high school teachers with a master’s degree, she noted, and less than the national average of $53,112 for lecturers, according to the American Association of University Professors.

LEO is asking for 3% annual raises over the next three years. The goal is to eventually gain equity with the teaching portion of the current median professor salary on each campus, Axelson said. The university has offered 1.75% increases for Ann Arbor lecturers. For Flint and Dearborn, raises would be tied to those given to tenure-track faculty, which could be flat. There would be no increase in minimum salaries.

Axelson said the university’s new cost-sharing proposal for benefits, which requires employees to bear more of the cost for health care, will effectively eliminate the 1.75% increase. LEO estimates that the average lecturer will end up losing about 4%.

Axelson also told regents that the union’s vice president, Kirsten Herold, who has taught in the English department for 18 years, had not been reappointed. “We see her non-reappointment as an abuse of the performance evaluation provisions of the contract; it would be a wrong move at any time, but doing it now looks like intimidation.”

She concluded by saying that lecturers were willing to share the burden of a difficult economy, but should not be expected to bear a greater burden than full-time employees who are better paid. “We hope you can help us achieve the goals of greater equity, a fair part of cost sharing, and a moderate salary program, at the bargaining table,” she said.

Catherine Daligga: Speakers for public commentary are required to sign up in advance – Kirsten Herold had signed up, but was unable to attend. Instead, Daligga read remarks prepared by Herold.

The remarks outlined the impact of layoffs on students in the College of Literature, Science & the Arts (LSA). First-year winter semester writing courses were full for the first time ever, with students being wait-listed, faced with having to take the course next year instead. One of Herold’s students wasn’t able to get into a fourth semester of Spanish until eight months after completing her third-term course. The student has experienced problems getting into other courses as well, and is concerned that she won’t be able to complete her degree in four years. (Herold’s statement noted that if the meeting had been held in Ann Arbor, the student would have been able to attend and speak directly to regents.)

With 6% budget cuts coming over the next three years, the worst is yet to come, according to Herold. They’ve heard that cuts are being discussed that would affect the heart of the undergraduate curriculum – for example, discussion sections for physics, which are taught by lecturers, as well as courses in psychology and first-year Spanish. Anthropology is cutting its part-time lecturers, and at least half of physics lecturers expect to lose their jobs, Herold noted. English lecturers are being replaced by graduate students.

The anxiety across the college is palpable, according to Herold. And LEO members are angry that they seem to be bearing a larger share of the burden – or in some cases, like Spanish, all of the cuts. It’s not clear that tenure-track faculty will be moved into courses that were previously taught by lecturers. If not, Herold pointed out that undergraduates in particular will be affected.

Michigan Student Assembly: New President

Former Michigan Student Assembly president Abhishek Mahanti was on hand to introduce MSA’s new president, Chris Armstrong, who was elected to that office in March. Mahanti described Armstrong as someone who’s “got a laugh that can light up an entire room.” Armstrong told regents that his priorities for the coming year would be to push for Saturday night dining and gender-neutral housing options. He also hopes to work with the administration on prohibiting exams on election days.

Armstrong brought up the fact that he’s received a lot of attention – including some national media – because he’s the university’s first openly gay student body president. The attention wasn’t something he sought, Armstrong said, but it was an opportunity to engage students in a positive way, and he’s excited for what that means to others on campus.

Presentations: Highlighting the Grand Rapids Connection

Regents heard four presentations during Thursday’s meeting that each touched on a link to the western side of the state. The meeting also included a signing ceremony for a new pharmacy admissions program.

Pharmacy Partnership Agreement

Near the beginning of the meeting, the presidents and provosts of UM and Grand Valley State University, along with UM pharmacy dean Frank Ascione, moved to a table in the corner of the room to officially sign a partnership agreement between the two institutions establishing the Pharmacy Preferred Admission Program. The program reserves up to eight spots each year in the UM College of Pharmacy‘s doctoral program, set aside for students from Grand Valley State who complete certain pre-pharmacy undergraduate coursework. The Grand Rapids-based university doesn’t have a pharmacy school.

