Jordan Valley Glass Headlines Show at Charlevoix Circle

This month one of our favorite local glass studios and a very special local art gallery combine to put on a spectacular show in our neighboring town of Charlevoix.

Jordan Valley Glassworks of East Jordan is the creation of third generation glass blower Jay Bavers. He discovered the wonder and some of the secrets of glassblowing as a young boy living above his grandfather's glassblowing shop in Brooklyn, New York. Glenna Haney added her talents to the studio part time fifteen years ago and became a full partner about four years later. Jay's son Bill brought the family tradition to a fourth generation when he joined the Glassworks last year after earning his BFA from Bowling Green. Together they produce beautiful glass pieces for the home and garden from ornaments to lighting fixtures to free form sculptures.

The Charlevoix Circle of Arts is a non-profit cultural arts organization that, in addition to its gallery. provides classes, concerts and other activities to support the arts and provide cultural enrichment to the region. Their latest presentation, Translucent Show, includes large and small glass creations by Jordan Valley Glassworks and other artists as well as watercolors and other translucent mediums.

The show is well worth seeing and continues through July 4th. The Circle of Arts gallery is located at 109 Clinton Street in Charlevoix. Hours are 1-5 Tuesday through Saturday.

The Northern Michigan Artists Market has a large selection of works by Jordan Valley Glassworks available at our gallery in Petoskey and our online store.

Spring Brings Major Waterfront and Park Improvements to Petoskey

Spring is in full flower [like this watercolor by Bruce Love] at the Northern Michigan Artists Market and in our home town of Petoskey, Michigan. At the Market, that means new artists and lots of new artwork. In town, spring means that a slew of new boating, recreation and downtown enhancement projects are about to start. Whether you live here or are planning to visit us sometime this summer or even if you just love Petoskey and like to keep in touch, we thought you might like an update.

On the waterfront, the big news is a whole raft of improvements at the City's marina. The biggest change will be a fourth pier that will be built in the gap between the leftmost dock and the two on the right. This new pier will add forty-four additional boat slips. The plans for this summer also include renovation and expansion of the marina's service building. The shelter house will be relocated to allow for the expansion.

The Army Corps of Engineers has resumed its reconstruction of Petoskey's breakwall. [Watercolor by Karen Kubovchick] The outer portion was completely rebuilt last year and is a vast improvement. Rebuilding will continue moving down the breakwall all the way to the shore. This project will not only repair the damage caused a couple of years ago when ice and waves broke through the wall and created a huge gap but will rebuild the wall to correct years of wear and deterioration. It will also widen the wall and make it safer for all of the people who love to walk out on the breakwall and dive off into the harbor.

You probably know that the Bear River flows under the big bridge on US-31 just west of Downtown Petoskey, then under a bridge on Lake street and through a rocky channel next to City Hall, then empties into Lake Michigan in the Petoskey harbor. What you may not know is that before all this, the Bear flows through a beautiful wooded valley right in the middle of town. This scenic walking path is a local favorite and is actually a segment of the North Country Trail that runs all the way from Upstate New York to Central North Dakota. In mid-May, Petoskey will begin a major improvement project that will include the construction of walking trails, restrooms, picnic shelters, and improvements to the Bear River that will create a Class III whitewater rapids along the Bear River from Sherridan St. to Lake Michigan. Actually, preparatory work has been going on for a while but the major, visible enhancements will take place through this summer. I personally walk this trail frequently and I strongly recommend a visit to this tranquil oasis. The improvements should make this walk even more pleasant and will make more people aware of its existence and beauty.

As I discuss in the latest issue of the Artists Market's email newsletter, Art Up North, there was a major breakthrough this winter in the efforts of the City to develop Pennsylvania Park. The railroad track and its right-of-way that makes up much of this park in the center of Downtown has been untouchable because it is owned by the State of Michigan. After about twenty-five years of discussion and negotiations with the State, Petoskey has made a deal buy this property. Plans include a long anticipated historic rail trolley and walking path that will run from the Zipp building, a former railroad station south of Downtown, through the middle of the Gaslight District and on to Bay View east of Downtown. When completed this project will be a beautiful and functional attraction and reminder of Petoskey's railroading history.

There will be a lot going on this summer here in Petoskey. We hope you will come and enjoy it with us.

Artists Market Featured in The Graphic

This week, The Graphic, Petoskey's local free entertainment and events weekly, takes a break from its series of outstanding features on local artists to review the Northern Michigan Artists Market.

I am a big fan of Maggie Peterson and her Art Scene feature in the Graphic. I have commented here on her previous columns profiling Artists Market artists such as extraordinary Harbor Springs wood turner Tom Jacobson. This week, I was delighted to read her insights into my own favorite creative work, our art gallery.

