Revue's 2015 Arts Issue

The

/// Special Feature

Arts Issue S

eptember in West Michigan means one thing: ArtPrize. From Sept.

23-Oct. 11, the 7th annual international art competition showcases more than 1,500 works of art, spread across 160 venues in Grand Rapids.

When all is said and done, two fortunate artists will each take home $200,000 in grand prizes. Overall, more than $500,000 is distributed to creative minds.

With all of the commotion caused by the prominent 19-day contest, and the constant flow of other arts-related events in the area, it’s impossible to tell every story. The scene is never ending and forever growing. Nonetheless, Revue’s Arts Issue, at the very least, offers a sample of what our side of the state has to offer. Through a series of Q&As and profiles, this special issue offers a glimpse into the minds of local artists — both established and emerging.

This section also details what West Michigan arts groups have in store for the 2015-2016 season, so be sure to hang on to this issue for the entire year — and support the arts.

Triad by Anthony Schechtman: More about the artist on page 62.

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The Arts Issue | Season Preview

Fred & Dorothy Fichter: Butterflies Are Blooming, March 1-April 30

Fire Barn Gallery 18 N. 5th St., Grand Haven firebarngallery.com

Bernar Venet

at Frederik Meijer Gardens

10 Paintings, Sept. 2-5 Common Magic, Sept. 23-Oct. 11 Grand Haven ArtWalk, Sept. 23-Oct 11 DIA Inside/Out, through Nov. 26

visual art

Glitter Milk Gallery 901 Alpine Ave NW, Grand Rapids glittermilkgallery.com

Compiled by Nicole Rico

(106) Gallery and Studio (Calvin College)

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

106 S. Division, Grand Rapids calvin.edu/centerartgallery/studio, (616) 526-6271 Operated by the Calvin College Department of Art and Art History, the (106) Gallery is part of the downtown Grand Rapids project Avenue for the Arts. Exhibitions include work by faculty, students and the community.

Starting Sept. 8 in Gallery 1, Calvin College Department of Art and Art History celebrates its 50th anniversary. In celebration there’s an exhibit of works by 50 Alumni from the past 50 years titled 50/50 – 50 Alumni in 50 Years. Featured artists include Rick Beerhorst, Taylor Greenfield, David Lubbers, Anna Greidanus, Kevin Buist and Miriam Wassenaar.

Running concurrently in Gallery 2 is Light: An Eternal Presence, which examines the different qualities of light as well as the ability of light to imprint darkness, reveal text and reference history. Artists include Gerhard Richter, Hendrik Kerstens, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sandra Bowden, Arne Svenson, Josh Garber, Carol Bomer and Thierry Cohen. Light is accompanied by a poetry reading called Say What You See in the Dark by Lew Klaat on Sept. 16 at 6 p.m.

32 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

And finally, for those interested in the art of printmaking, drop by the Center Art Gallery and check out The Creative Process: Drawings, Plates, Prints and Watercolors by Reynold Weidenaar. This exhibit showcases over 70 drawings, plates, prints and watercolors by Reynold Weidenaar, confirming his role as an important local artist and a printmaking revivalist.

50/50 – 50 Alumni in 50 Years, Sept. 8-Oct. 10 Light: An Eternal Presence, Sept. 8-Oct. 10 ArtPrize 2015, Sept. 9-Oct. 11 The Creative Process: Drawings, Plates, Prints and Watercolors by Reynold Weidenaar, Oct. 22-Jan. 16.

Plein Air – Land Conservancy of West Michigan, Oct. 28-Nov. 20 The Art of Printmaking with Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, Nov. 5 BA Art Education Exhibition, Dec. 4-Jan. 15

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

1000 East Beltline Avenue NE, Grand Rapids meijergardens.org, (888) 957-1580 If you haven’t had a chance to check out Bernar Venet’s contemporary sculptures at the garden, now is the time to do it. Venet’s

September 2-5 will see Fire Barn Gallery Director Chris Protas’ first show in five years being exhibited. 10 Paintings shows four years of work and is a preview of an upcoming, larger 2016 show. Following that is Common Magic by David Heino. This is a collaborative exhibit showing the work of local artists like Michael Peoples and Kerri VanderHoff, as well as works by Fire Barn Gallery alumni. It runs from September 23-October 11, which is the exact same time as the Grand Haven ArtWalk. Then, through November 26, the Fire Barn Gallery presents DIA Inside/Out, which displays 15 reproductions of art from the DIA collection. This marks the first time the DIA has gone outside of the Detroit Metro area for this exhibit.

works can be seen around the world and are included in several private and public collections. His steel sculptures range from eight to 13 feet tall and were inspired by Venet’s interest in logic and mathematics. The sculptures will remain on display until October 31. After you see the sculptures, head to the Seasonal Display Greenhouse for several chrysanthemum displays as part of the Chrysanthemums and More event. Also included are Halloweenthemed activities for the whole family.

Tradition and Innovation, starting in September, displays the work of Japanese ceramic artists and shows what happens when tradition and avant-garde collide. Co-curated by the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in the Shiga Prefecture, Japan, 20 selected works will be displayed at Frederik Meijer Gardens before the pieces travel to Japanese venues in 2016. And in the Spring the annual Butterflies Are Blooming event lets you witness butterflies from around the world hatch from their cocoons and flutter around the Tropical Conservatory.

Bernar Venet at Meijer Gardens, through Oct. 31 Chrysanthemums and More!, Sept. 18-Nov. 1 Tradition & Innovation: Japanese Ceramics Now, Sept. 18-Jan. 3, 2016 Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the World, Nov. 24-Jan. 3

Showcasing both emerging contemporary artists and seasoned professionals, Glitter Milk Gallery’s exhibits range from pop surrealism and graphic design, to sculptures and illustrations. On September 26 the focus is on wearable button art with their Mini exhibit. On October 24 you can witness their witch-themed Samhain show, just in time for Halloween. Rounding out the year is Candy Art, a show devoted to indie video games featuring handmade arcade cabinets. All shows are one-day only but you can schedule a walkthrough by e-mail.

Mini, Opens Sept. 26 Samhain, Opens Oct. 24 Candy Art, TBD

Grand Rapids Art Museum

101 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids artmuseumgr.org, (616) 831-1000 This fall, GRAM explores the questions of identity, environment, DNA and every-day life through their Nature/Nuture exhibit.

Featuring artists from all over the world, artists showcase the different ways they address nature and nuture through their art and what both of those elements mean in our lives.

curated by GRAM from ArtPrize 2015. For those looking for a bit of childhood nostalgia, in April one of the most important children’s book artists, Maurice Sendak, is featured at the museum. Well-known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak has an exhibit at GRAM from April 9-May 22. It features many of his illustrations, prints and drawings. Also included are comments and photos from celebrities and authors he’s inspired.

ArtPrize Seven at GRAM: Nature/Nurture, Sept. 17-Oct. 11 Reynold Weidenaar: A Retrospective, Oct. 25-Jan.17 Shared Sensibilities: Weidenaar among his Contemporaries and Predecessors, Oct. 25-Jan. 17 GRAM Selects ArtPrize Seven: Encore, Nov. 27-Aug. 14 Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise, Jan. 31-April 17 Maurice Sendak, April 9-May 22

The Public Life of Richard Hunt - 21st Century Projects, Muskegon Museum of Art

In October, two exhibits run concurrently, Reynold Weidenaar: A Retrospective and Shared Sensibilities: Weidenaar among his Contemporaries and Predecessors. Born in Grand Rapids 100 years ago, the exhibit showcases 120 of the cultural icon’s works while Shared Sensibilities displays works by his contemporaries and those he drew inspiration from. Following that is GRAM Selects ArtPrize Seven: Encore, which displays pieces specially

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

314 South Park St., Kalamazoo kiarts.org, (269) 349-7775 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts has three main events this fall. Kicking it off is Common Ground: African American Art from the Flint Institute of Arts, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Muskegon Museum of Art. The exhibit is now open and runs through November 15. It showcases five different eras of work by African American artists. Then check out Flowers in Chinese Art, running now

through Dec. 9, and explore the meanings of different flowers and their colors in Chinese culture.

Another attraction is Manierre Dawson: Engineering Abstraction, which runs through December 13. Dawson made major contributions to the field of abstract painting and his life in Michigan.

And last but not least is the Kirk Newman Art School Faculty Review, open from Sept.

19-Nov. 29. Every other year the Kirk Newman Art School exhibits works from 45 of their more than 250 art classes showing the range of talents that can be learned at the school.

Kirk Newman Art School Faculty Review, Sept. 19-Nov. 29 Common Ground, through Nov. 15 Flowers in Chinese Art, through Dec. 9 Manierre Dawson: Engineering Abstraction, through Dec. 13

LaFontsee Galleries 833 Lake Dr. SE, Grand Rapids 410 W Center St., Douglas lafontsee.us

Starting off as the Underground Studio in 1987, seven years later they expanded to become the LaFontsee Galleries. Having been in the West Michigan art scene for the past 25 years, they now have two locations (Grand Rapids and Douglas) and are currently carrying over 50 artists. LaFontsee Galleries has three main exhibitions this fall, the first being Toast.

Taking place at the new Douglas location, the exhibit runs through October 11 and is the Art Opening Reception for the Douglas 2015 season. On Oct. 16 the Land Conservancy Show starts, as part of a collaboration with the local Nature Conservancy. Rounding out the year is Let’s Get Started, which runs through the Holiday Season.

Toast, Sept. 6-Oct. 11, Douglas location Land Conservancy Show, Oct. 16-25, Douglas location Let’s Get Started, Oct. 29 through 2015 Holiday Season, Grand Rapids location

149 South Hudson St., Lowell lowellartsmi.org , (616) 897-8545 LowellArts! begins fall with an exhibit by West Michigan artist Geary Jones and Coloradan collaborator David Johnson. Fiberx2 features large, three-dimensional tapestry installations and Geary Jones’ woven paintings as well as tapestries from David Johnson’s Echo Series.

Then you can satisfy all of your Halloween needs by going to see Art of Darkness, an exhibit that will explore darkness, terror and mystery “in a thoughtful (not too gruesome) way.”

Fiberx2: Tapestry Collaborations by David Johnson and Geary Jones, Aug. 21-Sept. 26 Fallasburg Fall Festival for the Arts, Sept.

19-20 Art of Darkness, Oct. 1-31 LowellArts! Players presents Play Bytes by Playwrights, Oct. 16-31 LowellArts! Holiday Market, Nov. 13-Dec. 23

Muskegon Museum of Art

296 W. Webster Ave., Muskegon muskegonartmuseum.org, (231) 720-2570 Known for its well-known collection of paintings, sculpture, glass and prints, the Muskegon Museum of Art boasts a remarkable variety.

This season is also impressive, starting with Challenging Tradition. It showcases what happens when functional craft-based objects overlap with other disciplines like drawing, painting, sculpting and electronic media.

These works of fine art are products of the Modernism movement in the middle 20th century when interest began to be shown in the object itself, rather than what function it might have served.

Up next is Extreme Fibers: Textile Icons and the New Edge. It shows the diversity of fine art textiles and the fiber movement.

Viewers can find both abstracted shapes and functional pieces at the exhibit in the form of quilts, weavings, sculptures, basketry and tapestries. In November, The Public Life of Richard Hunt explores the work of this nationally known sculptor through scale models, drawings, photographs and a documentary film. Locals may know his piece Muskegon Together Rising, commissioned in 2008, which stands in downtown Muskegon.

Challenging Tradition: Fine Craft from the Permanent Collection, through Oct. 25 Doorways: A Passage through the Permanent Collection, through Oct. 11 Freestyle: The Art of the Snowboard, Oct. 29-Jan. 10 Extreme Fibers: Textile Icons and the New Edge, through Nov. 1 The Public Life of Richard Hunt: 21st Century Projects, Nov. 5-Jan. 24 Festival of Trees, Nov. 19-29

Maurice Sendak, Grand Rapids Art Museum REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

Scene Sounds | Sights | Dining | Schedule

LowellArts!

Need a break from that darkness? Check out the 47th Annual Fallasburg Fall Festival for the Arts. Located in Fallasburg Park, the event features over 100 fine art and fine crafts booths. There’s also food booths, music, craft demonstrations and a children’s craft area.

If you’re looking for unique gifts for your loved ones, you can find handmade pieces by over 40 area artists, including paintings, pottery, photography, jewelry, glasswork, metalwork and textiles, among others at the LowellArts! Holiday Market, which opens Nov. 13.

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The Arts Issue | Season Preview

Saugatuck Center for the Arts 400 Culver St., Saugatuck sc4a.org, (269) 857-2399

Photos (Broadway cast): Joan Marcus and Chris Callis

i l l a V e i k n a r f f o y r o T The s & The foUr seasons

Starting out September is A Wise Perspective: A Celebratory Collection of Works by Saugatuck High School Creatives. This in-depth exhibition features work by Saugatuck High School alumni nurtured by recently retired Art Educator Christa Wise. There is work from several fields including fashion, film, circus performance, comedy and choreography.

The featured artists include: Marlee Alexander, Christian Birky, Barrett Randolph, Emma Schoenfelner, Brenton Wehrmeyer and Zoey Werme. Then from Sept. 17-Nov. 1 check out the Native Spirits exhibit, which features art forms like pottery, fiber art and wood carving by members of the Gun Lake Tribe of Pottawatomi. Also included are portraits taken during the 2015 Sweet Grass Moon Pow wow by photographer James Cook. In February you can check out Do you mind if I put that there?, a collaborative work by Lisa Walcott and Meridith Ridl. The drawings are created from marks, stumbles, glitches and piles and run the gamut of emotions, from funny to self-deprecating.

A Wise Perspective, through September 4 Native Spirits, Sept. 17-Nov. 1 Art ‘a Loan, Nov. 11-Jan. 2 Silk Road, Jan. 8-Feb. 20 Do you mind if I put that there?, Feb. 28-April 16

Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

2 Fulton W, Grand Rapids uica.org, (616) 454-7000

Starting off this fall at UICA is SENSE, an exhibit taking place over six responsive locations within the space and evokes the viewer to use their five senses to respond to the work.

Following SENSE is Coming Home, which spotlights Michigan artists (those born in, living in, or who have spent considerable time in Michigan), highlighting the diverse talent and inspiration that can be found in this state.