Tom Haas, president of Grand Valley State, spoke briefly before the signing ceremony. He recalled that three years ago he, UM president Mary Sue Coleman and provosts from both institutions had lunch to discuss ways of partnering. The first result of that effort was a preferred-admission agreement signed last year, allowing UM kinesiology students to enter Grand Valley’s graduate program in occupational therapy. The pharmacy program is the second significant agreement, he said. “We’ll continue to look for those kinds of opportunities for continued mutual gain for the state of Michigan.”

Elementary Mathematics Laboratory

Deborah Ball, dean of UM’s School of Education, described the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory that will be expanding this summer to Grand Rapids. The two-week program is a combination teaching and research effort, bringing in students who’ll be entering the fifth grade and who are struggling with math. They receive intensive training, both in a classroom and with one-on-one tutors.

The “lab” component comes into play because the teaching is observed by researchers, veteran teachers, teachers-in-training, mathematicians and others who are interested in how kids learn and how teachers teach. They’re trying to understand why different teachers – given the same resources and environment – achieve dramatically different academic outcomes for their students. Their findings can be used in teacher training and instructional design.

The lab is a prototype that the school would like to develop more broadly, Ball said – they’re planning to launch a secondary-level lab this summer in Ann Arbor.

After the presentation, UM president Mary Sue Coleman held up a copy of the March 2, 2010 New York Times Magazine – Coleman said she saw it and thought the woman on the cover looked like Ball, and sure enough, it was. Ball was featured extensively in the issue’s cover story, “Building a Better Teacher.”

Research on Down Syndrome and Autism

Up next was Dale Ulrich, a UM kinesiology professor whose research focuses on people with Down Syndrome and autism. He described growing concerns over childhood obesity, and noted that the problem is even greater among kids with Down Syndrome, because they tend to be more inactive than the general population. Less than 10% know how to ride a two-wheel bike, for example. Medical advancements have extended the life span for people with Down Syndrome, he said, but what’s being done to improve their quality of life?

Ulrich leads the UM Center for Motor Behavior and Pediatric Disabilities, and discussed the work they’ve done at week-long bike-training clinics, including ones held in the Grand Rapids area. [Link to video about the bike camp] The camp uses bikes equipped with special rollers instead of back wheels – working one-on-one with aides and gradually adapting the rollers, most of the children are able to ride a regular bike by the end of the week, Ulrich said. The more remarkable thing is to see how their lives change after learning to ride, he said, as they gain self-confidence and independence.

The center has partnered with Grand Valley State’s College of Health Professions, among others, to develop a research project based on these efforts. Steelcase Foundation funded initial pilot studies, and now the project has received a $596,000 federal grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The funds will support a three-year intervention program, with the goal of reducing sedentary behavior and body fat, increasing social skills and interaction, and increasing participation in community activities.

Offshore Wind Energy Research

Dennis Assanis, director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute at UM, described a large-scale research project aimed at studying offshore wind energy. The institute is partnering with Grand Valley State’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center, led by Arn Boezaart.

Studying offshore wind energy is important, in light of the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, Assanis said – there are compelling environmental, economic and national security issues involved. Wind is an untapped renewable energy resource, and a great opportunity for Michigan to create clean energy jobs, he said: “We know very well how to design drive-trains,” needed for wind turbines.

The project aims to build a research platform and tower in Lake Michigan, to collect data and push forward the commercial wind-energy development in the Great Lakes. To do that, they are trying to raise an additional $5 million, having already secured $1.427 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, $1.336 million from the Michigan Public Service Commission and $334,100 from UM. Additional funding will likely come from the private sector.

Boezaart described several things they’d like to learn from the research, including: 1) the impact of the environment on the platform and tower, 2) how the tower and platform impact the environment, 3) how to navigate the licensing, permitting and regulatory process, 4) the economic potential for the Michigan’s lakeshore region and western part of the state.

Boezaart said they need to move quickly, because other states and countries are leading the way with research and technology development. “Wish us well and favorable winds,” he said, “because we’ll need those.”

UM Health System Collaboration

Jack Billi, UM associate vice president for medical affairs, spoke to regents about several statewide partnerships the University of Michigan Health System has formed to improve the quality of care and cut costs.

