The New ArtServe Michigan

First of all, I apologize for the nearly 3-week lapse in talking with you. As most of you know, ArtServe puts on the annual Governor’s Award for Arts & Culture and it is a major undertaking to say the least, so the past few weeks it has been impossible to keep up with the blog. The good news is that the awards gala which was held November 29th at the newly reopened, renovated and reinvented Detroit Institute of Arts was truly a magical and inspiring evening and yet another way for ArtServe to increase the visibility and demonstrate the relevance of Michigan’s arts and cultural sector.

Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Guvvy

Although I mentioned this last time, I want to once again say something about the NEW DIA! Over 58,000 people passed through its doors in the 3 days after Thanksgiving and the reviews were consistently outstanding. While the DIA leadership has received much praise over the past month, they have also experienced criticism with accusations of dumbing down the art, etc. Well, all I can say is that if making art understandable, exciting, interesting and relevant to not only art historians, but the rest of the population as well, is tantamount to dumbing it down, then we need more of it. I want to go on record supporting the courageous leadership of the DIA. I consider them a role model for the courage and risk-taking it takes to stay relevant to those for whom the arts exist – all of us!

Back to the event itself . . . in addition to the location, the evening was magical because the Governor was there. The crowd was an exciting combination of familiar and unfamiliar faces representing a broader cross-section of Michigan AND we unveiled the Guvvy, a beautiful sculpture designed by Grand Rapids artist Nathan Goddard. Nathan created the Guvvy in collaboration with the glass artists at Greenfield Village and the woodworking artisans of Cranbrook.

We also featured entertainment from all over Michigan interspersed throughout the evening including Tapology, an incredible tap dance troupe from Flint with dancers ranging in age from 7 – 17 who stole the show as the closing act for the awards ceremony.

If you ever had any doubt that Michigan does indeed stand out in terms of the creative talent, you have only to take note of those who were honored this year as well as those who have been honored over the past 22 years since the inception of the awards.

Below is the list of this year’s award recipients and honorees. Congratulations to each and every one!

Michigan Artist
Guvvy Recipient: Gerhardt Knodel – Bloomfield Hills

Honorees:
- J.T. Abernathy – Ann Arbor
- Linda Nemec Foster – Grand Rapids

Arts Educator
Guvvy Recipient: John W. Rutherford – Rochester Hills

Honorees:
- Mikel Bresee - Detroit
- Anita Coppol & Todd Moses – Clinton Township

Non Profit Arts/Cultural Leader
Guvvy Recipient: Fritz Stansell – Twin Lake

Honorees:
- Bobbie Gaunt - Saugatuck
- Peg Upmeyer - Detroit

Arts & Cultural Organization (Budget Under 1 Million)
Guvvy Recipient: William Bonifas Fine Arts Center - Escanaba

Honorees:
- The Art Experience Inc. - Waterford
- Rackham Symphony Choir - Detroit

Arts & Culture Organization (Budget over $1 million)
Guvvy Award Recipient: Flint Institute of Arts - Flint

Honorees:
- Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center - Birmingham
- Michigan Theater – Ann Arbor

Arts Education Organization
College of Fine Arts, Western Michigan University – Kalamazoo

Exemplary Business in Support of the Arts
Guvvy Recipient: The Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids, Inc. – Grand Rapids

Honorees:
- The Enterprise Group of Jackson - Jackson
- Paramount Bank - Ferndale

Arts Advocate
E. Ray Scott - Dearborn

Lifetime Achievement Award for Support of Arts and Culture
William S. & Claire M. White – Grand Blanc

Civic Leader
Gebran S. Anton – Mt. Clemens
Robert & Eleanor DeVries – Battle Creek

International Achievement
Sam Raimi – Culver City, California

I know many of you were at this year’s celebration and I want to personally thank you for supporting Michigan’s creative talent and ArtServe’s work on their behalf through your presence. Not to go on too long about the event, but I do need to add that the International Award recipient, film director/producer/writer Sam Raimi was about as perfect an award recipient as I could have ever imagined. He is not only an incredible talent, but is also an authentic, impressive, thoughtful human being who is passionate about his craft and who cares deeply about Michigan, the health of our arts and cultural sector and how that health impacts on the quality of life we can offer to our children.

The day after the awards gala, ArtServe has for the past six-years held a related Student Event. This year, over 1,000 high school students from all over the state, from both peninsulas, from communities big and small, urban and rural, converged on the DIA to meet Sam Raimi. They followed that up by attending a wide array of workshops designed to inspire them, give them an idea of the range of possibilities that await them and what it will take to pursue these possibilities. These are students with a passion for the arts and creativity and who want to turn that passion into their livelihood. Sam spent over an hour and a half with the students in a very informal, candid “talk-back” session which culminated with questions from these young aspiring artists. It was clear to me that this experience will change lives and launch careers. Our hats are off to not only Sam Raimi who was genuinely interested, engaged and supportive of the students, but the sponsors who underwrote the entire experience making it possible for students to attend at no charge for the program, lunch or transportation. We had to turn students away because the space couldn’t accommodate more than 1,000. Believe me, we have the interest and talent in the pipeline. We just have to nurture and support!

Now, back to responding to some of the thoughts and ideas that you have shared over the past few weeks. . .

First of all, there have been a few posts that lead me to believe that some are under the impression that ArtServe Michigan is a part of state government and/or that we oversee the money that comes from the state to support the arts. I can see how that misunderstanding might happen, given our name and given the fact that we produce the Governor’s Awards for Arts & Culture, etc. This, however, is not the case. We are neither part of state government nor do we oversee how the dollars from the state are spent. We are a freestanding nonprofit like many of the organizations we serve with advocacy at the core of our mission. Our funding comes from a range of sources including foundation and government grants (among them a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs), individual contributions, memberships and sponsorships for specific programs. In terms of funding our work, we face the very same challenges faced by the nonprofit arts and cultural organizations we serve and we believe that helps us walk in their shoes.

There was also a conversation prompted by one of my posts that I want to weigh in on – the conversation about the concept of the Arts Serving Michigan. I make no apologies about this. I think that it is a positive thing to think that the arts play an important role in making the world a better place and I find service to be noble. I am, however, aware of the fact that the concept or maybe the word is insulting to some in the sector. My instincts, however, are that we are actually much closer together in our views that the typical 30-second sound bite of a conversation would lead you to believe. I am delighted our organization is named ArtServe Michigan because it allows us to talk not only explicitly, but subliminally about how the arts do indeed serve Michigan. The only point here is that we believe that the real value of artistic endeavor is its benefit to the greater good. That in no way negates the inherent value of individual creative endeavor which in my view nearly always feeds back into to the greater good.

I also want to comment on the recent Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) victory with the successful settlement of their Federal lawsuit against the state of Michigan. The unconstitutional state arts funding restrictions, which the AAFF challenged with their lawsuit, are being repealed and replaced with guidelines mirroring those of the National Endowment for the Arts, which have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a major victory for artists’ rights and first amendment protections. The NEA guidelines are reasonable and now Michigan’s will follow suit. There has been little coverage of this victory in the general media and so I want to bring it to your attention here.

The official press release of the announcement can be downloaded here.

I want to end by saying that I was absolutely stunned by the number of people who came up to me at the Governors Awards for Arts & Culture who are reading this blog, feel that its valuable, have not had the time to post replies, but are thinking about and acting on the ideas expressed there. As a new adventure for myself and ArtServe, this is important to know. I continue to believe that we can’t get anywhere with our vision of repositioning arts, culture and creativity as essential to Michigan’s future without first engaging in this type of conversation. Here’s to where our collective thoughts, words and deeds have the potential to lead us!