If you’re looking to take in a good film, but Hollywood Blockbusters are not quite your thing, then head to UICA for all your foreign, independent and documentary needs. All year round, Tuesday through Sunday, check out festival award winners and critical favorites in UICA’s downtown Grand Rapids theater.

Tickets are $4 for UICA members, $8 for nonmembers. Also at UICA, presented by Grand Rapids Brewing Company, is the ongoing series Brunch, Brews, and a Movie. The event includes brunch, a drink, a film lecture, a film screening and admission to UICA galleries.

Tickets are $20, but tickets for just the film, without the tasty perks, are $8.

Exhibits: SENSE: ArtPrize 2015, Sept. 12-Oct. 18 Coming Home, Oct. 28-Feb 7 Films: Affliction, Sept. 3 Tribe, through Sept. 3 People, Places, Things, through Sept. 10 The Look of Silence, Sept. 4-17 Listen to Me Marlon, Sept. 11-24 The Hunting Ground, Sept. 15 Queen of Earth, Sept. 18-Oct. 1 Brunch, Brews, and a Movie: A Clockwork Orange, Sept. 13 The 400 Blows with Toni Perrine, Oct. 4 A Face in the Crowd with Christian Gaines, Nov. 8 2001: A Space Odyssey with Chris Randall, Dec. 13

October 13-18

1-800 WHARTON • WHARTONCENTER.COM

October 20-25

millerauditorium.com • (269) 387-2300 • (800) 228-9858

34 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

A Clockwork Orange, UICA’s Brunch, Brews and a Movie

SEP 13 — OCT 18, 2015

Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts ArtPrize 2015: SENSE UICA has selected six site-responsive art installations to showcase within our exhibition spaces. The art included in SENSE engages that which is at the root of all experience, the things that make us who we are, and that allow us to experience and learn from the world around us: Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, and perception beyond the five senses, intuition. The works may activate any number of the senses, and guests are encouraged to consider their own sensory experience when responding.

Tamara Kostianovsky – Relic Sara Dittrich & Benjamin Buchanan – Symphony of Gestures #61298 Charles Jevremovic – Technician 3 #62142 Heather Brammeier – This Mortal Coil #61433 Michael Peoples – The Great Race #62248 Jihyun Hong – (extra)ordinary #61230 #61863

UICA ArtPrize Hours: Mon: 5pm – 8pm Tues – Sat: 12 noon – 9pm Sun: 12 noon – 6pm UICA Member Benefits During ArtPrize. Beat the crowds during UICA Member Hours on Friday & Saturday from 10am – 12 noon. Members may bring up to two guests with you to Member Hours. Please have your Member card and photo ID ready upon entry.

Become a Member. Becoming a member today will support UICA’s exhibitions, programs, and events year-round. Learn more about the benefits of becoming a UICA Member at uica.org/memberships, by email at membership@uica.org, or call 616 454 7000.

uica.org/sense

2 Fulton W Grand Rapids, MI 49503 616 454 7000 REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

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The Arts Issue | Season Preview

The Book of Mormon, Broadway Grand Rapids

performing arts

Compiled by Amanda Denomme

Actors’ Theatre

143 Bostwick Ave. NE, Grand Rapids actorstheatregrandrapids.com, (616) 234-3817

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

Photo: Joan Marcus

Actors’ Theatre presents five shows for the 2015-2016 season, kicking it off is Heathers: The Musical. The classic dark comedy follows Veronica, a teenage girl trying to make her way to the top of the high school food chain by attaining acceptance in the ruthless clique at Westerberg High: The Heathers. However, Veronica is forced to choose between love and keeping her social status. Another rousing production for the season is Grace, a complex drama about a cynical atheist science professor who becomes outraged when she learns her son wants to become a priest. Other shows for the season include Dogfight, Rapture, Blister, Burn, and Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and Spike.

Heathers: The Musical, Oct. 8-10, Oct. 15-17, and Oct. 22-24 Dogfight, Dec. 3-5, Dec. 10-12, Dec. 17-19 Grace, Jan. 28-30, Feb. 4-6 Rapture, Blister, Burn, Mar. 17-19, Mar. 24-26 Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and Spike, May 12-14, May 19-21

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Black Arts & Cultural Center

Epic Center 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 202, Kalamazoo blackartskalamazoo.org, (269) 349-1035

The Black Arts & Cultural Center begins its season with Chain. A one-woman show about the struggles of drug addiction, Chain follows Rosa Atkins, a 16 year old girl chained to the radiator in her parent’s apartment as a means to keep her from doing drugs. During the course of the play she reflects on her life as she tries to decide whether to live with or without drugs. Chain runs from Oct. 22-26.

In January, the center presents The Mountaintop, directed by D. Terry Williams.

Taking place on April 3, 1968, this play depicts Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King as he questions the sentiments of his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. The Mountaintop humanizes King and shows how important the fight for justice is, even in times of weakness.

Chain, Oct. 22-26 The Mountaintop, Jan. 15-24

Broadway Grand Rapids 122 Lyon St. NW, Grand Rapids broadwaygrandrapids.com, (616) 235-6285

Broadway Grand Rapids consistently brings New York City to West Michigan, this season is no different. In September Disney’s smash hit, Newsies, will take over the stage and get everyone singing. Mannheim Steamroller then ushers in the holiday season with a one-night only performance. In June things heat up with The Book of Mormon. The nine-time Tony-Award winner, created by South Park masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone, follows a pair of Mormon boys on a mission across the map — far from their home base of Salt Lake City. The New York Times dubbed the edgy production as “the best musical of this century.” Entertainment Weekly hailed it as “the funniest musical of all time.” Other massive Broadway hits headed to GR include Phantom of the Opera and the 20th anniversary of Riverdance.

Newsies, Sept. 22-27 Pippin, Nov. 3-8 Mannheim Streamroller, Nov. 30 Riverdance, Apr. 12-17 Phantom of the Opera, May 18-29 The Book of Mormon, Jun. 21-26

Calvin Theatre Company

3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids calvin.edu/academic/cas/ctc, (616) 526-6282

The Calvin Theatre Company presents two Shakespearean productions, King Lear and Love’s Labour’s Lost. King Lear is disclosed as the triumph of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The production begins with an old king, set in his ways, who divides his kingdom among his three daughters and vows to give the largest portion to the one who loves him most. You Make a Difference is about Sticks, Backwad, and Diamond. The show centers around three friends who are ruthlessly bullied at their school. Together the friends start a “You Make a Difference” campaign and an entire community is led to a greater sense of wellbeing and hope. The final show for the season is Love’s Labour’s Lost, where The King of Navarre and his three companions swear a very public oath to renounce all distractions, particularly women, and spend three years pursuing manly work and scholarly studies in solitude and retreat.

King Lear, Nov. 12-14, Nov. 19-21 You Make a Difference, Jan. 27-29 Love’s Labour’s Lost, Apr. 21-23, Apr. 28-30

Circle Theatre

1607 Robinson Rd. SE, Grand Rapids circletheatre.org, (616) 632-1980 The Circle Theatre had six productions scheduled for the season with Catch Me If You Can and Jungle Book remaining on their schedule. The season will end in 2016 with Jungle Book, an action-packed adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic adventure story.

In the production, the precocious Mowgli is raised by caring wolves, befriended by Bagheera, the panther, and Baloo, the bear, and threatened by Shere Khan, the evil tiger.

Once Mowgli learns he is actually a human, he must decide whether to remain with the pack, or return to the human world from which he was born. What will he choose?

Catch Me If You Can, Sept. 3-5, 9-12, 16-19 The Jungle Book, June 24-28

Farmers Alley Theatre Kalamazoo farmersalleytheatre.com, (269) 343-2727

The Farmers Alley Theatre has seven shows for its eighth season, the theatre’s most ambitious schedule to date. Running from September to October, it begins with an oddball classic, the hysterical Little Shop of Horrors. The season continues with an energetic one-man comedy, Fully Committed.

The theatre also announced the return of its cabaret series with the original Forever Plaid.

Other shows for the season include Other Desert Cities, Murder for Two, A Man of No Importance, and Monty Python’s Spamalot.

in the big city of New York. Season passes are on sale now.

pathy. The season closes with the full-length classic of Cinderella.

Our Town, Sept. 25-26, Oct. 1-11 Ameriville, Oct. 9-10, 15-18 The Country Wife, Oct. 23-25, 30-31, Nov. 1 The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Nov. 13-15, 19-22 A Behanding In Spokane, Nov. 6-8, 12-15, 20-21 Next Stop, Broadway, Dec. 10-12 A Soldier’s Play, Feb. 5-7, 11-14 Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Feb. 12-14, 18-21, 25-28 Big Love, Mar. 18-20, 24-26 Thoroughly Modern Millie, Apr. 8-10, 14-17

Pacifica Oct. 16-18 The Nutcracker, Dec. 11-13, 18-20 Dangerous Liaisons, February 12-14, 19-21 The Best of MOVEMEDIA, Mar. 18-20 Cinderella, May 6-8, 13-15

Grand Rapids Ballet Company

341 Ellsworth Ave. SW, Grand Rapids grballet.com, (616) 454-4771 The Grand Rapids Ballet’s 2015-16 season explores the world of dance with premieres, classics and GRB favorites. Chris Van Allsburg’s Nutcracker production returns, as it remains a West Michigan’s holiday tradition. The show is perfect for the entire family as the beautiful choreography and enchanting set brings sugar plum fairies, fighting mice and toy soldiers to life. In February, the GRB hosts the U.S. premiere of Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa’s Dangerous Liaisons, a show that perceives a world where etiquette and status overpower the value of love and em-

Little Shop of Horrors, Sept. & Oct. 2015 Fully Committed, Nov. 2015 Forever Plaid, Dec. 2015 Other Desert Cities, Feb. 2016 Murder for Two, Apr. & May 2016 A Man of No Importance, June 2016 Monty Python’s Spamalot, Jul. & Aug. 2016

30 N Division Ave., Grand Rapids grct.org, (616) 222-6650

The Grand Rapids Civic Theatre begins its 90th season off with glamour and flamboyancy in The Great Gatsby. The stage adaption captures F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel with self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby and the elusive Daisy Buchanan. Together the two battle obsession, greed and some danger along the way. Sister Act also hits the theatre in February. The feel-good musical comedy initially made famous by the original Whoopi Goldberg films. Other shows for the season include A Christmas Story, Sleepy Hollow, Into the Woods by the Teen Theatre Program, and many more!

The Great Gatsby, Sept. 11-27 Sleepy Hollow, Oct. 23 — Nov. 1 A Christmas Story, Nov. 20 — Dec. 20 Barefoot in the Park, Jan. 15 — 31 Sister Act, February 26 — Mar. 20 Freckle Face Strawberry, Apr. 22 — May 1 Caroline or Change, June 3 — 19 Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Youth Play), Jul. 29 — Aug. 7 Into The Woods (Youth Musical), Jul.29 — Aug. 7

GVSU Fall Arts

gvsu.edu/fallarts, (616) 331-2185

1903 W Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo wmich.edu/theatre, (269) 387-3227

Arrival from Sweden featuring the music of ABBA, Van Singel Fine Arts Center

Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal, Sept. 10 Faculty Artistry Gems, Sept. 21 An Evening of Poetry and Conversation, Oct. 15 Meditations in Motion, Nov. 2 Discovery and Collaboration, Nov. 16 Stille Nacht, Dec. 7

290 Lake Superior Hall gvsu.edu/theatre, (616) 331-2300 The GVSU Theatre will continue their tradition of kicking off the season with a Shakespearean performance in honor of the GVSU Shakespearean Festival. This year they will present All’s Well That Ends Well, a play about a young orphan named Helena who is the ward to the Countess of Rousillon and is hopelessly in love with her son. Also, Godspell will be presented at the GVSU Opera Theatre in early February. Other shows this season include a Performance Studio Series, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, and Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Shakespearean Festival, Oct. 2 All’s Well That Ends Well, Oct. 2-11 Performance Studio Series, Oct. 24-26 Twilight, Los Angeles, 1992, Nov. 13-22 GVSU Opera Theatre presents Godspell, Feb. 5-14 Six Characters in Search of an Author, Apr. 1-10

Holland Civic Theatre 50 W. 9th St., Holland hollandcivictheatre.org, (616) 396-2021

The Holland Civic Theatre launches its 2015-2016 season in October with Death of a Salesman, the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning story about a man experiencing regret in his life due to his unsuccessful career in sales. Following that is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a classic comedy about a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant while dealing with some of the most awful kids in history. Meanwhile, Move Over, Mrs. Markham takes place in an elegant top floor London flat where complications between couples and bed-hopping occur. The season wraps with Twelve Angry Jurors — where jurors decide the fate of a 19-year-old boy who fatally stabbed his father.

Death of a Salesman, Oct. 1-3, 9-11, 15-17 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Nov. 27-29, Dec. 4-5. 10-12 Move Over, Mrs. Markham, 4-6, 12-14, 18-20 Leaving Iowa, Apr. 14-16, 22-24, 29-30 Tulip Time Shows May 7-8, 10-14 Schoolhouse Rock Live, Jr., Jul. 14-17, 21-24 Twelve Angry Jurors, Aug 11-13, 18-20

Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids 2727 Michigan NE, Grand Rapids jtgr.org, (616) 234-3595

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

Scene Sounds | Sights | Dining | Schedule

GVSU celebrates its 13th annual Fall Arts Celebration with poetry, art, music, dance, lecture and a holiday celebration. Join the Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal art exhibition to view a set of artistic taste and collaborative structures. Also, don’t miss the Kun-Yan Lin dancers’ present Meditations in Motion. Other performances and celebrations include a Stille Nacht, An Evening of Poetry with Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Kwame Dawes, and Discovery and Collaboration with Kip Throne.

Gilmore Theatre/WMU Theatre This season Gilmore/WMU Theatre features a variety of shows with something for everyone. Shows include Pulitzer Prize winners such as, Our Town, a show exploring the beautiful complexities of small town life, and A Soldier’s Play, an intriguing murder mystery set at a Louisiana army camp during World War II. Also playing in the spring is Thoroughly Modern Mille, a toe-tapping, six time Tony-Award-winning musical that follows Millie, a small town girl finding her way

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre

GVSU Theatre

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The Arts Issue | Season Preview

The Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids’ season presents intriguing performances taking on Jewish themes and ideals. The roster kick offs with Becoming Dr. Ruth, a show about the well-known Dr. Ruth Westheimer and her career as a sex therapist. However, many are unaware of her difficult past that includes fleeing a Nazi camp. For This Moment Alone showcases a Jewish family trying to recover from the horrors of the war in Europe. Lastly, Two Jews Walk into a War is about Ishaq and Zeblyan, the last remaining Jews in Afghanistan who just buried their friend.