The article features a great picture of my two partners, Vivi Woodcock and Susan Lange, and me inside the Market. It does a great job of capturing the spirit and mission of our little store. In addition to visiting the gallery and talking with the three of us, Maggie spoke with a couple of the very special local artists who exhibit here, nature photographer Kris Busk and potter Christine Rowe.

Sometime this week, take the time to pick up a copy of The Graphic or check out the article on their website. If you have any comments, be sure to post them here.

First Responder, a Ghost Story

In my previous post, I wrote about Downtown Petoskey's Ghost Walk. That event took place last night and a great, ghoulish time was had by all. It did rain but that did not seem to dampen the spirits of the participants who turned out in large numbers (over 100 people) to tour Downtown Petoskey and hear stories about the local ghosts who inhabit our town.

Now that the event is over, I can reveal the tale of the Artists Markets very own ghost, one of the spectral biographies presented on the tour:


First Responder

For the last six years residents and visitors have been coming to 445 East Mitchell to buy the creations of local Northern Michigan artists but that was not always so. This address has been important to Downtown Petoskey residents for many many years. Long before it was an art gallery it was a Montgomery Wards Department store and even longer ago it was a car dealership selling Studebakers from South Bend Indiana.

Many happy and tragic things have happened between these walls over all those years but one of the most dramatic took place on a chilly evening in October back in 1961. Late that afternoon, a customer in the Women's Clothing Department of Montgomery Wards told a young sales clerk that she smelled smoke. The clerk called the fire department and an older, red-headed fireman came to the store and searched all the nooks and crannies of the building and the A&P Grocery that was then next door in the attached building at 441 East Mitchell. He carried a lantern in his left hand and a fire axe in his right. Despite looking for about two hours, he was unable to find the source of the smoky smell and left.

Early the next morning, about 3:00 a.m., a truck driver delivering groceries to the A&P noticed a fire in the loading dock area in the back of the building. Soon there was heavy smoke and and flames shooting out the side of the building on all floors. Fire fighters fought the blaze for several hours but were unable to prevent over $100,000 damage to the A&P. They were able to keep the blaze itself from spreading to the Montgomery Wards but in the process the future home of the Northern Michigan Artists Market was filled with smoke and water reached a foot deep in the basement.

Accounts of the fire in the News Review the next day do not report the deaths of any firefighters in the incident. There is no mention of the red-headed fireman who had searched the building in vain earlier in the day. In fact, people say that they cannot recall there being any red-headed Petoskey firefighters at all at that time but several people reported seeing a man in a firefighter uniform carrying a lantern and a fire axe running into the building as the flames raged, saying that the blaze was all his fault. No one saw him come out of the building that night.

Now every year on chilly evenings in late October, just after dusk when the sky is dark and the Artist Market lights are dimmed, people walking by the Artists Market have reported a slight but distinct smell of smoke and some have said that they thought they saw in the window what looked like an older, red-headed fireman holding a lantern high in his left hand and a fire axe in his right searching the nooks and crannies of the building trying to find the source of the smoke smell and still trying to prevent the A&P fire of 1961.

*******

The First Responder himself did appear last night during the Ghost Walk as one of the guides and raconteurs and is expected to materialize again today at the Artists Market where he is scheduled to distribute candy to the young trick-or-treaters who will be going from store to store. (Any slight resemblance between myself and the First Responder is, of course, entirely coincidental.)

The Ghost Walk, by the way, was a brand new event for Downtown Petoskey. Due to the fantastic turnout and enthusiastic response, the tour will likely reappear in the future on the Downtown schedule.

Downtown Petoskey Hosts Spooktacular Halloween Festivities

This is the time of the year when ghosts and other strange and creepy characters wander the streets, including the byways in our favorite downtown. The Northern Michigan Artists Market will be doing its part to welcome the ghosts and goblins of all ages to Downtown Petoskey and, in cooperation with Downtown Petoskey, provide a little spooky fun.

First, on Friday night, October 30, starting at 7:30pm, Downtown Petoskey presents our very first Ghost Tour, a guided stroll through Downtown featuring ghostly tales of the supernatural spirits known to inhabit the historic buildings. We have collected tales of Petoskey's own macabre and weird spectral creatures and assembled a crew of spooky characters to tell those tales as they guide you through the dark streets and dimly lit haunted shops of our town on the eve of Halloween.

There is a ghost that haunts the Artists Market on certain cool evenings in late October. I could tell you the story now but that would spoil the fun. [Perhaps I will post it here after the event.] Our ghost is featured in the tour and I personally will lead a couple of groups around Ghost Town Petoskey Friday night.

