New glass artists debut at Friday’s Art Hop

By Analiese Grohalski
Western Herald

The first Friday of every month, art galleries, museums, and businesses of downtown Kalamazoo work together to bring art to the public.

The Art Hop in Kalamazoo began its tradition in 1996 (at that time it was called Gallery Hop) as a quarterly event. But as more private-run galleries emerged, the festival became a monthly occurrence.
Art Hop is produced by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, an organization that “serves the art community,” according to its official Web site.

“Art Hop is such a well-established event, not that it doesn’t need advertising,” said Beth McCann, director of marketing for the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. “It’s something for people to look forward to.”

The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, along with the help from the participants, funds the Art Hop.

The Council helps with the cost of advertising the event with brochures and also helps mail these to at least 600 members and donors, according to McCann. They also help distribute the brochures to the local community.

“It just continues to grow, and attracts more and more people,” McCann said.

Over the years, exhibits have expanded to present all sorts of art including media works. Student videos from Education for the Arts’ digital media art courses will be shown this Friday on the Epic Center lobby TV monitor.

Photography by Katie Redmond and Daphney Dotson will occur in Studio Grill, accompanied by Kjartan Code playing classical pieces on the cello.

Photography by Christina Miller will be shown at VanderSalm’s-Flipse Flower Shop and Garden Center.

Multiple businesses partake in the Art Hop each month. Midtown Gallery, located on Kalamazoo Street, is one business that will be involved in the festival this month. Specializing in gallery propaganda, the gallery’s exhibit will host glass art for Michigan Glass Month.

“I’ve had galleries done before and helped other people with theirs and this was a good location,” said Terry Nihart, founder of Midtown Gallery. “I would hate to see it go to waste.”
Midtown Gallery opened in July 2009 and has participated in the Art Hop each month since the opening.

“We have five glass artists new to Kalamazoo,” Nihart said.

The new artists include Andrea Oleniczak and Taylor Kurrle from Detroit, Jessica Bohus from Fennville, Mich., Jody Fine from Mason, Mich. and Lynn Dinning from Good Hart, Mich. Paintings by Mary Burke will also be featured along with the glass.

SmartShop on East North Street will feature Holly Fischer’s works in steel and silver with a demonstration and presentation at 6 p.m. The shop will also host The Electric Jug Band at 7:30 p.m.

Other sites that will hold the Art Hop include Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, West Michigan Glass Society, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Kalamazoo Valley Community College Center for New Media, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Gallery, Diekema-Hamann, Black Arts and Cultural Center, Barnabee Gallery-Powell Library, and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Altogether, there will be 15 venues across downtown Kalamazoo with unique exhibits free to the public in a casual atmosphere.

A schedule is available online at www.kalamazooarts.com, illustrating the location of each exhibit.

This month’s Art Hop will take place Friday, April 2 and the next will be held May 7.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Mar 31 2010. Filed under A & E, Weekend Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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