Becoming Dr. Ruth, Sept. 9-10, 12-13, 16-17, 19 — 20 For This Moment Alone, Apr. 7, 9-10, 14, 16-17 Two Jews Walk into a War, June 16, 18-19, 23, 25-26

Kalamazoo Civic Theatre

329 S. Park St., Kalamazoo kazoocivic.com, (269) 343-1313 The Kalamazoo Civic Theatre celebrates its 87th season with 13 prominent productions.

Some of the highly anticipated shows include Evita, Mary Poppins, Of Mice and Men, Hairspray and Stuart Little. Also for the sea-

son, the theatre will put on Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Crown Jewel, a fun and mystery-filled musical. The twists and turns keep audiences intrigued as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson unravel a mystery that leads them from the back alleys of the great city to the Tower of London. Closing out the season in May is Still Life with Iris.

Evita, Sept. 25 - Oct. 10 Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Crown Jewel, Oct. 16 — 24 The Great American Songbook, Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 Mary Poppins, Nov. 20 - Dec. 6 Over the River and Through the Woods, Jan 15 — 30 Hands on a Hardbody, Jan. 29 - Feb 13 Steel Magnolias, Feb. 19 - Mar. 5 Of Mice and Men, Mar. 4 — 19 Stuart Little, Mar. 18 — 25 4000 Miles, Apr. 8 — 23 And Then There Were None, Apr. 15 — 24 Hairspray, May 6 — 22 Still Life with Iris, May 20 - 28

Miller Auditorium

1903 W Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo millerauditorium.com, (269) 387-2309 Kalamazoo’s Miller Auditorium recently released its stacked 2015-2016 season.

Productions presented during the PNC Broadway in West Michigan Series include The Illusionists, Jersey Boys, Once and Chicago. And the Lake Michigan Mailers Spotlight Series includes The Second City, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Riverdance and more. Season subscription packages are now available from the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office. More events are being added to the 2015-16 season and will be announced soon.

2015-16 PNC BROADWAY IN WEST MICHIGAN SERIES: The Illusionists, Oct. 7-8 Jersey Boys, Oct. 20-25 Once, Jan. 25-26 Chicago, Feb. 29, Mar.1 2015-16 LAKE MICHIGAN MAILERS SPOTLIGHT SERIES: The Second City, Sept. 25 The Texas Tenors, Oct. 16 Cirque Mechanics, Nov. 1 All Hands On Deck! The Musical, Nov. 15 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical, Nov. 25 Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Jan. 16 Momix, Jan. 19 Ira Glass, Jan. 24 Golden Dragon Acrobats Present Cirque Zíva, Feb. 20

Motown the Musical, The Wharton Center

Dancing in the Streets Motown Revue, Mar. 19 Riverdance, Mar. 29 Garrison Keillor, Apr. 27 Special presentation at the Shaw Theatre in the Gilmore Theatre Complex: Sex Tips For Straight Women From a Gay Man, Apr. 22-23

Muskegon Civic Theatre

425 W Western Ave. #401, Muskegon muskegoncivictheatre.org, (231) 722-3852 The season is looking bright for the Muskegon Civic Theatre, as it will be presenting beloved classics, a murder/romance production and many more exhilarating shows. Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice is about a sex-obsessed wife and her lover’s plan to murder her stuffy husband. Also set for this season is the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill A Mockingbird. Moonlight and Magnolias, where three men work five days on a diet of peanuts and bananas to create a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.

Beardsley Theatre: Moonlight and Magnolias, Sept. 18-20, 24-27, Oct. 1-3 Beardsley Theatre: Accomplice, Nov. 20-22, 27-29, Dec. 3-6 Blackbox Theatre setting on the Frauenthal Stage: The Fantasticks, Jan. 22-24, 28-30 Beardsley Theatre: To Kill A Mockingbird, Feb. 19-21, 25-28, Mar. 3-5 Frauenthal Theater: Into the Woods, May 5-8

Opera Grand Rapids

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

161 Ottawa Ave. NW, Grand Rapids operagr.com, (616) 451-2741

38 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

Opera Grand Rapids, the longest-running professional opera company in Michigan, has nine productions set for its 2015-2016 run, including Requiem, Orpheus and Eurydice, the classic Romeo and Juliet and The Student Prince. The season is also host to a Collegiate Vocal Competition where vocal students compete in concert style with a variety of opera gems. Recitals for the season include Winterreise, Shakespeare Songs, String Quartet #1 and Westside Story.

DeVos Performance Hall, Requiem, Oct. 30 Betty Van Andel Opera Center, Collegiate Vocal Competition, Nov. 22 DeVos Center of Arts and Worship, Orpheus and Eurydice, Apr. 8-9 DeVos Performance Hall, Romeo and Juliet, Apr. 29-30 St. Cecilia Music Center, The Student Prince, June 9-10, 12

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

39

The Arts Issue | Season Preview

Recitals at the Betty Van Andel Opera Center: Winterreise, Jan. 14 Shakespeare Songs, Mar. 3 String Quartet #1, Apr. 14 Westside Story, May 20 & 22

Van Singel Fine Arts Center 8500 Burlingame SW, Byron Center vsfac.com, (616) 878-6800

America’s favorite musical family, The Willis Clan, kicks off the new season in October at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center. Fans will be able to see the clan present their Irish roots by combining music and dance on stage.

Other shows for the season include Driving Miss Daisy and Cool Jazz with the Byron Center Jazz Ensembles. Arrival from Sweden features music from ABBA, known for ‘70s pop hits like “Dancing Queen.”

The Willis Clan, Oct. 18 Driving Miss Daisy, Mar. 31 Cool Jazz with the Byron Center Jazz Ensembles, Apr. 29 Arrival from Sweden featuring the music of ABBA, Apr. 3

Wharton Center for Performing Arts

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

750 E. Shaw Ln., East Lansing whartoncenter.com, (517) 353-1982

40 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

East Lansing’s Wharton Center for Performing Arts’ 2015-2016 season has nine Broadway blockbusters, a handful of superstars premiering at the venue and a few brand-new titles — making it totally worth a road trip to the campus of Michigan State University. This September, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Tony Award winner Cinderella will take the stage.

The production is a contemporary approach on the classic tale and will surely delight all ages. Crowd favorites are also back as Jersey Boys and Book of Mormon return to the Wharton Center. The season also includes great hits and classics like Dirty Dancing, Sound of Music, Motown the Musical and a night with Kristin Chenoweth.

Eugene Jarecki, Sept. 16 Cinderella, Sept. 22-27 Lang Lang, Sept. 28 Baltimore, Oct. 2-11 Bill Maher, Oct. 10 Jersey Boys, Oct.13-18 The National Circus and Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China, Oct. 22 For Tonight, Oct. 23-24 The Stinky Cheese Man, Oct. 25 An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth, Oct. 25 Dr. Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., Nov. 2

Dirty Dancing, Wharton Center Twyla Tharp Dance, Nov. 3 Dirty Dancing, Nov. 10-15 Stage Door, Nov. 13 Hugh Masakela & Larry Willis, Dec. 1 Freshman Showcase: The Money King, Dec. 3-6 Morgan James, Dec. 6 Cirque Dreams Holidaze, Dec. 17-19 Moscow Festival Ballet presents Romeo and Juliet & the Sleeping Beauty, Jan. 8 Valentijn Dhaenens- Big Mouth, Jan. 15 Complexions Contemporary Dance, Jan. 19 Chic Gamine, Jan. 21 And Away We Go, Jan. 22-31 Vocalosity, Jan. 26 Broadway’s Next H!T Musical, Jan. 29 Band of Royal Marines with the Pipes, Drums of the Scots Guard, Jan. 30 The Monster Who Ate My Peas, Jan. 31 Bobby McFerrin, Feb. 6 Sound of Music, Feb. 9-14 The Hollywood Concert Orchestra presents A Night at the Oscars, Feb. 17 An Evening with Savion Glover & Jack Dejohnette, Feb. 19 Pride and Prejudice, Feb. 19-28 Re Entry, Feb. 26-27 Peter Rabbit Tales, Feb. 27 Elisabeth L. Rosenthal, Feb. 29 The Chieftains, Mar. 3 Skippy Jon Jones- Snow What, Mar. 12 Motown the Musical, Mar. 15-20 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mar. 21 Mack Avenue Superband, Mar. 29 Riverdance, Apr. 1-3 Naomi Klein, Apr. 4 Zakir Hussain, Apr. 5 Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars Concert, Apr. 13 Grease, Apr. 15-24 Matilda the Musical, Apr. 19-24 Bria Skonberg, Apr. 27 The Bridges of Madison County, May 19-22 The Book of Mormon, June 14-19

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41

The Arts Issue | Season Preview

music Compiled by Tayler Keefer

Fontana Chamber Arts

The Gilmore

The Fontana Chamber Arts strives to connect with community by offering a wide range of musical performances with special deals for students and those ages 25 and under. This season line-up features string quartets, a variety of jazz musicians and mandolinist Chris Thile. The Taylor Eigsti Trio will also perform at Bell’s Café, with the namesake of the trio backed by Dave Brubeck.

The Gilmore’s main jam is featuring talented young pianists from around the globe in their Rising Stars Series. In the 16th year of the series, artists hail from China, France, Switzerland, USA, Russia and Germany. It’s likely some of these artists will soon be well known forces in the classical music scene so there is no better chance than to see them now in our own backyard.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Sept. 11 Jerusalem Quartet, Oct. 10 Chris Thile, Oct. 30 Emmanuel Pahud & Christian Rivet, Nov. 21 Time for Three, Feb. 26 Julliard String Quartet, March 18 Miró Quartet with Colin Currie, April 16 Taylor Eigsti Trio, May 12 Crybaby Concerts, Multiple Dates

Fei-Fei Dong, Sept. 27 David Kadouch, Nov. 1 Franceso Piemontesi, Nov. 15 Andrew Hsu, Dec. 6 Igor Levit, February 7

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

359 S. Kalamazoo Mall Ste. 200, Kalamazoo fontanachamberarts.org, (269) 382-7774

42 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

359 S Kalamazoo Mall Ste. 101, Kalamazoo thegilmore.org, (269) 342-1166

Grand Rapids Symphony

300 Ottawa Ave NW Ste. 100, Grand Rapids grsymphony.org, (616) 454-9541

Dianne Reeves, St. Cecilia Music Center

The Grand Rapids Symphony has been a treasured fixture in the community the past 86 years and continues to bring stellar performances to West Michigan. Classic orchestral and choral performances will feature Mahler’s Titan, Brahms’ German Requiem, Debussy’s La Mer and the music of John Williams. The popular music of the newest Star Trek series, Pokémon themes and Disney’s Fantasia will also have its time to shine. A tribute to Louis Armstrong is highly anticipated, and of course we always look forward to all of the holiday programming, including The Nutcracker at Devos Performance Hall.

Romeo & Juliet, Sept. 18-19 Love, Lust & Rock ‘N Roll, Oct. 2-4 Ravel’s Piano Concerto, Oct. 9-10 Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus Fall Concert, Oct. 18 Star Trek: Live in Concert, Oct. 17 Mahler’s Titan, Oct. 23-24 Grand Rapids Youth Symphony & Classical Orchestra: Fall Concert, Nov. 1 The Romantic Coffee Concert, Nov. 6 Fantasia Live in Concert, Nov. 13-15 Brahms’ German Requiem, Nov. 20-21 The Snowman, Nov. 21 Holiday Pops, Dec. 3-6 Michael W. Smith: The Spirit of Christmas, Dec. 8 Grand Rapids Ballet Presents: The Nutcracker, Dec. 11-13, 18-20 Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus Holiday Concert, Dec. 20

Taylor Eigsti Trio,

Fontana Chamber Arts

Fifth Third Cirque De Noël, Dec. 22-23 Beethoven’s Pastoral, Jan. 8-9 The Classical Concert, Jan. 14-15 Hansel & Gretel — School Performance, Jan. 20-23 What a Wonderful World: A Louis Armstrong Tribute, Jan. 22-24 Dvořàk’s Seventh, Jan. 29-30 Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions, Feb. 5 Debussy’s La Mer, Feb. 19-20

Symphony with Soul, Feb. 27 The Baroque Coffee Concert, March 4 Grand Rapids Youth Symphony & Classical Orchestra Concert, March 6 Ferdinand the Bull — School Performance, March 9-10 & 19 Celtic Kids, March 11 The Celtic Concert, March 11-13 Beethoven’s Emperor, March 18 Pines of Rome, April 22-23 Grand Rapids Youth Symphony & Classical Orchestra Concert, May 1 Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus Spring Concert, May 1 The Music of John Williams, May 6-8 Carmina Burana, May 13-14

Hope College Great Performance Series 141 E 12th St, Holland hope.edu/gps, (616) 395-7860

This performance series features an eclectic group of shows and kicking the dynamic season off is Thodos Dance Chicago, a world renowned dance troupe. The series also features Barbara Furtuna with Constantinople, a middle eastern-barbershop quartet type collaboration. Another performer is guitar prodigy Julian Lange and his band, followed

by Julian Sands in An Evening with Harold Pinter — a one-man show originally directed

by John Malkovitch celebrating the poetry of Harold Pinter. Rounding out the season is Bang on a Can All Stars, an ensemble oozing with artistic freedom in genre, and Imani Winds, North America’s premier wind quintet.

twice during the season. You can sip and soak in great music in a relaxed atmosphere.

Brahms and Tchaikovsky: Lana Trotovšek on Violin, Sept. 18 The World of Stravinsky, Sept. 27 Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Oct. 4 Mozart & Haydn: James Austin Smith on Oboe, Oct. 17 Who’s Bad: Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band, Nov. 7 Saint-Saens & Shostakovich: Pascal Rogé on Piano, Nov. 20 Nutcracker: Ballet Arts Ensemble, Dec. 5-6 Sounds of the Season, Dec. 19 The World of Vivaldi, Jan. 10 Classics Uncorked: Winter Evening, Jan. 22 Classics on Tap: Winter Evening, Jan. 23 Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery, Jan. 31 Beethoven & Nielson: Yukie Ota on Flute, Feb. 19 Al Jarreau in Symphony, Feb. 27 Brahms & Fauré: Leon Williams on Baritone, March 19 KSO @ The Movies: Disney’s Alice in Wonderland LIVE, April 2 Classics Uncorked: Spring Evening, April 15 Classics on Tap: Spring Evening, April 16 Elgar & Stravinsky: Hai-Ye Ni on Cello, April 23 Gilmore Festival Finale: Rafal Blechaca, 2014 Gilmore Artist on Piano, May 14

Kalamazoo State Theatre

404 S Burdick St, Kalamazoo kazoostate.com, (269) 345-6500

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra has a roster of fresh programming this season. The World Of series introduces various stages of different composers’ lives and works, while the Symphonic series features contemporary talent playing the greats’ classic compositions.

