2nd Art Wal Held in Muskegon

Local TV coverage of the LMAW at Frauenthal Performing Arts Center Follow the link to the video from the August Art Walk in downtown Muskegon. Over 20 artists 3 gallery locations besides the Frauenthal - including the new Red Lotus.

Muskegon Chronicle Article

Here is the link to the recently published article in the Muskegon Chronicle.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/05/group_working_to_organize_art.html

Rapid Growth Media Article

Here is the link to the Rapid Growth Media Article recently published on the Lake Michigan Art Walk.

http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/innovationnews/ArtWalk0527.aspx

Official Sponsors

Two official sponsors that have been added are Kyser Designwerks and PR Jenna Kyser.  We are looking forward to working on this project with both of them.

First Event

Our first event as an organization with a lofty goal in mind is going to be taking place on July 8th and 9th this summer at the Frauenthal Performing Arts Center.  Both days will begin at 1 pm and go until 8 pm.

The 1940 Ford Deluxe

Just finished this piece on the 1940 Ford Deluxe.  A 16x20" acrylic on tempered masonite.  I will see you at the Classic Car Show on Sunday at the Fruitport Old Fashion Days.

Collectible Image for Poster

I have secured a top notch designer to create a collectible and sought after poster for the Lake Michigan Art Walk and we will have one that will work for us on the first art walk.

More pics from the dontown Muskegon area

Here are a few more pics from the downtown area and the Frauenthal Center for the Arts.

Rapid Growth Media

I have an interview with Rapid Growth Media on Tuesday regarding the Lake Michigan Art Walk.  They will be publishing on Thursday of this week and we will get some good coverage in GR!

Photos from the Frauenthal Complex

From Sheree

Most of us probably already own 5 and 6 foot tables from art shows. If not then that is still what is available.  10' by 6' or 10' by 10' would be nice... even 10 by 8'    

If we some are going to work there - which Brian suggested at the meeting with the reporter - it would be nice to have room for a table or 2 tables in an L an then an easel and chair.

Or  if it is not quite wide enough for two sets of deep space for example, one down the Theatre Wall and one by the window.. then you could have the one area be fore people who just wanted 1 table length-wise with a chair and easel next to it.  I have also seen, in a narrow space 2 tables slightly at a v to each other with  the artist's behind the angled part. Hard to describe in an email.

Sheree

First Event Chatter

Below are some thoughts from Sheree Lincoln.  Sheree I did talk with Art Martin about those dates and he thinks that it would be a good thing to be on the same date as their event.  He said that they would direct their attendees to our event as well.  The 24th and 25th is looking the best at this point.  It gives our artists more time to prepare. Give us your thoughts!  B

Brian this is fabulous!!!  (Your news) Good work.

FIRST ART WALK!!! AT FRAUENTHAL  --  Which dates are better June 17th & 18th or June 24th and 25th? Interesting to note is that Thursday night June 24th is the Artist Reception & Gallery Walk for the 82 Regional at the Museum so my advise to Brian is to find out what the Museum would prefer. I think it might be nice to have it the 24th and 25th to combine advertising efforts and appeal to people to come out because there is so much going on. It also helps in that the Museum will probably have food being served.

Please refer to the blog at: http://lakemichiganartwalk.blogspot.com/

or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Michigan-Art-Walk/122218597788841?ref=ts

First Event

Hello everyone,

Much thanks to the hard work of Gary Packingham.  We have a venue that will serve as a perfect place to hold the the first every Lake Michigan Art Walk.  The Frauenthal Arts Complex in downtown Muskegon has been very kind in offering a location on there main concourse just inside the front doors.  We have met with the Muskegon Chronicle and had an interview that they would like to publish very soon.  I would like to give them a date soon and that is what I am appealing to you now with.

We are desiring to make our first event a two day long event that will encompass two day during the business week to start.  I am offering two different time frames that I will take on advisement from the majority of you.  The two date frames are June 17th and 18th or the 24th and 25th.  Please respond with your preference and again we will take that dates that the most can make.

Our next challenge will be advertising and while we are relying on the Muskegon Chronicle for the initial we also hope to get the Muskegon Museum of Art to help as well as the area businesses and the Frauenthal Arts Complex.

