Tagged: Art

The head of Michigan’s largest contemporary arts center has stepped down as part of a plan to stabilize the museum’s finances. The Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids is also cutting its hours.

The UICA’s board of directors voted on the restructuring plan this week to try to stabilize what they call a “declining financial situation”. But the board will not discuss details of the budget or the restructuring plan publicly.

Board President Kathryn Chaplow says the board has reached out to a small group of “major donors” to help with some immediate funding.

“It’s very rare for people to go through something like this. But with the way people step up its just overwhelming and its humbling. The UICA isn’t going anywhere,” Chaplow said.

The UICA’s executive director Jeff Meeuwsen has agreed to step down as part of the plan. He will stay on as a temporary consultant for up to 90 days. 

Chaplow says she hopes the cut in hours will be temporary. And she says the board will be seeking a new director.

Artists can start registering today to compete in ArtPrize this fall.

The winner of the yearly art competition is decided by the voting public who visit the event in September in downtown Grand Rapids.

More than a half a million dollars in prize money is at stake. The entry fee is just fifty bucks.

For the first time this year there’ll be $200,000 in prizes for juried awards in addition to those awarded by the popular vote.

ArtPrize spokesman Brian Burch says juried awards are what professional artists are used to. 

“It’s still kind of a reach for them that this big voting thing happens. But to know that their work will be seen by world-renowned art critics – there’s a huge advantage in that,” Burch said.

Dexter residents are still dealing with the aftermath of the tornado that through their town earlier this month. To help with the healing process, one woman has set up an outdoor art studio for kids in one of the hardest hit neighborhoods.

Christine Lux's makeshift studio consists of some tables, a tent, and a giant blue tarp to protect the children’s art work and art supplies.

One recent weekday afternoon, Lux is surrounded by a handful of kids in smocks, each wielding a paint brush dripping with brightly-colored paint. They're decorating a banner that says "Dexter: There’s No Place Like Home."

It’s just one of the many projects Dexter kids have been working on with Lux over the last few weeks.

The University of Michigan is leading an effort to get the arts to play a bigger role at research universities.

Reading, writing, and "making" are the skills Theresa Reid wants to see emphasized in higher education.

Reid is the director of ArtsEngine at U of M, and is spearheading the initiative to integrate “arts practices” at U of M and other research universities around the country. She says the creative process teaches students how to be flexible, to think in different way. It also emphasizes a more hands-on, experimental approach to solving problems.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University will not open April 21st as scheduled due to construction problems. Instead, the contemporary art museum will open sometime this fall.

But for those who just can’t wait to see what the inside of the Zaha Hadid-designed museum looks like, the folks at the Broad have created a “virtual” museum that anyone from anywhere in the world can access:

Michael Rush, the museum's director, describes it as a "totally virtual space: purely fictional, purely contrived. It’s sort of like a video game, really."

An art gallery in Lansing lets patrons lease original works of art, much like you would a car or a truck.

For nearly five decades, the Lansing Art Gallery has let folks lease select pieces of art from their gallery. Now with the gallery's new Lease/Purchase Exhibit people can lease any of the 43 original pieces of art on display for about ten percent of the sticker price:

Catherine Babcock is the gallery’s executive director. She hopes the lease option will help alleviate the anxiety some people feel when purchasing art.