Younger audiences can enjoy the Family Discovery and Pops series, which weaves more visual aspects into the shows. And for the beer and wine lovers (of which we are many), the Classics on Tap and Classics Uncorked brings music to Bell’s Eccentric Café and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

Beanie Sigel w/ Freeway, Sept. 12 Wilco w/ William Tyler, Sept. 16 The La Las, Sept. 18 Jonny Lang, Sept. 25 Highway to Hell AC/DC Tribute Show, Oct. 3 Buddy Guy, Oct. 10 Melissa Etheridge, Oct. 13 The Mersey Beatles, Oct. 16 Rock My Soul w/ The Fairfield Four & The McCrary Sisters, Oct. 18 Grace Potter, Oct. 25 Russian Grand Ballet Presents: Swan Lake, Oct. 24 Jesse Cook, Oct. 27

359 Kalamazoo Mall Ste. 100, Kalamazoo kalamazoosymphony.com, (269) 349-7759

St. Cecilia Music Center 24 Ransom Ave NE, Grand Rapids scmc-online.org, (616) 459-2224

Music can reach the ethereal levels it should in venues as beautiful and timeless as St. Cecilia’s Music Center. They have been bringing in great musical acts for years and this season The Chamber Music Society will be visiting a whopping three times. Other featured jazz acts include Anat Cohen, Clarinetist of the Year for the past eight years as voted by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Another performer is Jack DeJohnette, a drum legend who got his start playing in Miles Davis’ group in the 1960s.

Dianne Reeves — Great Artist Gala, Oct. 29 The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Nov. 12 The Steel Wheels — The Acoustic Café Folk Series, Nov. 22 Anat Cohen — Brazilian Jazz, Dec. 10 The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jan. 21 Shawn Colvin — The Acoustic Café Folk Series, Feb. 18 Cyrille Aimee — French Gypsy Jazz, March 10 The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, March 17 The Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour, March 19 Jack DeJohnette — Jazz Drumming Legend, April 21

University Musical Society

Burton Memorial Tower 881 N University Ave, Ann Arbor ums.org, (734) 764-2538 Located in Ann Arbor’s cultural hub, many performances will grace the University Musical Society stage this year. Several of Shakespeare’s works will be performed as well as the New York Philharmonic in October, playing in real time along to a screening of Elia Kazen’s On the Waterfront.

My Brightest Diamond with the Detroit Party Marching Band, Sept. 11 NT Live: George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, Sept. 16 Audra McDonald, Sept. 12 Sphinx Virtuosi w/ the Catalyst Quartet and Gabriela Lena Frank on Piano, Sept. 27 L-E-V, Oct. 3 The Gloaming, Oct. 7 New York Philharmonic, Oct. 9-11 Antigone by Sophocles, Oct. 14-17 RSC Live in HD: Shakespeare’s Othello, Oct. 18 Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya, Oct. 21 Sankai Juku: UMUSUNA: Memories Before History, Oct. 23-24 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Works of William Forsythe, Oct. 27 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 29 Tenebrae, Oct. 30 Danish String Quartet, Nov. 6 Chucho Valdé: Irakere 40, Nov. 8 Youssou N’Dour and Super Étoile de Dakar, Nov. 14 NT Live: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nov. 15 Leif Ove Andsnes: Piano, Nov. 20 Takács Quartet, Dec. 2 Handel’s Messiah, Dec. 5-6 RSC Live in HD: Shakespeare’s Henry V, Dec. 13 National Theater of Scotland: A Christmas Carol, Dec. 17-20, 22-24, 26-31, and Jan. 1-3 What’s in a Song? A Song Recital Evening with Martin Katz and & Friends, Jan. 8 Jamie Barton: Mezzo-Soprano, Jan. 10 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jan. 11

Scene Sounds | Sights | Dining | Schedule

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra

The State Theatre in Kalamazoo has been a staple of the KZoo music scene for decades, avoiding destruction in 1985 when Roger Hinman of The Hinman Co. decided to purchase the theatre and give it a new start.

Luckily that happened, because it’s brought many music legends to West Michigan over the years. This season features Grammy Award-winning, alternative rock band Wilco.

The band is supporting its latest album, Star Wars. Other acts include rapper Beanie Sigel, tribute bands, guitarists such as Buddy Guy and Jeff Daniels, comedian Brian Regan, and Australia’s Thunder from Down Under.

Thodos Dance Chicago, Sept. 17-18 Barbara Furtuna with Constantinople, Oct. 29 Julian Lange Trio, Nov. 20 Julian Sands in “An Evening with Harold Pinter,” Jan. 29 Bang on a Can All Stars, Feb. 27 Imani Winds, April 8

Australia’s Thunder From Down Under, Nov. 14 Jeff Daniels, Nov. 22 Greensky Bluegrass, Nov. 27-28 Brian Regan, Dec. 4 Christmas with John Berry, Dec. 13 Jim Brickman, Dec. 20

Wilco, Kalamazoo State Theatre REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

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The Arts Issue | Season Preview

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet, Jan. 20 Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company: Untitled Feminist Show, Jan. 21-23 Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company: Straight White Men, Jan. 22-23 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jan. 22 Ms. Lisa Fischer and Grand Barton, Jan. 27 Tanya Tagaq with Nanook of the North, Feb. 2 Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of American Popular Music: 1960s-80s, Feb. 5 Igor Levit: Piano, Feb. 6 UMS Choral Union: Love is Strong as Death, Feb. 14 Sir András Schiff: Piano The Last Sonatas, Feb. 16-20 The Triplets of Belleville Cine-Concert, Feb. 19 The Chieftains, March 5 Nufonia Must Fall, March 11-12 Apollo’s Fire and Apollo’s Singers: Bach’s St. John Passion, March 15 Montreal Symphony Orchestra, March 19 Gill Shaham: Violin Bach Six Solos, March 26 American Ballet Theater: The Sleeping Beauty, March 31 — April 3 Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, April 1 Jerusalem Quartet, April 8

Mnozil Brass, April 14 Zafir: Musical Winds from North Africa to Andalucí, April 15 Bavarian Radio Orchestra, April 16 The Bad Plus with Joshua Redman, April 23

West Michigan Symphony

425 W Western Ave Ste. 409, Muskegon wsso.org, (231) 726-3231 x 22 Scott Speck, the music director of the West Michigan Symphony, has worked to bring forward classical music in a way that communicates with a modern audience. See it in action with the American Music concert on Nov. 6, or attend when Broadway stars Nathaniel Stampley, Sean MacLaughlin and Edward Watts bring showtunes to Speck’s stage on April 15. In November, American Music: Old and New blends jazz and symphonic strains in the score to Leonard Bernstein’s greatest musical. Looking ahead to wintry times, the Holiday Pops concert features a delightful evening of holiday classics. The symphony welcomes back soprano Diane Penning and the WMS Children’s Choir — along with new addition Paul Langford (pianist/vocalist). Together

Igudesmn and Joo — And Now Mozart, West Michigan Symphony

the crew provides a “heartwarming mix of classical and modern holiday favorites.”

East Meets West, Oct. 2 Igudesmn and Joo: And Now Mozart, Oct. 16 American Music: Old and New, Nov. 6

Holiday Pops, Dec. 11 Luck of the Irish, Jan. 15 Viva Italia!, Feb. 5 Beethoven and Blue Jeans, March 4 Broadway Gentleman, April 15 A Study of Contrasts, May 20

DRAMATIC. MONUMENTAL. THRILLING.

Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

REQUIEM

Steven Mercurio Conductor

by Giuseppe Verdi | October 30, 2015 | DeVos Performance Hall | 7:30 PM

Elizabeth Caballero soprano

Margaret Lattimore mezzo-soprano

John Pickle tenor

Andrew Gangestad bass

Dr. Patrick Coyle Chorus Master | Opera Grand Rapids Chorus | Grand Rapids Symphony Tickets start at $12 | Student tickets $5 | 616.451.2741 or Ticketmaster | Learn more at operagr.org Program and dates—subject to change.

44 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

Richard and Helen DeVos CLASSICAL

Concert Sponsor:

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ROMEO&JULIET

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for HAND I give.” woman, and therefore to be won” “I’ll make LOVE you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty” “A heart to LOVE, and in that heart, courage, to make LOVE known” “A breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences.” “What ‘s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.” “When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.” “LOVE is blind, and LOVErs cannot see, The pretty follies that themselves commit” “LOVErs ever run before the clock” “So long as I can breathe or I can see so long lives your LOVE which gives life to me” “Speak low if you speak LOVE “ “LOVE

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that women bear.” “Men’s vows are women’s traitors

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GRSymphony.org REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

45

The Arts Issue | Season preview The Fed Galleries @ KCAD Woodbridge N. Ferris Building 17 Pearl St. NW

HERE HERE ALL ALL YEAR YEAR Featuring year-round programming Featuring year-round programming and an ever-changing lineup of and an ever-changing lineup of dynamic contemporary artists from dynamic contemporary artists from around the world, The Fed Galleries around the world, The Fed Galleries @ KCAD strives to provoke thought, @ KCAD invite a deeper awareness provide educationcreation. and insight, and of contemporary lead viewers to deeply meaningful engagement with art.

Free and and Open Open to to the the Public Public Free Check Check the the website website for for upcoming exhibitions exhibitions and and events: events: kcad.edu/galleries kcad.edu/galleries

Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University

museums & culture Compiled by Kimberly Peloquin

Gerald R. Ford Museum 303 Pearl St. NW, Grand Rapids fordlibrarymuseum.gov, (616) 254-0400

This September, the Gerald R. Ford Museum brings Drawdown Vietnam, April-May 1975 to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. Walk through time and relive the events that took place after America’s lengthy involvement in the war in Vietnam and Indochina including two rescue missions: Operation Babylift and the rescue of the S.S Mayaguez. View two lobby displays featuring artifacts, photographs, documents, and personal stories of those involved.

Drawdown Vietnam, April–May 1975, through Sept.

kcad.edu/galleries

Grand Rapids Public Museum

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Schedule | Dining | sights | Sounds Scene

Say goodbye to your reading glasses.

grmuseum.org, (616) 456-3977 Travel back in time at the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s The Discovery of King Tut exhibit.

Admire the tomb, and all of the treasures within it, that King Tut was discovered in.

There are also over one thousand replicas of artifacts discoveries that aid in bringing the Egyptian culture to life. Also, make sure to check out the new exhibit, American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition – it opens this month. Acquire knowledge about the prohibition and learn why it started, how it affected America and more.

The Discovery of King Tut, through Jan. 2016 American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Opens Sept. 26

Holland Museum

31 West 10th St., Holland hollandmuseum.org, (616) 392-9084

Call to schedule a FREE exam today!

Keil Lasik Vision Center 2500 E. Beltline Ave. SE Grand Rapids, MI 49546

46 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

info@keillasik.com 616.365.5775 www.keillasik.com/kamra-inlay

This fall Holland Museum is featuring two exciting exhibits. Immigration and Caricature, which can be viewed in the Wichers Gallery, contains an assortment of immigrant caricatures dating from the Civil War to World War I. This exhibit analyzes the impact caricatures had in forming American values regarding diversity and cultural development of the United States. Documented, which can be

The Discovery of King Tut at Grand Rapids Public Museum viewed in the Focus Gallery, is back for the second year in a row and will explore the large migrant Hispanic community and how it affected Holland throughout time.

Immigration and Caricature, through Sept. 6 Documented, through Oct. 17

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 230 N Rose St., Kalamazoo kvm.kvcc.edu, (269) 373-7990

Traveling on water during the night can be a frightening experience. At the Treasures of the Great Lakes exhibit, learn how navigators used bright stars and lighthouses to guide them on their journeys on the Great Lakes. Also at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, unleash your creative side at the educational and hands on Tinkertoy: Build Your Imagination exhibit. Play with giant Tinkertoy building pieces while also learning about renewable energy and clean water technology.

Treasures of the Great Lakes, through Sept. 17 Tinkertoy: Build Your Imagination, through Sept. 20 n

Stay and dine in the heart of downtown GR at CityFlatsHotel and CitySen Lounge.

83 Monroe Center St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 616 / 608 / 1720 cityflatshotel.com

GR’s newest Blow Dry Bar is now open in the heart of downtown!

The Parlour specializes in event hairstyling, professional makeup application, manicures, cuts, colors, and more.

616.608.1731 / CityFlatsHotel.com / 77 Monroe Center St NW, GR 49503

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

47

The Arts Issue | profile

Between Two Worlds The Art of Salvador Jiménez-Flores

by Nicole Rico

S

alvador Jiménez-Flores says

his work is inspired by his mul-

ticulturalism and the need to communicate — two pivotal

aspects of the artist’s life. Since

moving to the United States in

2000 from Jalisco, Mexico he has created several socially-conscious installations as

well as studio-based and public art. His work can be seen at the National Museum

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

of Mexican Art in Chicago, Casa De La

48 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

Cultura in Texas, Koehnline Museum of Art in Illinois, and locally at the Grand Rapids

Art Museum and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art. He received his

Masters of Fine Arts from Kendall College

of Art and Design and starts a year-long artist-in-residence position at Harvard University this month.

“Unfortunately, there is a lack of diversity and inclusion [in Grand Rapids]. If you don’t look like the dominant culture, most likely you will frequently be questioned, ‘Where are you from?’”

What began your process of becoming an artist?

I migrated to the United States when I was 15 years old. I didn’t know any English and I started high school soon after my arrival. Those first years were difficult as I was trying to adapt to a new culture with a language I didn’t know. I took a photography class my second summer and it was then that art making became my coping mechanism during my adaptation to the U.S. You work within many mediums — drawings, installations, paintings, print-making, found objects — is there one you find yourself gravitating towards more often?