Tours are $5 per person. Reservations can be made at the Petoskey Downtown Offices, 216 Park Avenue. The walks will run approximately 30 minutes. Walk-ins will be accepted if space allows.

Hopefully the ghost stories Friday evening will not keep you up all night because early Saturday morning it will be time to get all the kids in costume and bring them to Central Elementary School (corner of Howard and State Streets) at 10:00 am for the Children's Costume Parade. As soon as the parade is over, the begging begins. The Northern Michigan Artists Market and other Downtown merchants will be handing out goodies to children trick-or-treating throughout Downtown Petoskey until 12:00 noon. Signs will be posted at stores participating in this event.

The fun continues on into the afternoon as the Petoskey Public Library presents additional Halloween frivolity for children.

Come join the Northern Michigan Artists Market and the rest of Downtown Petoskey this Halloween. By the way we do have some great Halloween items in the gallery along with our usual assortment of art in all media by more than eighty-five of Northern Michigan's most talented and creative artists.

Petoskey UM and MSU Alumni Groups to Host Joint Crying Towel Before Big Game!

As I have mentioned here before, I am the President of the University of Michigan Little Traverse Bay Spirit Group and occasionally take advantage of this venue to point out significant upcoming events.

The annual MICHIGAN v michigan state football battle is rapidly approaching. As the recent WOLVERINE triumph over the leprechauns of notre dame and sparty's recent humiliation at the hands of Central Michigan demonstrate, this is likely to be a very interesting match-up.

[Switching to non-partisan mode for a moment. . .]

The local alumni of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University will gather together jointly for their annual Crying Towel pregame funfest and jousting session at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 30, at Knot Just a Bar, in Bay Harbor.

Please join us. Wear your loyalty colors. There will be door prizes, a 50/50 raffle and the opportunity to stand and make pointed observations about the other school and the quality of its football team (and alums).

The cost is just $15 per person for light snacks. Buy your own beverages. Proceeds will go to the respective clubs' scholarship funds, proving that some good may come from just about anything. You do not need to be an alumnus to attend.

Please RSVP by September 23 to: (U-M) Maureen Whitehead, 547-2728 or (MSU) Jeff Wellman, 582-2400.

[Switching back to my True Blue colors. . .]

On game day, Saturday, October 2, loyal MICHIGAN fans will gather in the Education Center at Camp Michigania, located at the corner of Camp Sherwood and Zenith Heights Roads, to watch the big game together on a big screen TV, enjoy some pizza and cheer on our conquering heroes to victory.

Game time is 12:00p.m., so we’ll gather beginning at 11:30a.m. We’ll order out pizza, but BYO Beverage. Follow the signs and balloons to the Ed. Center.

The cost is $15 per person, with children 10 & under $10.00. There is no charge for children 5 and under. There will be door prizes and a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds go to the club’s Scholarship Fund.

Please RSVP to Glen Williams, 231-582-6858, by September 29, so we can order enough pizza.

GO BLUE!

Artists Market Photographer Luanne Schonfeld Points the Way to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

Next year the Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver and Northern Michigan Artists Market artist Luanne Schonfeld is pointing the way.

Luanne just brought a boxfull of her black and white photocards to the Market. One of these cards is a black and white film photograph of an inuksuk, shown here. For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic made these piles of rock in human form as guideposts for travelers to show them the way or warn them of danger. In other words, an inuksuk is something like an Inuit version of a lighthouse. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship.

So what does all of this have to do with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? The Vancouver Olympics mascot, Ilanaaq, is a symbolic representation of an inuksuk. Ilanaaq was designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. It stands for friendship and the welcoming of the world. Luanne hopes her photograph will help connect people here in Northern Michigan with the Vancouver Olympics and the cultural significance and message of friendship and welcome represented by the Olympic mascot and the Inuit inuksuk on which it is based.

We agree with Luanne and we thought that for some inspiration you might like to see what an actual Inuit inuksuk looks like so here is one of Olympic mascot Ilanaaq's most well known ancestors that stands at Vancouver's English Bay. Speaking of family ties, Ilanaaq has some American cousins as well. Piles of rocks, or cairns, are frequently used as trail markers in the United States, particularly in areas where there are no trees or structures where trail markers can be placed. Locally, some good examples exist in Wilderness State Park in the extreme Northwest corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Luanne Schonfeld is a very talented photographer. She takes black and white pictures with real film and develops and prints them in a darkroom the traditional way with chemicals and an enlarger. We are privileged to have a wide selection of her prints and photocards at the Northern Michigan Artists Market.