The UM Faculty Practice Group was chosen five years ago as one of 10 sites nationwide to participate in the Medicare Demonstration Project – an effort to demonstrate how health care costs for Medicare patients can be lowered while at the same time improving prevention and care for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. UMHS is coordinating the project among doctors at 50 hospitals statewide. Aspects of this project were incorporated into the recently passed federal health care act, Billi said.

UMHS is also involved in the Physician Group Incentive Program, supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The university is helping 26 physician groups and more than 90 clinics statewide redesign care for patients with chronic illnesses, using “lean thinking” principles they learned from the auto industry, Billi said.

The Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium is another effort in which UMHS is playing a role. The project’s goal is to develop clinical practice guidelines and performance measures that can be adopted by health insurance plans statewide.

The bottom line, Balli said, is that it’s possible to lower costs and improve care at the same time. Collaboration, he added, is key to all of these efforts.

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Larry Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andy Richner, Martin Taylor, Kathy White

Next board meeting: Thursday, May 20 at 3 p.m. at the Fairlane Center on UM’s Dearborn campus, 19000 Hubbard Drive. [confirm date]

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.

The frame of a photo by John Harrison reflects a man sitting outside Biggby Coffee, which serves as a venue for ArtPrize. (Photo by Dave Askins)

An Unlikely Venue: Biggby Coffee

ArtPrize organizers are serious when they say virtually any place can serve as a venue: Vacant buildings, hotels, bridges, restaurants and coffee shops. Artist Emir Alibasic, a University of Michigan fine arts student, is scheduled to exhibit his oil paintings at Biggby Coffee at 146 Monroe, but his work hadn’t been mounted when The Chronicle arrived on Saturday.

Still, even in that small shop we found the work of another artist with an Ann Arbor connection: John Harrison, whose “India in Color” series of photographs fill a corner of the room, noted in his artist’s statement that his wife Jen grew up in Ann Arbor.

Tim Sikma, standing on the ladder, uses black spraypaint to cover up handprints on the sculpture made by his son, Nicholas Sikma of Fenton, far right. The artist's brother, Zach Sikma, helps wipe down the welded steel artwork, which is exhibited outside of the Grand Rapids Press building. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Getting Rid of Handprints: A Guide

Walking north on Monroe, we passed the building that houses the Grand Rapids Press – part of the chain that owned the former Ann Arbor News – and saw about a half-dozen people tending to a large steel sculpture. One of them appeared to be … spraypainting? Yes, that was definitely spraypaint. The artist, Nicholas Sikma of Fenton, was getting a hand from his dad, Tim Sikma, who was standing on a ladder and applying black spraypaint to the welded steel. The aim was to cover up handprints made when they’d moved the sculpture into position on a grassy area next to the sidewalk.

By the looks of it, they would have needed to apply their hands firmly to heft the artwork – it took four men, including the artist, his father, his brother Zach and his brother-in-law, Jeff Altoft, simply to shift the piece and pull out the wooden two-by-fours that served as its temporary base. Later, Sikma was going to add a cast bronze disc to the welded steel sculpture.

The Grand Rapids Press building will also be the venue for Ann Arbor artist David Fischer, whose “5 Heads” sculpture is made from blue blown glass.

The Brass Works Building at 648 Monroe, where three local artists will be exhibiting during ArtPrize. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Chance Encounter with The Mayor

At least three artists with local ties – Josh McVety, Ashley Lieber and Aaron Griffith – are exhibiting at the Brass Works Building at 648 Monroe. But when The Chronicle arrived there on Saturday, the place was impenetrable, locked up on all fronts. At the park across the street, though, was a crowd of blue-T-shirted folks who looked purposeful, so we wandered over. Coincidentally, two TV crews arrived at about the same time, from the city’s Fox and CBS affiliates. The T-shirts and TV coverage indicated that we’d stumbled across the annual Mayor’s Grand River Clean Up Day, and as we chatted with a couple of volunteers, up walked the mayor himself, George Heartwell.

Heartwell said he was “geeked” about ArtPrize. “It’s about more than a big purse for art,” he told The Chronicle. “It’s about the whole community coming together about the Big Idea of art.” The event had spurred conversations throughout the community, he added, with people asking questions like “What role does art play?” and “Does art have to be beautiful?”