I’m an interdisciplinary artist and I like to take risks with my art so I’m constantly trying to learn a new skill or technique—add them to my tool box. I like them all.

However, drawing is always present in my work and clay is a material that I recently started working with and I find it fascinating. The way I approach clay is the same way I approach drawing—I let my hands roam free allowing intuition and spontaneity to happen.

What’s your artistic process?

My creation process is a combination of head, heart and hands. Everything I do is integrated into who I am: What I like and dislike, the books I chose to read, the music I listen to, the memories I keep, the historical events that shape me, my surroundings and my relationships.

In what ways do the past and historic events inspire your work?

I believe it is very important to understand where we come from and embrace our histories and ancestors. All of those events and people had to come before us to make our time on earth possible. This is the reason why a lot of my work deals with the self. Identity is an ongoing process of self-discovery and transformation that is complex, contradictory and challenging. Naturally, one’s identity evolves as the context changes. I don’t want to be stigmatized and put in a category. I want to continue exploring who I am, but in an environment that goes beyond flags, languages, cultures and society’s ideals.

What are the best and worst aspects of being an artist in the Grand Rapids area?

Best: The city is an affordable place to live in and it has lots of natural areas to explore. The city is small, clean and easy to navigate. Chicago and Detroit are our neighbors and the creative community continues to grow. Worst: Unfortunately, there is a lack of diversity and inclusion, organizations and people like to play things safe and avoid taking risks. If you don’t look like the dominant culture, most likely you will frequently be questioned, “Where are you from?” And sometimes they won’t believe you and will ask you again, “No, but what country?” n

Scene | Sounds | Sights Diing | Schedule

Your artist statement says that because you are bilingual and bicultural you live in two different worlds.

How does this affect your art?

The feeling of being in two places is a feeling shared with anyone who has migrated to a different city or country. I live concurrently in two worlds. Neither my adaptation to a foreign land nor the return to my motherland will ever be complete. Anywhere, I’m a foreigner.

These experiences have encouraged me to research and understand the connection between the two worlds that I live in: México and U.S.A.

identity, culture, injustice, language, and religion. I have observed inequality, discrimination and oppression in México, as well as in the United States. As an artist I feel I have the responsibility to address the issues that affect my community and to create awareness and propose actions through my art. I’m an artist and an activist that believes in the power of art. Art and activism go well together and they need each other. I personally make art that challenges comfort and makes the audience think and question their stand on certain issues.

For more information, visit salvadorjimenezflores.com.

You describe yourself as an activist, do you believe art can inspire activism and vice versa?

The content of my work is sociopolitical and is driven by my powerful life experiences. It deals with immigration,

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

49

The Arts Issue | profile

Keemo

By Tamara Fox

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

A 50 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

friend on social media recently indicated that dating in Grand Rapids is an unhappy prospect because there’s a pretty good chance you’ll run into an ex. Indeed, everyone seems to know everyone, which is why I was surprised that I hadn’t met Keemo.

Soon after my first encounter with Keemo’s art I purchased one of his mixed-media works, a stylized portrait in his signature red, turquoise, lime and cadmium yellow — with an enigmatic morsel of text framed within the face.

Keemo’s art looks like Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings if he wasn’t using drugs — or Paul Klee’s if he was. There’s cleverness and vitality akin to Basquiat, with the whimsy and humor of Klee, reigned-in with the disciplined sensibility of a graphic artist. His love of text and letterforms hints at his past life as a graphic designer. The piece I purchased featured type from a bonafide typewriter.

Many of his collages involve painting on found images like vintage yearbook or magazine pages. And while he’s quick to impose upon the images, there’s some reluctance to muddle too much with the existing text and layout.

His most recent works resemble targets for a psychedelicshooting range. This series consists of wood panels with vibrant cubist-inspired interjections upon the faces and torsos of silhouetted figures and animals.

I contacted Richard App to inquire if he thought the enigmatic Keemo would be receptive to an interview. Maybe the artist preferred to keep a low profile like Banksy, or perhaps he was a fugitive of the law, or a recluse like J.D. Salinger, or maybe he was Finnish or Samoan and Keemo was his real name. App soon responded that Mr. Keemo would be happy to oblige.

Keemo aka Curt Ankin is represented by App, but also sells work to an international coterie of collectors through keemogallery. com. Ankin indicated he has a good relationship with App, who didn’t require an exclusive commitment to the gallery. This kind of “open relationship” is exceptional since a gallery often wants to retain control of the sales of their artists’ work. As for rookie artists looking to get recognition, Ankin said it’s all about elbow grease. “Try to create something every day, even something simple,” he said. “Just to keep it flowing … or clean-up, organize — do whatever, every day. Paintings don’t make themselves. Relationships don’t build themselves.”

Ankin and I sat in the shade while he discussed the trajectory of his career, the evolution of his work and the origins of his nom de plume — which he assures me is more amusing when embellished with a few drinks. He also stated how “art is the only thing with rules that are self-imposed” — noting the liberty artists have to write their own history and carve their own artistic paths.

But as for his artist moniker, that bit of early-days Keemo history was prompted by a “grooming malfunction” (aka bad haircut) which unfortunately transpired on the eve of an important presentation.

With no way to conceal the damage to his hairdo, he decided to shave his head — bald. The next morning his clean-shaven dome prompted relentless mockery by the client. Yes, apparently some people think chemotherapy is hilarious. Years later Ankin decided to reclaim the epithet as an ironic way of confirming his resolve to be a full-time artist.

Keemo’s name is just one example of his ability to transform adversity.

Most artists encounter challenges, but not all of them have the tenacity to push through. In the early 1990s there were few options to sell work outside of galleries or crafts shows. Ankin duly schlepped his portfolio to prospective galleries without success, but his aesthetic sensibility served him well as a professional graphic artist and website designer. Web design was the segue to fully supporting himself as a fine artist. His slick website is regularly updated with new works and posts. He tends to his social media and diligently maintains an e-mail list to keep collectors informed. In short, his work is not limited to the production of paintings.

When I asked if there was anything he’d do differently he said, “I wish I hadn’t lived with so much self-doubt and insecurity when I was younger — like taking rejection of my work to be an indication of my worth as an artist or a person.” n

‘Keemo’s art looks like Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings if he wasn’t using drugs — or Paul Klee’s if he was.’

Scene | Sounds | Sights Diing | Schedule REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

51

The Arts Issue | profile

The Genesis and Future of ArtPrize

A Chat With ArtPrize Executive Director Christian Gaines

By Josh Veal

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

ArtPrize rapidly became the cornerstone of West Michigan culture, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to Grand Rapids every year.

In 2014, The Art Newspaper listed it as the most heavily attended art event on the planet. As the 19-day competition enters its seventh year, ArtPrize Executive Director Christian Gaines said he is working with his team to keep things fresh and exciting. REVUE sat down with him to talk about the past, present and future of the ever-growing phenomenon.

How and why did you personally become involved with ArtPrize?

My background is in independent film, specifically putting on film festivals. At the end of its fourth year, ArtPrize was looking for an executive director. I’ve had a lifetime of providing a hopefully great platform for artists to do their best work. … I was impressed with ArtPrize and the radical disruptive nature of its existence and wanted to help see where it could go.

How did ArtPrize begin?

It was the brainchild of Rick Devos, a wellknown local web entrepreneur. He had this idea that appreciating contemporary art was still part of a top-down curated system, where curators are very much in control of the experience. He wanted to develop an

52 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

experiment around a crowdsourcing of art and also create a spectacular prize to attract attention, to see what happened if the general public was allowed to vote on art that was sourced by anyone in the world.

We’ve tinkered with that basic formula to draw attention. What it’s really evolved into is still very much publicly voted but also there’s an equal expert jury award. In this way you can kind of compare and contrast to what the public thinks because it’s that tension that exists between the populace and the professional where all the interesting conversations happen.

Is there anything new or exciting happening this year?

We’ve really started to double down on the idea of grants. So in addition to the

$500,000 worth of prizes, we also award $220,000 worth of grants to a variety of constituents to help catalyze their ArtPrize experience. That’s everything from artist and venue grants to curatorial fellowships to school buses – that’s one of the things a lot of people don’t know as much about.

The other thing I’m excited about is how we’ve sort of formalized the film, music and performing arts through something called ArtPrize Tonight. There are three subsets to ArtPrize Tonight - one is our critical discourse programming, televised nightly panels that dive into emerging themes and trends in contemporary art as well as the results of the competition. Then we have ArtPrize On Screen and ArtPrize On Stage.

How would you say that ArtPrize has benefitted West Michigan?

Hopefully what we’re helping to do is mint the next generation of art lovers, which is fun and pretty valuable. Hopefully we’re strengthening the cultural fabric to make West Michigan a great place to live, work and play. Obviously there’s a strong economic impact. In 2013 there was over $22,000,000 in net new economic impact on the city. In general … it’s a catalyst.

What we do is only part of the whole energy. It’s sort of as if ArtPrize was a big night-and-day holiday and how someone

chooses to celebrate it is up to them. What part are they going to play in this ArtPrize thing?

Do you have a typical day of work?

We’re fundraising intensely. That takes up a good deal of my time – anywhere from private-sector corporate sponsorship and grants to earned income from things like merchandising. We’re focused very closely on developing a sustained budget. We’re also busy developing a culture that stands for education, whether it’s social equity and inclusion, developing a Spanish language program, environmental sustainability or artist development programs. The big prize, $500,000, that’s a spectacular thing, but we really want artists to feel like there’s a lot of good reasons to be a part of ArtPrize.

What’s the future of ArtPrize?

I want to make sure ArtPrize is as authentically welcoming to everyone as possible.

I want to continue to surprise and delight the general public. I want to continue to make sure that artists from all over the world feel welcome … that it continues on its trajectory of being an international platform for emerging artists. I want to keep it fresh and interesting every year. n

Keeping it Reel The Launch of ‘ArtPrize OnScreen: Presented by Waterfront Film Festival / by Josh Spanninga

L

ocal cinephiles were likely bummed about the cancelation of this past summer’s Waterfront Film Festival.

Since 1999 the acclaimed South Haven event has unequivocally celebrated independent filmmakers while showcasing hundreds of Midwestern and world premieres, from Man on a Wire to Napoleon Dynamite.

The good news: It looks like the starstudded event will be back in action soon.

Here’s the deal: ArtPrize has teamed up with the Waterfront organizers to bring the festival to Grand Rapids — well, sort of.

The collaboration, ArtPrize OnScreen: Presented by Waterfront Film Festival, features more than 20 films in downtown Grand Rapids during the widespread arts competition. The main hub for Waterfront will be located in the Ladies Literary Club in downtown Grand Rapids — conveniently stationed next to the ArtPrize hub.

“It will be different,” explained Waterfront Film Festival co-founder Hopwood Depree.

“This is a brand new twist on what Waterfront has done in the past.”

The film competition features a variety of free and ticketed events and awards will be given for Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short. On top of that, each film is eligible for public and juried votes in the main ArtPrize competition.

“We’re doing this to work with Artprize and to compliment everything that they’re doing, so the competition of film makes sense,” Depree said.

While Artprize has featured a small number of film and audio/visual pieces in the past, Hopwood hopes ArtPrize OnScreen brings more local attention to film as an art form.

“Since Artprize has done a great job of bringing the arts to Grand Rapids for that period it made a lot of sense to introduce the cinematic arts into the mix as well,” Depree said.

Depree also plans on bringing other aspects of the Waterfront Film Festival expe-

Waterfront Film Festival founders Dana Depree, Hopwood DePree, Kori Eldean Rentz, and Dori DePree rience to Grand Rapids. The festival, which is world-renowned for its film selection, has also gained a reputation for throwing a good party. It’s this type of fun and entertainment that Depree hopes to translate into Artprize OnScreen.

“People can still expect the same types of great films, guests, parties and events that go along with what Waterfront has done in the past,” Depree said.

In the future Waterfront hopes to expand throughout West Michigan and feature more events, including educational workshops, film screenings and hopefully the return of their summer festival. Of course, Depree said they’re also planning to “grow in the coming years working with ArtPrize.” n For more information, visit waterfrontfilm.org.

Scene | Sounds | Sights Diing | Schedule REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

53

The Arts Issue | profile

Voices From The Avenue for the Arts

by Ben Mepham

Avenue for the Arts is home to a creative community actively transforming a blighted stretch along South Division Ave. into a destination with profitable businesses, attractions and imaginative events. Curators from three Avenue galleries shed light on what their galleries do for artists and the community.

Jenn Schaub, Avenue for the Arts [Gallery] Space 307 S. Division Ave, Grand Rapids avenueforthearts.com

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

Jenn Schaub serves as event coordinator with Avenue, has a hand in group-curating exhibitions and is a Neighborhood Revitalization Specialist with Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids.

What makes Avenue for the Arts a destination point?

I love the variety of spaces. There are live/work apartments acting as incubators for artists, exhibition spaces for experimental work, shops incorporating artwork, nonprofits, restaurants, social services and businesses. We regularly host pop-up shops which might only exist a weekend or month. During First Fridays all that activity is tied together with openings, extended business hours. There are also special events like the outdoor Market in the parking lot at 106 South Division, it features vendors and live music.

How is the [Gallery] unique from other spaces along the Avenue?

As Avenue headquarters, as well as a gallery, it exists to serve multiple functions. During office hours we coordinate events and host meetings.

54 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

At other times the space is used exclusively as a gallery showcasing work of local artists.

What advice do you have for someone wanting to open their own shop along the Avenue?

Talk to other shop owners, get to know the area, create a business plan that identifies your audience and think about what will make your space unique. Check out Avenue for the Arts classes and great small business resources in GR like GROW (growbusiness.org) and SBDC (sbdcmichigan.org).

Steven Vinson, Spiral Gallery

44 S. Division Ave, Grand Rapids facebook.com/SpiralGalleryGR, (616) 881-2511 spiralgallerygr@gmail.com

This means that as the operator of my space I could show work that is more risqué if I so choose.

How do you approach curating a show at Spiral Gallery?

Many curators will have a particular aesthetic or type of work they like to show. I approach this challenge a bit differently in that I let the artists decide what they show while I act more as the voice of reason, there to help them make their idea look as good as possible within my space.

What can we expect from Spiral Gallery in the coming year and beyond?

Within the next year at Spiral there will be artwork from a collective of artists based in Indianapolis — that’s in August. Then I will have two artists for ArtPrize. After ArtPrize I will be looking for artists to exhibit at Spiral. Anyone interested, contact me.