As a participating artist during this first event this is a open free event for you to participate.  You will be responsible for your own setup and tear down of your exhibit.  This event is meant to be a prolific selling event and that is what we want to associated with.  Prints and reproductions of your work are welcome and encouraged.  The Frauenthal wants to set up a cash bar and we agreed with that.

We are looking for more input with your response but please respond soon.  We want to make our decision in the next two days.

Thank you, Bryan

Muskegon Chronicle Article

We will be meeting with a Muskegon Chronicle reporter on Tuesday, May 18th to rough in the launch article for the first LMAW event.  While we do not have a secure date and venue yet, we are hoping to have that information on or before the 18th.  We will keep you posted

Good News

During tonight Salon at the Muskegon Museum of Art a lot of great contacts were made as the word of the LMAW was spread through artists, the museum and the Muskegon Chronicle.  While we received some good news regarding the Frauenthal Complex we also found that we will have the full support and participation of the Muskegon Museum of Art as well as an article in the local newspaper.

Art Walk Update

 wanted to update you on our efforts to get area artist engaged in bringing art to the downtown. Since most appear to be hesitant to commit to the Russell Block project at this point, Bryan Snuffer and I have proposed a new initiative to get their feet in the water, so to speak. Bryan had been to Arizona where he heard about "Art Walks". These are day-long artist showings in downtown businesses. Several artists are paired up with a like number of businesses and the public is invited to come to the downtown businesses to see the art and meet with the artists. The works are generally for sale as well. It draws new patrons to businesses and exposes the regular patrons to the artists. A win-win, low investment marriage between downtown businesses and artists.

Bryan and I shared this concept with the group that we are holding together for the Russell Block project. Most have been warm to the idea. So we took the next step of meeting to discuss how to begin having Art Walks - and where to have them. Only three of us showed up for the meeting, but we made good progress - and shared the results of our thinking with other. Several others are now warmer to the concept and wanting to participate. The next step was to locate a potential site for the premier Art Walk. We opted to start with the Frauenthal and ask about their lobby on Western Ave. If the weather is good we may even be able to have some art on the sidewalk - we hope to keep a "street front" feel to the Art Walk (making the downtown feel more vibrant.) Future Art Walks would hopefully be hosted by some of the area businesses. So starting at the Frauenthal is designed to be a sign of community support that encourages others.

I called the Frauenthal and talked with a woman named Heather. She was also "warm" to the idea, but will need to run this past others and then get back to me. Since she didn't say "no", I assume this is not an unreasonable request, or one that is against policy. I will let you know when I hear back. We hope to have the first Art Walk in June and will promote it as best we can. We think we can have at least 6-10 artists for this first venture, and believe we can grow it from there. We will also let the Art Museum know, once we are certain. Judy's support has always been valued - as is yours.

My hope is that we can begin to forge a connection between the area artists and the downtown, so that this group can take the next step of getting a permanent location (the Russell Block Building). I doubt the city would allow us to do this, but it would be nice at some point to have one of the Art Walks in one of your buildings. However, I am sure the liability issues make that idea a non-starter. Let me know what your thoughts are on this notion.

In the meanwhile, we are forging ahead to get artists moving towards the downtown.

GPack

Frauenthal

Bryan,
Can you do an email to the group on this?

I received a call back from the Frauenthal. I sketched out the basics of our Art Walk proposal and the response was warm. They did not say no - as in we don't allow that. In fact, the woman I spoke with was very interested. She will need to have this concept reviewed by others and will get back to me. I anticipate there may be a couple of things that we will have to discuss further with them, but in general, I do believe this is workable.

I will now bring Gary Post up to speed with this initiative and see if he can support this as our early efforts as the first step in getting artist engaged in a "downtown" arts mission.

Gary

Classic Olds

We may have a few new artists that we could be working with in the first Walk.  While we have a solid direction now to pursue the Frauenthal complex for the first of our exhibition, there is still a lot of work to be done.  I am painting feverishly for a few projects that I am working on.  This oic is a classic Olds for car show coming up.  12x18" acrylic on masonite.

Yesterday's Meeting

Yesterday's meeting went very well.  Only just a few of us there but we have come to a decision that the downtown Muskegon Area is our ideal location for a number of reasons that I will try to outline in this post.