George Heartwell, mayor of Grand Rapids, explains to The Chronicle that you don't have to be a published poet to appreciate art. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

When we asked about his own artistic bent, Heartwell laughed – then revealed that he wrote poetry back in the day. He said he still has a thick file of rejection letters: “They said, ‘You’re a wonderful poet, but your poetry doesn’t sell.’”

But his main influence related to public art came from urban planning work he did in the 1990s with Edi Rama, now the mayor of Tirana, Albania. Heartwell said that Rama, Albania’s former minister of culture, helped him understand how art dignifies and challenges people, and how you begin to see yourself differently because of the art that’s around you.

On a practical level, Rama gets to choose the colors of all new buildings in Tirana, Heartwell reported. Referring to Ann Arbor’s mayor, Heartwell joked: “Me and Hieftje – we’d love that, wouldn’t we?!” [This link, which includes a brief bio of Rama, shows before-and-after photos of a building that's been painted according to Rama's color palette.]

Rob Goodrich's 900-pound sculpture "Eartha, a.k.a. Mother Earth" in transit down Michigan Avenue. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

“Where Can I Unload?”

Heading back south along a walkway that parallels the Grand River, we stopped before crossing Michigan Avenue, a major thoroughfare. A blue pickup, hauling a trailer with something that looked like a large, well-wrapped sculpture, was stopped in the middle of the road in front of us, next to the massive DeVos Place convention center. There was no stoplight there and it’s a fairly busy road, so it seemed clear that the driver was up to something. We hollered, “Are you with ArtPrize?” Rob Goodrich, sitting on the passenger side, hollered back in the affirmative – he was supposed to exhibit on the grounds of DeVos Place, but he didn’t know exactly where, and he was looking for a place to unload.

And indeed it was a sculpture on the trailer, the 900-pound “Eartha, a.k.a. Mother Earth,” sculpted from FossilCrete. Given the circumstances, there was no chance to chat with Goodrich, who’s from Watervliet, Michigan. But we did wish him luck – his work can be found, somewhere, outside DeVos Place.

Mention of DeVos Place is perhaps an appropriate time to note that the DeVos family is underwriting ArtPrize through the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation. Their son Rick DeVos is leading the effort. The family is best known as owners of Amway, which is based on the outskirts of Grand Rapids and was founded by Rick DeVos’ grandfather.

Ann Arbor artist Matt Kelsey, left, and Tom Gammans, a Grand Rapids art teacher, work on The Grand Rapids Family Tree, seen in the background. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Look, It’s a Tree!

On our way to find the Open Concept Gallery, where Ann Arbor artists Margaret Wyngaard and Kristin Hermanson are exhibiting, we encountered two men – one wielding a welding torch. And in a bit of serendipity that seemed to charm our entire visit, it turned out that the one with the torch was Matt Kelsey, who lives on Ann Arbor’s west side.

Kelsey is the leader of a collaborative ArtPrize effort that involves 30 to 40 art teachers from Grand Rapids. Their artwork – The Grand Rapids Family Tree – is a 10-foot-tall stylistic sculpture of a tree, cut from panels of quarter-inch steel and anchored in a concrete base. Thin rings encircle the branches, and from those will hang braided steel cables with silk ribbons attached. The ribbons – about 3,500 of them – have been signed by people from Grand Rapids, Kelsey said.

The idea was to make a participatory piece that connects people in the community – if they win, all the proceeds will be donated to the Grand Rapids Public Schools. During ArtPrize, there’ll be an interactive component as well: Someone will be stationed next to the tree with extra ribbons, so that passers-by can add their names – as long as they’re from Grand Rapids. You can find this piece at 45 Ottawa Ave., on the east side of a vacant building at Ottawa and Louis Street, which is also an ArtPrize venue.

Post-ArtPrize, Kelsey said he’d love to see the tree find a permanent home in one of the city’s parks. He described it as a “transitory memorial” – the ribbons could be changed to reflect different causes, like pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness and red, white and blue ribbons for Memorial Day.