Steven Vinson is a practicing artist and instructor at KCAD and GVSU. He founded Spiral Gallery in 2013 and curates exhibitions focused on work by local students and graduates.

Amanda Carmer, Craft House Gallery

What can happen in a gallery space along the Avenue for the Arts that might not happen in another area of Grand Rapids?

With live/work spaces the residents can choose to have any and all types of work in their space.

Founded by photographer Amanda Carmer in 2012, Craft House offers a range of options for artists including studio/exhibition spaces, a

40 S. Division Ave, Grand Rapids crafthousegr.com, (616) 259-0278

commercial gallery and opportunities akin to artist residencies for extended projects.

What does Craft House do for artists?

When a young artist curates and/or installs their own show there is a huge learning curve.

We’re here to walk artists through the process, to explain standard practices of framing and hanging work, the aesthetics of curating in a “white cube,” among other things. That’s the real value of Craft House: It’s a space for learning.

What do you want viewers to walk away with from your gallery?

I hope viewers recognize the care and craft involved in exhibiting original artwork. I hope they get close to a handcrafted wood frame and are blown away with the high quality of the seams. I also want them to be able to see work that makes them rethink their preconceptions of what art can be.

What can we expect from Craft House in the coming year and beyond?

We’ve got a kick-ass ArtPrize exhibition lined up — the large-scale paintings of Britt Spencer out of Savannah, GA. After that, we’ll be partnering with Live/Work 42, the venue next door to us to do some larger exhibitions as well as some thematic shows around the holidays — and not what you’d think, by the way. n

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55

The Arts Issue | profile

More Subtle, Organic and Less Angry The Evolution of Printmaker Alynn Guerra

by Nicole Rico

Originally a graphic design major, Grand Rapids-based artist Alynn Guerra, 40, has studied everything from painting and sculpture to silversmithing, though her career is now dedicated to printmaking. Her bold and organic work features lively prints of skeletons, plants and other living creatures. According to Guerra, her work “always carries a concrete message, but it is also very likely that you may be able to insert your own story.”

Here’s the story she told Revue.

How did you get into printmaking?

I do mostly printmaking because I enjoy both the process and the final product. I love printmaking and the affordability of the work, the aggressiveness of the carved lines transferred on the paper, its inherent quality of being reproduced and still being able to be called an original piece of work.

Have any particular life moments helped mold your artistic style?

Moving into an intentional community and, as a result, becoming politicized, learning about other movements, meeting activists, gardening, sharing and learning tolerance. I wouldn’t be the artist I am now had it not been for that.

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

Do environmental issues inspire your art?

I’ve always been worried about the way we abuse the earth. As I grow older I witness more complex ways of abuse: biotechnology, fracking, oil spills, nuclear spills, to only name a few.

It isn’t getting any better and we are all dying from cancer, stress. Making prints about the future of our environment is a way to get it out of my system and not go crazy.

You’re also a mother, has that affected your work at all?

Being pregnant had me in a constant state of anxiety, freaking out about how our world was going to end during my daughter’s lifetime. I turned off all the news sources and still I would wake up from vivid post-apocalypse nightmares. So I started embracing them and that turned out to be a great source of inspiration.

How has your work evolved over the years?

My work has become more subtle, organic and less angry. My first prints were very confrontational and bold — the message was depressive or hopeless. Not that the world has become a better place, but I’ve become less angry and more hopeful. Also, if you really want to get your message across, being nice is a better strategy.

What’s some advice you’d offer to newbie artists?

You have to be fearless about exposing your soul and heart for everyone to see. The moment you start worrying about what others may think, you start questioning your ideas and the creative process is ruined. I’ve learned to forgive myself if I create mediocre art, I call them exercises. Also you have to be able to make the most of your time and money and keep your soul and sanity in the process. n

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Visit Alynn Guerra’s Etsy store, Red Hydrant Press, at etsy.com/shop/redhydrant.

Upcoming events: Fallasburg Art Festival: Sept. 19-20 Tanglefoot Building Artists Studio Sale: Nov. 20 and 22 Forest Hills Fine Arts Center: All of March 2016

SCULPTURE EXHIBITION

TRADITION AND INNOVATION: JAPANESE CERAMICS NOW SEPTEMBER 18, 2015— JANUARY 3, 2016 Ceramics in Japan represent one of the world’s most revered artistic traditions. From the functional to the sculptural, 25 carefully selected works by contemporary masters will be on display in the sculpture galleries.

Based on a national search across Japan and co-curated by the famed Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in the Shiga Prefecture, Japan, and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park; this exhibition is the first presentation of its kind in the United States.

TRADITION AND INNOVATION: JAPANESE CERAMICS NOW IS ARTPRIZE AT MEIJER GARDENS: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23—SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015 Tradition & Innovation: Japanese Ceramics Now is made possible by

The Meijer Foundation Kyoko TOKUMARU. Age of Good Fortune Island: KoiNoboru Island, (detail), 2014. Porcelain.

15-10259_RevueArtsAd_T&I_JCN_vs2.indd 1

Botanic and Sculpture Societies of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

8/25/15 PM REVUEWM.COM | September 20154:54 | 57

The Arts Issue | profile

More, Bigger and Forever

Best Bet:

Common Ground: African American Art at KIA

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

O

n Aug. 21 the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts unveiled its new exhibit, Common Ground: African American Art from the Flint Institute of Arts, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and the Muskegon Museum of Art. The exhibit, which runs until Nov. 15, surveys the history of African American art through 60 works in various mediums and showcases prominent African American artists from the 19th century to present day, including: Senghor Reid, James Marcellus Watkins, Hughie Lee-Smith, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, Vincent Smith, Chakaia Booker and Henry Ossawa Tanner, among others.

According to KIA Executive Director Belinda Tate, the exhibit “traces a journey through 150 years of cultural history, from the talent and determination of the earliest artists who overcame daunting social challenges, to internationally acclaimed work by leading contemporary artists.”

The exhibition is divided into five themes/eras: Gaining Access, New SelfAwareness, Political and Social Expressions, Examining Identities and Towards Abstraction. —Reported by Nicole Rico Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 314 S. Park, Kalamazoo Through Nov. 15 kiarts.org, (269) 349-7775

58 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

Sarah Jean Anderson’s Road to Full-Time Artistry

S

by Rich Tupica

arah Jean Anderson, 31, has been at it for a decade — but nailing what “it” is can be a tad difficult. Beyond her life as a Grand Rapids-based painter, she hosts drag shows, comedy events and other artistically festive shindigs.

“When I’m not working on art I’m writing comedy or hosting a comedy show,” Anderson said. “I have a character named Rita I’ve been doing since I was 16. I’ve seen recently on YouTube one of my videos was translated into Italian.

“It’s remarkable to me that this character I’ve been performing — doing monologues, improv — has reached all the way to Italy and its inspiring people to make their own weird performance art dance videos,” she added.

But it’s not just her jokes that are crossing oceans. Thanks to the Internet and her large stock of vibrant original works, her paintings and pop illustrations have shipped all over the globe. “Etsy is wonderful,” Anderson said. “What I don’t like is recently they’ve started to censor artists, but I found that I can deal with that. Etsy has been extremely helpful selling my work worldwide — Italy, Canada and England.”

As for her paintings, Anderson often works with acrylic — she likes its ability to mix and layer. She also works with Sharpies, Prismacolor, paint pens, ink, glue, recycled materials, fabrics and spray paint, to only name a few.

Visit Sarah Jean “Something I particularly like to do is buy paint nobody else is Anderson at etsy.com/ buying,” she said. “I go to the shop/BSidezGallery. clearance section and get the colors that don’t match or make Sarah Jean Anderson sense together. I try to use them art show at in a harmonious way. I like to Flashlight Alley: limit my materials so I have to 1507 Wealthy St. SE, use my imagination more.”

Grand Rapids A recent series of Anderson Sept. 24, 7–10 p.m. originals takes on street harassers and body shaming, it’s the focus of her current show. “I recently did one that says: ‘Oh my f*****g God, I don’t give a flying f*** what you think about my f*****g body, motherf****r.’ It got a good response on the Internet and it sold that same day,” she added. “I was really happy with that because I wasn’t thinking about it as being marketable.”

As always, when she’s not cranking out paintings, Anderson’s calendar is stacked with other creative endeavors.

“I host Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, which is a live-drawing event we’ve done for six years,” she said. “It’s at Reservoir Lounge on Plainfield. We bring in a variety of live art models — circus performers, jugglers, male and female bodybuilders — all of these different people with elaborate costumes. We draw them with challenges we create. We may draw them as

Sarah Jean Anderson.

Photo: Seth Thompson

animals. It’s a wonderful place to find inspiration and meet other artists.”

And Anderson will be the first to admit Grand Rapids has been good to her. “There are still new opportunities,” she said. “I’m going to stay here until there’s nothing else to do. But there’s always something to do, so I’ll probably never leave. I don’t believe you have to leave. You can be the artist, comedian or actor you want to be in Grand Rapids.”

As for what’s next for Anderson, that too is a tad difficult to nail down.

“Next, I’m publishing some zines with poetry and stories, she said. “Next I’m going to do more, bigger and forever.” n

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

59

The Arts Issue | profile

Patrick Hershberger, aka Bonus Saves Photo: Melissa Al-Azzwai

Takin’ It to the Streets The Story of Graffiti Artist Bonus Saves

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

By Dwayne Hoover

60 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

A skull bunny mural by Bonus Saves.

Photo: josh mitoska

A

lmost a decade ago, Patrick Hershberger packed up and left West Michigan for the Windy City — this was the genesis of his tag name: Bonus Saves.

“I moved from Kalamazoo to Chicago back in 2006 and discovered street art and graffiti,” Hershberger said. “I have a photography background, so I did what came naturally and photographed everything. I had stopped making art other than photography, but seeing all these new art forms on the streets pulled me back in.”

Hershberger was fortunate to meet and work with a number of talented artists in Chicago who showed him the ropes. Soon he had moved back to Kalamazoo and began broadening the scope of his work, doing more with outdoor surfaces including a large outdoor installation for ArtPrize and six murals for Comstock Northeast Middle School, made possible by a grant through the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

And while he still enjoys some smaller projects and the use of acrylic paints, Hershberger admits he prefers a large wall and cans of spray paint.

“I enjoy painting canvas work, but there’s something special and peaceful about painting a wall,” Hershberger said. “I lose track of time and it really fulfills me.”

A recurring character in a lot of Hershberger’s work is the skull bunny. The idea came to him over a period of reflection on how he viewed life itself, and particularly, the mortality of every living thing. Animals act as a muse for Hershberger and offer the reminder that the beauty of life is not possible without the inevitability of death.

“They represent the vivid wonderfulness of life, yet the reality that anything alive will die,” he explained. “They are my thoughts on the natural order of things. They’ve taken many different looks in my art: Animal riders, little Aztec warriors, historical figures.”

As for how he creates the critters, Hershberger said he uses a different technique for the animals he creates. Instead of solid colors and line work, he uses layered and patterned short lines to invoke a feeling of motion in the fur or feathers.

“I love combining science and art — working environmental themes into the animals I produce,” Hershberger said. “The heron I created for ArtPrize in 2013 was centered on the Enbridge Pipeline disaster in the Kalamazoo River and how it impacted both man and nature along its banks.”

Over the years, he’s worked both solo and collaboratively, from Chicago to Detroit, but he’s remains driven and optimistic about his future. Recently he’s worked on walls in Kalamazoo for the Vine Neighborhood Association. He’s also preparing for this year’s ArtPrize and hopes to travel down to Miami Beach for Art Basel.

Last month he did a live show dubbed Enter the Vortex at One Well Brewing in Kalamazoo.

While some painters feel intimidated creating in front of an audience, he said he loves the opportunity to perform for people.

“I mentioned the fact that I lose track of time when painting a wall,” he said. “Live demos seem to put me way into that zone. I love painting for people. Some people are really hesitant and feel pressured painting for an audience. I thrive on it. Put some music on and a spray can in my hand and it’s like Christmas presents loaded under the tree.” n

The Fed Galleries @ KCAD

Woodbridge N. Ferris Building 17 Pearl St. NW

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Conveniently located in the Center City neighborhood, KCAD’s 2015 ArtPrize exhibition will showcase captivating works by critically-acclaimed contemporary artists from around the world.

Join us for ArtPrize Seven, Sept. 23 - October 11.

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8/18/15 12:23 REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 | PM 61

The Arts Issue | profile

Strange Tales

The Peculiar Stimuli of Anthony Shechtman

by Nicole Rico

Artist Anthony Shechtman was born and raised in Grand Rapids and currently spends much of his time at home creating mysterious and beautiful narrative images. A milestone for the painter was when he received his BFA in Illustration from Kendall College of Art and Design — another was his debut exhibition in 2006 at the Division Avenue Arts Cooperative. Since then he’s kept busy with fine arts, illustrations and a series of exhibitions. Here’s what he had to say.

What themes do you pursue and why?

The bottom of the lake at night. A lantern in the woods. The power, frailty and beauty of the human form. Spectacular secrets.

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

Where has your work been exhibited?

All over West Michigan as well as being selected to show at the Historic Vogue Theatre of Manistee, where my piece Declaration won the 2012 juried Mascot Award. I recently participated in a wonderful ‘80s movie-themed exhibition at the amazing Glitter Milk Gallery on the West Side.

Other than art, what inspires you?

Strange tales. People. Music. Nature.

Do you have a process you like to follow with your oil paintings?

Although I appreciate and enjoy the power and flexibility of working digitally, I typically work in oil. The traditional materials provide a full sensory working experience and many wondrous “happy accidents.”

Aside from painting, what are you up to?

I sometimes teach courses at Kendall. I read and write a lot. I also play mandolin

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in the Kent County String Band, a traditional old-time string band.

What are the best and worst aspects of being an artist in the Grand Rapids area?

The arts community is wonderfully supportive. There are people doing amazing and inspiring things, like Miranda and Josh at Glitter Milk Gallery. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be as many buyers of unique art here in Grand Rapids compared to many metropolitan areas.

How have your paintings changed over time?

When I first learned to paint realistically there was an allure to creating tightly rendered representations of visual reality. I’ve been working much looser lately, incorporating gesture and atmosphere to create much more subtle, satisfying and personal work.

Lastly, what’s vital for a developing artist to have?

A voice. n For more information, visit anthonyshechtman.com.