Particularly we have decided to first approach the Frauenthal Theater complex.  While we have not gone down this road yet we thought that the interior long lobby area would be a great venue while we start out small.  We would have the power of the Frauenthal newsletter to outreach and we have begun talking with the Museum of Art to help along with the Muskegon Chronicle.  In this circle we can begin to reach the West Michigan Area to help create an art destination of our own.

Our ultimate goal is to bring this event down to the street level.  To create for our invited artists the opportunity to show and sell their work in an environment that is conducive to create a destination for art lovers and collectors.  This is a new idea for this area in that we are the risk takers.

We'll start out small and get on the map this year.  We hope to attract painters and sculptures that will lift this event to one that will be talked about here but everywhere!

LMAW Card

Lake Michigan Art Walk on Facebook

LMAW is now on Facebook as well.  We will try to keep both updated and get the best of all possible exposure.  Lake Michigan Art Walk

Come On, Last Bite and Gotta Get Up by Sheree Lincoln

To be downtown or not to be downtown

We have been wrestling with the idea of approaching the downtown Muskegon area with the Lake Michigan Art Walk. While the name of the organization allows us to work with any local area in the West Michigan area our desire is to see if it can work with the newly formed downtown area.  Downtown Muskegon has the great village type environment but lacks the people traffic that might make an artist feel confident that they are going to get the exposure.  We looking for comments and interaction here.

Madeline

Madeline.  by Bryan David Snuffer

Seeking new artists

Today I am hoping that we will be moving forward in work to secure new businesses to participate in the Lake Michigan Art Walk.  For now we'll add new work from participating artists.

Ella.  by Bryan David Snuffer

Letter to West Michigan Artists

Fellow artists:

As you know, there has been a hiatus in the discussions on the Russell Building art group. That is still a work in progress, but may need more time. Meanwhile, our colleague Bryan Snuffer has presented an idea that may have strong merit as an interim step. Bryan recently met with some west coast artist in New Mexico and came back with the fruits of an idea that has work well elsewhere. His suggestion that we consider this for our "west coast" is the purpose of this email.

Bryan's gem of an idea is to develop a "Lake Michigan Art Walk". The concept is to create a partnership with local businesses wherein several businesses in an area provide space for participating artists to show their works on a given day (or two-days). Each artist could have one business for display and a chance to sell some of their works as patrons to the business come in. Conversely, the business would benefit from the artists drawing new people to their place. The concept is totally voluntary on the part of the business so the cost to the artists is only the cost of the display (and time.) We tentatively discussed having the first event in mid-June.

As Bryan and I discussed this we agreed that the best approach would be to try a couple pilot events first to see how it went. We realize that there is a lot of coordination needed to pull this together. Businesses will need to be solicited for their support, and we will need to create the free-media marketing to get the word out. Out initial thoughts are to target the downtown area of Muskegon for the first Art Walk. A follow event could be from either the Mall, Whitehall, Lakeside, Spring Lake - or any number of places.

The hope is that we can interest enough artists to make this very attractive to both the artists and the businesses sponsoring the Art Walk. Bryan is fast at work in developing a blog on this and some materials we can readily print to help promote it. We plan to talk with the Muskegon Museum of Art to see if they may be able to help get the word out to their membership (never hurts to ask.) We also plan on talking with the Chamber to seek their support on behalf of the participating businesses.

What we need now is feedback from you folks to both determine whether or not there is sufficient interest, and to get your input. I am sure that there are many in this group who have experienced something similar to an Art Walk as proposed here - and you have some good ideas on how to make this a success. We will also need input on the suggestion that mid-June be the timing for the first event. We will need some time to get the logistics in place with area businesses and free media coverage, but we don't want to wait too much.

With the Art Prize popularity and interest in Grand Rapids, we believe the timing is right for the artists along the lakeshore to get their feet wet. And with the economy still struggling here, this offers an opportunity to begin attracting attention to our arts community in an affordable manner.

All suggestions welcomed!

The birth of the Lake Michigan Art Walk

Hello All,

This is the first day of the Lake Michigan Art Walk.  A project being headed by a few artists in Muskegon County as a venture to bring art to the community more often.