Entrance to the "Recyclable Container for Humans" by Grand Rapids artist Lisa Yarost, who wrote the title of the piece in chalk on the pavement. It's likely that plastic bottles similar to the ones used in this installation were picked up during the Sept. 19 Mayor's Grand River Cleanup Day. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Olfactory Art

Immediately behind the Grand Rapids Family Tree we noticed what appeared to be bales of trash. It wasn’t absolutely clear that this was an art project – we knew it was Grand River Cleanup Day, for example – so we didn’t check it out. Later in the day, however, in one of the many encounters we had with others who were meandering around downtown looking for ArtPrize installations, someone mentioned that they’d seen the bales being hoisted into place by a crane. That, we had to see.

By the time we returned, we’d missed the crane but saw the end result of its work: More than 100 bales had been stacked to form an enclosure reminiscent of a fort, if that fort had been built by a giant kid living in a dump. Each bale is made of compressed plastic bottles, not yet recycled but clearly on their way. And because many of the bottles had contained detergent or fabric softener, the enclosure – titled “Recyclable Container for Humans” – smells distinctly like a laundry room.

In a work statement posted online, Lisa Yarost, a Grand Rapids artist, explains the piece this way:

Every day we purchase, consume, and dispose of more items than we ever realize, without considering the resources and energy required to manufacture, distribute, and the dispose of the items upon which our lifestyle of disposability is constructed.

What if it all came back?

Charlie Brouwer, left, talks with a visitor to his art installation, "Rise Up Grand Rapids." The ladders used to build the sculpture are mostly borrowed from people in the city. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Lending Ladders

Recycling of a different sort was a theme in another ArtPrize installation in the courtyard of St. Andrews Cathedral. We ventured there not because Charlie Brouwer was an Ann Arbor artist, but because several people we encountered on our walk around downtown had recommended his project, “Rise Up Grand Rapids.” Brouwer was using old ladders – including some he was borrowing from the city’s residents – to build a dome about 25 feet high and 50 feet wide.

In his artist’s statement, Brouwer describes the use of ladders as a metaphor for hope: “We depend on each other – trust is needed in borrowing, lending & returning – the ladders in my structures need each other to stand. Like people they can only transcend and achieve with the help of others.”

He told The Chronicle that as he estimated how long it would take him to complete the installation, he factored in the amount of time he’d probably spend talking to people who passed by – that was part of the project, too. We witnessed just such an occurrence. A woman and her two daughters approached Brouwer – the woman had seen a write-up about his project in the Grand Rapids Press, and had recognized him as her former art teacher. She stopped by to say hello.

Local Artists at ArtPrize

We’d encourage you to stop by and say hello to the local artists who’ll be competing in ArtPrize – or at least, check out their work. Here’s a list of Washtenaw County artists compiled for The Chronicle by Michael Flynn.  Links go to their ArtPrize information, laying out exactly where in Grand Rapids you can find their art.

Emir Alibasic
Scott Allen
Dianne Austin
Shonda Bottke
John Braman
Rick De Troyer
David Fischer
Michael Flynn
Aaron Griffith
Kristin Hermanson
Matt Kelsey
Heidi Kraepel
Heidi Kumao
Ashley Lieber
Tad McKillop
Josh Mcvety
Anne Mondro
Nawal and Karim Motawi
Kirsten Neelands and Stephen B. Proctor
Madalina Nicola
Washington Osler
Margaret Parker
Mary Potts
Denise Rohde
Jeff Salter
Jaye Schlesinger
John Schwarz
Matthew Shlian
Mike Sivak
Joshua Ray Smith
Leslie Sobel
Patrick Thompson
Mark Tucker
Cathy Vanvoorhis
Margaret Wyngaard

Additional Photos

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A sculpture by Steve Baibak of Lansing. The vacant building on Michigan Avenue is being sponsored by Michigan State University for exhibits by its alumni and students. We did not see an equivalent venue specifically for University of Michigan artists. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

A large table and chairs sit atop the tressel of Blue Bridge, a pedestrian walkway over the Grand River. The artwork by Sarah Grant is titled "The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art." (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Chelsea artist Heidi Kraepel will be exhibiting her mixed media work in the Ledyard Building, at 125 Ottawa NW. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

This pink fabric star was suspended by two ropes hung from the roof of the building, and affixed by the man in the cherrypicker. The artist was on the sidewalk below calling up instructions on how to position the piece. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Sometimes, art makes you do crazy things. (Photo by Dave Askins.)

Did we mention that art can make you do crazy things? (Photo by the writer.)