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63

The Arts Issue | profile

Comic Chameleon

Ryan Brady Draws Illustrations, Paints Fine Art

By Nicole Rico

Ryan Brady is an artistic chameleon, capable of creating both comic book-style illustrations and fine-art oil paintings.

Born and raised in Portage, Brady moved to Grand Rapids to get his Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration from Kendall College of Art and Design. Since then he’s displayed work at venues across West Michigan, including at Glitter Milk Gallery, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, UICA and the Meanwhile Bar, among others. With an upcoming show in November at Have Company (136 S. Division Ave, Grand Rapids), Brady, 28, chatted with Revue about what it takes to be a diverse artist and why the unknown inspires him.

Why do you choose to work in such a variety of styles?

I switch up between painting, drawing and inking to add variety to my work and to keep myself from getting burnt out on one medium. What people should know about my work is that there is a divide. My personal fine-art work has little to do with my illustrations. Fine art is the study of what inspires oneself and you create a body of work involving a certain concept. Illustration is work for hire.

A lot of your fine-art work involves the occult, what drew you to that topic?

I’ve always been interested in the occult, mythology, natural decay and destruction. This sort of curiosity of those themes creates endless material to reference and ideas or concepts start to flow. The occult and mythology have opened my eyes to a world where a lot is unknown or uncertain. Since a young age I’ve been drawn to the unknown. What drives me to use them as themes is the alternative lifestyle or teachings they preach and connectedness with nature.

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

What has been a seminal experience in your career and why?

I’d say working on an organic farm for three years. You witness a lot of life and death, the changes in the environment. To be able to see the moon and stars at night in the country is worth all the hard labor during the day. I learned a lot about myself and it has inspired my work immensely.

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What are the best and worst aspects of being an artist in the Grand Rapids area?

The best part of being an artist in Grand Rapids is all the opportunities to show your work. There are so many shops and small galleries on Division that are always looking for artwork to hang up. There is so much support for artists here, and it’s all very well organized. Organizations like Avenue for the Arts work hard to make this city a little more interesting. First Fridays Gallery Hop, Art.Downtown and The Market are all great outlets for anyone trying to get involved with the local arts. Like many other cities, making a living as an artist in Grand Rapids is difficult.

Most of my friends, including myself, work full or part time jobs to support themselves and do artwork on the side.

How was it growing up as a budding artist?

I have a very supportive family who has always encouraged me to pursue what I love. My grandmother was a great pastel artist and her work hangs at my parent’s house. I was always surrounded by her work which was inspiring. My uncle Scott started taking me to different

art museums and artist lectures in downtown Kalamazoo at a young and impressionable age. I remember looking through magazines and books and seeing these drawings and paintings used to tell a story or sell a product and it blew my mind that you can get paid to do this stuff.

What’s integral to the work of an artist?

Staying motivated and having self-discipline. It’s easy to not work on something as there are so many distractions in life. A supportive community helps, too. I’m thankful to live somewhere where so many artists are working hard and doing things that push the city forward. n For more on Ryan Brady visit ryanbradyillustration. tumblr.com or follow him on Instagram at: TidesOfRuin.

G R A N D VA L L E Y S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S E N T S T H E 1 3 t h A N N U A L

Grand Valley’s Fall Arts Celebration features distinguished writers, poets, musicians, artists, and scholars of our time.

Please join us this fall for inspiring entertainment that is the hallmark of our signature events. Fall Arts Celebration events are free and open to the public.

aRt “Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal” EXHIBITION RECEPTION thuRSdaY, SePteMBeR 10, 5–7 P.M. ART GALLERY, PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ALLENDALE CAMPUS AUGUST 28–OCTOBER 31 EXHIBITION DATES

MuSic “Faculty Artistry Gems!

Recognizing GVSU Music Faculty Performances in the Community” MOndaY, SePteMBeR 21, 7:30 P.M. LOUIS ARMSTRONG THEATRE, PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ALLENDALE CAMPUS

POetRY “An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Kwame Dawes” thuRSdaY, OctOBeR 15, 7 P.M. L.V. EBERHARD CENTER, 2ND FLOOR ROBERT C. PEW GRAND RAPIDS CAMPUS

Enriching the Arts and Humanities in West Michigan

dance Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers present “Meditations in Motion: Virtuosity and Imagination in Dance — Innovation and Modernity in Music” MOndaY, nOVeMBeR 2, 7:30 P.M. LOUIS ARMSTRONG THEATRE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ALLENDALE CAMPUS

lectuRe Kip Thorne “Discovery and Collaboration” MOndaY, nOVeMBeR 16, 7 P.M. L.V. EBERHARD CENTER, 2ND FLOOR ROBERT C. PEW GRAND RAPIDS CAMPUS

hOlidaY celeBRatiOn “Stille Nacht: A Celebration of Holiday Music from Europe” MOndaY, deceMBeR 7, 7:30 P.M. FOUNTAIN STREET CHURCH 24 FOUNTAIN STREET NE GRAND RAPIDS, MI

Media Sponsor:

For event details, a complete list of sponsors, or to receive email alerts about upcoming events, visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts or call (616) 331-2185.

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

65

The Arts Issue | profile

Sculpting Stones Jason Quigno’s Mission to Preserve His Anishinaabe Heritage

by Sarah Winterbottom

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

J

ason Quigno, who specializes in large and small scale nature, his carvings are so meticulous and simple they could stone sculptures, prefers a lasting approach to art. be straight from the earth itself. “One time I saw a little stone “Part of my mission as an Anishinaabe artist is to through a crack in my porch,” he recalled. “In that glance I saw tell the stories of my people through stone – to keep an owl landing on another stone with its wings out. I was so them alive, so several thousands of years from now the inspired by the vision that I carved it all out, working 30 hours stories of the Anishinaabe people will still be here in stone,” straight.” said Quigno, a Grand Rapids-based artist.

Although the simplicity and elegance depict an effortless His sculptural work ranges from granite, marble and process, his work entails a substantial amount of detailed outlinlimestone basalt to alabaster and soapstone. Quigno’s body ing in the preliminary stages before his hands get dirty. “There of work is largely based on the preservation of Anishinaabe is a lot of planning and thinking before I even touch the stone. culture and its seven grandfather teachings: love, respect, Sometimes the stone itself dictates what it’s going to be.” honesty, bravery, truth, humility and Sometimes unforeseen mishaps wisdom. “These teachings are ancient dictate the direction of a sculpture. “I and are still relevant today within the was working on a big sculpture and Anishinaabe communities,” he said. had spent many hours on it,” Quigno His vision tells the stories of the recalled. “As I was finishing I laid it down Anishinaabe people in a modern conand it broke right in half. At first I was text, with abstracted works, contrasting discouraged, but then I saw a whole difto the traditional Anishinaabe depictions ferent avenue to take my work. It turned of animals and people. Quigno said out to be a good thing.” each of his scrupulous pieces start with All of Quigno’s hard work paid off a simple sketch. “My creative process two years ago, when he scored a prestistarts with a thought or idea, then a gious solo show. “One of my proudest drawing, and then I go find the right achievements to date was back in —from Jason Quigno’s artist statement stone that can fit with that idea.”

2014,” he said. “I had a one-man exhibit Along with his culture, run-of-theat the Muskegon Museum of Art.” For mill experiences also provide stimulus those who missed it, the museum curfor his stone sculptures. “Things I see in my daily life give me rently has his work in their permanent collection. ideas,” he said. “Whether it’s a pattern I see in nature or even Currently, he’s showing at the LaFontsee Galleries in Grand music I hear. But mostly it’s just the work itself, the action of Rapids and Douglas, finishing multiple monumental works untaking a raw block of unyielding stone and carving it into someder commission. His limestone piece, “People of the 3 Fires,” thing beautiful, beautiful in my eyes anyway.” is his 2015 ArtPrize entry.

The connection with nature is evident in his work. With And while he’s an Alma, Mich. native and member of the the earthy stone mediums and forms that echo the rhythms of Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe in Mt. Pleasant, Quigno is

66 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

“I love the process of taking a raw, dense block of stone and transforming it into a balanced and h a r m o n i o u s o bj e c t. ”

happily submerged in the West Michigan art scene. “I enjoy the art community in the area,” he said. “The best part is my studio, which is an old boiler room. It’s inspiring being there.

The building where my studio is in has a thriving art community and the energy there is good for the creativity.” n

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

67

The Arts Issue | profile

Vile Unveils ‘Tomb of the Unarmed Suspect’ Notorious Detroit-Underground Legend Heads to GR

By Brian J. Bowe

The new book Re-Entry: The Orbit Magazine Anthology begins with a quote from magazine founder and publisher Jerry Vile: “I really, really enjoy making people upset. I think that is my art.”

By that benchmark, Vile’s entry in this year’s edition of ArtPrize may well be his masterpiece.

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

Titled “The Tomb of the Unarmed Suspect,” the piece will feature an ancient Grecian-style tomb, with an added performance component that involves the construction of a gallows to serve as “a historical bridge to link the present with the past.”

“It’s always been a form of entertainment, watching them build the gallows before they hang somebody,” Vile said. “Although it’s a crowd of people that seek art, I think they also deserve to be entertained — and what’s more entertaining than hanging somebody on the town square?”

Vile expects his piece will be erected in the closest thing Grand Rapids has to a town square — Calder Plaza. That is, “unless the shit really hits the fan,” he said.

One might be tempted to imagine the work as his attempt to inject some dark humor

68 | REVUEWM.COM | September 2015

into the ripped-from-today’s-headlines issue of state violence, but Vile said it’s all humor.

“The idea of people sitting around watching somebody build a gallows is hilarious to me,” he said. “The idea of people watching somebody getting hung is hilarious, but I have a really twisted moral compass.”

In a career that has spanned four decades and disciplines that include visual art, magazine publishing and music, Vile has made a life out of following that twisted moral compass to provoke and offend. But over the four years author Rob St. Mary spent immersed in Peterson’s work writing the Orbit book, he said he came to realize that Jerry is “one of the most important underground figures in Detroit culture in the past 30-35 years.”

“Here’s a guy who started in the Detroit punk rock scene,” St. Mary said. “He had a band called the Boners, he was in that scene

with Destroy All Monsters, with the remnants of the MC5 and the Stooges, all these other great bands that didn’t get the attention they deserved.”

Capturing that punk energy in his work, Vile founded a succession of magazines, culminating in Orbit’s decade-long run. He also launched the annual Dirty Show of erotic art that has been the highlight of the ribald aesthete’s cultural calendar for the past 16 years.

One of his bestknown recent works, “Crisco Fist (Vessel of Hope)” was unveiled when Detroit declared bankruptcy. It featured a giant can of Crisco beneath the Joe Louis fist sculpture in downtown Detroit. The real artistic strength of the work came in Peterson’s ability to confuse some of the more gullible members of the local media, who missed the some of the piece’s fetishistic connotations.

“The Crisco fist is subtle. If you’re a grandmother or a little kid, you don’t know what that means. In fact, if you don’t have a perverted bone in your body, it might not mean something to you,” Vile said. “It meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. To my young daughter, I was able to explain

that politicians are slippery and greasy, just like Crisco.”

Of course, he added, “some people interpreted it as fistf******, of all things. That one never dawned on me.”

This won’t be Vile’s first appearance at ArtPrize. His entry last year featured a McMansion made out of cardboard boxes, “like a really fancy Hooverville,” Vile said.

“It was like living in refrigerator and stove boxes, but really, really wasting a lot of space with a great room and a master bedroom and a master —Jerry Vile bath and an open-air kitchen,” he said.

Vile said he loves ArtPrize, and that it brings him “that joy that there’s only a German word for.”

“I would rather look at a really crappy piece of art than a mediocre piece of art. Of course, I always like to look at a really nice piece of art, but it’s just fun to see any art,” Vile said.

Which brings us back to this year’s piece.

How does Vile think his it will be received?

“I don’t know if the piece will be used to lynch me,” he said. “It could go over horribly.” n

“The idea of people watching somebody getting hung is hilarious, but I have a really twisted moral compass.”

Jerry Vile’s 2014 ArtPrize entry, “The Tarps,” featured a couch made of Franzia boxes

Muskegon Museum of Art Curator Offers Insight

In Conversation: Art Martin Interview by Chris Protas

Art Martin is not only a painter, he’s also associate curator/collections manager at the Muskegon Museum of Art. Martin chatted with REVUE about West Michigan’s art scene and offered some advice and insight for emerging artists.

West Michigan is having a cultural renaissance. Without taking away from the positive side of this, where is there room for improvement?

I think ArtPrize has greatly contributed to the idea that the arts can produce a sense of vitality and community and cities around the area are picking up on that. Spectacle is always appealing, but is also expensive, hard to maintain and requires constant reinvention. The best opportunity for diversity of art and thought is going to come from more modest shows and events. At the most basic level, if a community wants to have a vital arts scene, artists need the financial support that comes from the sale of art.

Can you give me your thoughts on the state of art criticism in the area? What role do you think it plays?

Art criticism in our area is limited. When I look back in our archives, I can find professional critical reviews of Muskegon area art shows, plays, musicals, concerts and symphonies.

There is nothing like that now. Art criticism is important to growing quality and support.

For curators and programming directors, it is professional, objective feedback we need to strengthen what we do. For the public, it is another tool for building understanding of the arts and to both challenge and encourage their own criticism.

Scene | Sounds | Sights Diing | Schedule

Besides making art, what responsibility do artists have in developing excitement for the arts among the public?

Artists need to be open to opportunities.

Not everyone is at a level where they are going to be invited for solo shows at our museums. There are going to be chances at smaller sites and artists shouldn’t pass on these for want of something grander. Artists also need to attend events not featuring their own work, building a community of support for their fellow artists. In my own role at a museum, it is disheartening to only see artists at our exhibitions when their own work is on the wall.

What responsibility do curators have?

Curators need to be educators. It is important to make sure that what we develop is accessible at all levels. Even if someone doesn’t ultimately like what a curator presents, you want them to walk away with some new knowledge or understanding. Like artists, curators also need to be visible and involved in the arts community outside their own doors, building relations with peers, artists, audiences and supporters.

Chris Protas is the curator at The Fire Barn Gallery, a Grand Haven-based non-profit operated by three painters.

REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

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The Arts Issue | emerging artist profiles

ArtParticipators Bunny Terwee & Margaret Farrell Talk Inspiration & ArtPrize

West Michigan-based artists Bunny Terwee and Margaret Farrell are both set for this year’s ArtPrize. Terwee’s “ALL ABOUT THE LINES” and Farrell’s “Jeison” will be featured at One Trick Pony (136 Fulton St. E, Grand Rapids) during the competition.

Can you walk us through your entry for ArtPrize this year?

Bunny: The watercolor painting was inspired by the form and reflection of lines in nature’s design. My mainstay is larger-than-life flowers.

Margaret: My entry is a photo realism rendering using graphite. It’s titled “Jeison,” after the name of the boy in the drawing. My sister, Laura Farrell, went on a service trip three years ago to the Dominican Republic to help work at an orphanage. While she was there, she took amazing photos. I was deeply inspired by this particular photo due to the captivated look on Jeison’s face.

What inspired you to go into art?

Bunny: My love of drawing and the need to capture so many different images is what inspires my love of art.

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

Margaret: After high school I attended Muskegon Community College

and that is where I found [the] window to make art my career — my professors there really inspired me …. (then) I was introduced to Kendall College of Art and Design.

What does art mean to you?

Bunny: Art to me is losing myself in a subject that I am drawing and painting. Time stands still while drawing and I lose track of where I am. Reality no longer exists during the process.

Margaret: Art to me is all about self expression. I create art because that is my way of communication and [self expression]. I am able to get my thoughts, feelings and ideas down on paper and create something beautiful. Everything is open ended. There is art I love and there is art that I do not love, but I am able to appreciate it and try to understand it. In the end, art is never wrong. —Mayra Monroy

The Resilient Artist

Joseph DeCommer Turns Anguish into Artwork In a Midtown studio apartment adorned with paintings on every inch of its walls, Joseph DeCommer, 35, figuratively lives and breathes art. He sleeps in the same room he creates, merging pop culture and realism with critically-endangered species and apocalyptic scenarios. He’s been at it for five years and has been steadily exhibiting his work throughout Michigan and beyond — even as far out as New York City.

When did you decide you wanted to be a painter?

I was in a worthless relationship for six years and decided to end it before it was too late.

Having been with someone for so long, and then suddenly having them not around, causes a person to look for something to do.

In 2010, instead of killing myself, or booze and drugs, I chose painting. I poured myself into it and have never stopped.

Are there any re-occurring themes in your paintings?

The theme I would like people to most consider is love. I have lost a lot in my life. I have no family that I speak to and have lost what I thought was real love in relationships a few times. For instance, if you see my skeletons with hearts paintings called Resilient; those are about my idea of the heart’s ability to withstand great punishment. The skeletons are 10,000 years old but their heart is still there.

Bunny Terwee painting

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Margaret Farrell drawing

You will have your self-portrait at ArtPrize this year — what’s the story behind it?

It’s called “Self with Skull/Remember Me.” The skull is a representation of my dead self and people who have been important to me

over the years who are no longer in my life: My mother, father, romantic relationships, sibling and friends. I’m including a notebook for people to share their similar stories of lost love and family.

Where has your work been exhibited?

My mainstay is ArtPrize. I have done it every year except the first because I wasn’t painting yet. It’s fun and it leads to pretty good exposure. I never go in it thinking about winning, it is purely for fun. Other than that, I have a gallery show coming up Sept.

11 at Lansing Art Gallery as a part of their Time|Space exhibition. Also, I try to do as many art festivals as I can.

What are you up to when you’re not painting?

I’m thinking about painting. I wish I were joking but I’m not. It really is all I think about.

Well, art in general. To some it makes me dull but to others there is a fascination. To be honest, if I didn’t have this I would probably want to die. I think the world is amazing and sometimes too powerful to take — and also really sad. —Nicole Rico For more information, visit decommer.com.

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S p ec i a l A d ver t i s i n g S ec t i o n

Nathan Coley, You Imagine What You Desire, 2014. Illuminated text on scaffolding. Installation, St Nicholasí Church, Brighton, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Parafin Gallery, London

Kendall College of Art and Design Featured Event: Sightlines – ArtPrize 2015 exhibition

S

ightlines, KCAD’s ArtPrize 2015 exhibition, converges eight contemporary artists from around the world in a bold and timely examination of the often murky distinction between perception and reality. Each of these artists grapples in their own way with the fact that definitive understanding is largely elusive. Our sense of our own experiences and of the broader human experience is always changing, shifting, growing, and evolving as we embark down new paths, encounter new ideas, and undergo rapid technological advancement. Beneath the surface of what we choose to call “fact” and “truth,” there exists an underlying current of prejudice, assumption, motive, and misunderstanding that shapes both the way we come to see ourselves and our world and the way in which we communicate our perceptions to others. All of the featured artists are participating in ArtPrize for the first time. Inside The Fed Galleries @ KCAD, the art in Sightlines is given plenty of room to breathe, allowing ArtPrize viewers the time and space to engage each piece on their own terms. Visit: kcad.edu/galleries

St. Cecilia Music Center Featured Event: ArtPrize MUSIC: Joshua Davis – Oct. 4

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

K

nown as the music hub for ArtPrize, St. Cecilia Music Center (SCMC) hosts a benefit concert featuring Joshua Davis on Oct. 4. Davis, a Michigan-based singer/songwriter, composes songs that meld American music with rock ‘n’ roll, the result being “some of the liveliest and most rocking roots music around,” according to Performing Songwriter Magazine. Davis, who is also the guitarist/vocalist for Steppin’ In It, is also known for his appearance on the national TV show The Voice, in which Davis placed third. Also taking the stage are local-folk rock veterans Troll for Trout and area bluegrass band Fauxgrass. Opening acts start at 6 p.m. in the historic Royce Auditorium and there is a cash bar open until Joshua Davis starts at 8 p.m. Stick around after the concert for an artist reception open to all ticket holders. Tickets range from $25-$30 and proceeds go towards supporting SCMC as the ArtPrize music hub. Every year SCMC raises and awards its own prize money to musical entries, including the new Critic’s Choice Award. Visit: scmc-online.org

Joshua Davis

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University Musical Society (UMS) Featured Event: Sleeping Beauty – March 31-April 3

I

t’s a classic story everyone is familiar with, thanks to Disney. But those who were left wanting after the animated classic and the live-action Maleficient can see a grandiose and opulent production of Sleeping Beauty

by American Ballet Theatre at the Detroit Opera House from March 31-April 3.

The event features music by Tchaikovsky, performed live by the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, as well as choreography by Marius Petipa and staging by Alexei Ratmansky. The new production, presented by UMS and Michigan Opera Theatre, breathes life into the story of Aurora, a beautiful princess cursed to sleep for 100 years until she is awakened by a prince. For those who want to delve deeper in the minds of the artists, there will be a pre-performance conversation with the crew behind Sleeping Beauty, starting an hour before the performance. Also available is a luxury coach service on select dates. The coach will leave from Ann Arbor and travel to Detroit, getting there in time for that pre-performance Q&A. Call (734) 764-2538 or visit ums.org to reserve your tickets. Visit: ums.org

S p ec i a l A d ver t i s i n g S ec t i o n Darkly

Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA) Featured Event: OddBall: White Walls Presented by Meijer – Sept. 12

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his year, OddBall: White Walls provides a unique experience for the senses. Come out to OddBall for an exclusive sneak peek of UICA’s ArtPrize Seven exhibition, SENSE. The showcase features six responsive projects throughout UICA’s exhibition space, encouraging guests to experience the works through: sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. There will also be musical guests, including Darkly and E. ∆ndrei.

Darkly provides an ambient mix of murky synths and bewitching vocal melodies, as well as unique visual experiences. OddBall also features Cheeky Strut, the energetic and cutting edge hair salon. Both hair and make-up artists will be choosing people at random throughout the event to undergo a high fashion makeover, creating living works of art within the audience.

Known for their eclectic mix of dance performances, the event also features the Kendall College of Art and Design and Calvin College dance collective Our Daily Dance. Tickets are $125.03 or $98.89 for UICA members and include self-parking in the Gallery ramp, a drink, a strolling buffet, and entertainment. Visit uica.org.

Donald Sinta Quartet

GVSU Fall Arts Celebration Featured Event: Faculty Artist Gems – Sept. 21

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his year puts the spotlight on Grand Valley faculty members, with Faculty Artistry Gems! Recognizing GVSU Music Faculty Performances in the Community. As part of the Fall Arts Celebration, the GVSU faculty will present various compositions at the Louis Armstrong Theatre on the Allendale Campus.

Beginning the night is the Lighthouse Brass Quintet, which performs musical representations of Great Lakes lighthouses. The quintet features Professor of Trumpet, Richard Stoelzel. Following that is a performance of Bill Ryan’s “Simple Lines” by Pablo Manhave-Veglia, associate professor of cello. Bill Ryan is the director of Grand Valley’s New Music Ensemble. Ending the evening is the Donald Sinta Quartet, featuring Assistant Professor of Saxophone, Dan Graser. Preceding all these performances is the carillon concert at 7 p.m. which showcases university carillonneur Julianne Vanden Wyngaard. You can hear all this musical mastery on Sept. 21. Visit: gvsu.edu/fallarts

Opera Grand Rapids Featured Event: requiem – Oct. 30

Grand Rapids Symphony Featured Event: Love, Lust & Rock’n’Roll – Oct. 2-4

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ailed by several critics as Giuseppe Verdi’s finest opera, Requiem is a tour de force. It’s filled with forceful rhythms and dramatic contrasts that are powerfully expressed. This performance of Requiem will be conducted by Steven Mercurio, who is internationally acclaimed, and can be seen at DeVos Performance Hall on Oct. 30. Come here the terrifying Dies irae, which is instantly recognizable from several movie trailers. Following that is the Rex tremendae, which is meant to invoke a feeling of unworthiness before God. And finally, the Sanctus asks for forgiveness and redemption, with the soprano belting out “Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death … when you will come to judge the world by fire.” This performance is also part of Opera Grand Rapids’ Night With The Opera, which includes Creole cuisine, cocktails, live entertainment and an afterglow party with the stars of Requiem. Tickets go on sale Sept. 8. To purchase tickets, call 616.451.2741 or visit eventbrite.com. Tickets are 20-percent off with a subscription to the Opera Grand Rapids 2015-16 season. Student “Passport to the Opera” is $5 for any performance. Visit: operagr.org

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Scene | Sounds | Sights Diing | Schedule

or people who like “all kinds of music,” stop by the DeVos Performance Hall from Oct. 2-4 for the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Love, Lust & Rock’n’Roll. The event features music from the Grand Rapids Pops Orchestra and vocals by Storm Large, from the TV show Rock Star: Supernova. Love, Lust & Rock’n’Roll showcases songs ranging from the 1930s to the ‘90s from artists like Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Queen and Led Zeppelin. They’re playing all the hits, including “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Somebody to Love” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and many more. Other than Rock Star, Storm Large is also known for being the co-lead singer for Pink Martini, a Portland, Ore.-based “little orchestra” group. Although she got her start as a rock singer, she’s been branching into the worlds of theater and cabaret. Visit: grsymphony.org

Storm Large REVUEWM.COM | September 2015 |

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Broadway Grand Rapids Featured Event: Newsies – Sept. 22-27

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Newsies

he 2012 Tony Award winner Newsies heads to DeVos Performance Hall this fall with several showings from Sept. 22-27.

Inspired by the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City, Newsies tells the story of Jack Kelly, as well as several other homeless children, who sell newspapers to support themselves.

One day the publisher of the paper raises the cost of the papers to the boys, aka the “newsies” and it causes the crew to strike. Based on the 1992 Disney movie of the same name, Newsies features music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman. It has won awards for both best score and best choreography and was heralded by the New York Times as “a musical worth singing about!” It’s also family friendly, making it a perfect introduction to Broadway for the children. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through ticketmaster.com, the DeVos Place convention center, Van Andel Arena box offices or by calling 1-800-982-2787. Visit: broadwaygrandrapids.com

Actors’ Theatre Featured Event: Heathers – Oct. 8-9 & Oct. 15-17

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hat happens when you combine puberty, popularity and a sociopath named J.D.? Find out Oct. 8-9 and 15-17 when the Actors’ Theatre hosts the rock musical adaptation of the 1988 cult film Heathers. The musical follows a semester in the life of Veronica Sawyer as she deals with the trials and tribulations of teenage-dom and being in the popular clique, “the Heathers.” Everything is going along swimmingly until Veronica meets J.D. and starts to question whether popularity is really all that important. As they begin their relationship J.D., ever the opportunist, sees this as a way to off a few popular kids and send a message to society at large. What results from this is the erroneous popularity of suicide in the late ‘80s. The story takes place in 1989 and is filled with throwback commentary as well as plenty of dark humor. Fans of Donnie Darko, Mean Girls or campy ‘80s humor in general should check this out. Visit: actorstheatregrandrapids.org

Wharton Center for Performing Arts Featured Event: Lang Lang – Sept. 28

Schedule | Dining | Sights Sounds | Scene

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amed “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” by The New York Times, Lang Lang brings his rock-star swagger to East Lansing on Sept. 28 for a show at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. Lang Lang made his debut at the age of 13 at Beijing Concert Hall.

Since then he’s stunned audiences with skill and passion in every major city across the world. In April 2009 Time magazine included him in its 100 Most Influential People in the World list. The Today show reported that over 40 million Chinese children have learned to play classical piano because of him – a phenomenon Today referred to as “the Lang Lang effect.” Over the years he’s performed with a roster of A-list performers, including: Katharine McPhee, Mike Oldfield, Andrea Bocelli, Metallica, Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer, the Vienna Philharmonic and many more. At one time considered controversial because of his youthful and exuberant performing style, Lang Lang will perform works by Bach, Chopin and Tchaikovsky at his Wharton Center debut. Visit: whartoncenter.com

Lang Lang

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Jersey Boys

Miller Auditorium Featured Event: Jersey Boys – Oct. 20-25

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he Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning musical Jersey Boys comes to Miller Auditorium this October. Jersey Boys follows the formation through the break-up of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Four Seasons. The group sold 175 million records worldwide before they even turned 30 with hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Working My Way Back to You,” “Oh What a Night” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” A jukebox musical, featuring music by composer Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe, Jersey Boys tells the story of four blue-collar kids (Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi) through the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each season is narrated by a different member of the band and represents different eras of their career. The New York Times says “the crowd goes wild!” for this musical directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff. This October, come see the sonic story of one of the greatest pop-music successes. Visit: millerauditorium.com

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