Art & Around

Wellspring celebrates 25th Anniversary with exciting season schedule

KALAMAZOO -Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers will celebrate their 25th Anniversary this season with new and exciting events and guest artists, but also will take the patron back to the earlier days of modern dance.
Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers was founded in Kalamazoo in 1981, under the artistic direction of dancer and choreographer, Cori Terry. Southwest Michigan’s only professional modern dance company, Wellspring presents performances featuring works choreographed by Ms. Terry, members of the company and guest choreographers.
Artistic Director, Cori Terry will set “Classic Kitetails”, a 20 minute work by modern dance pioneer Erick Hawkins as part of the “Fall Concert of Dance” Nov. 11 – 14. “Classic Kitetails” is danced to the lush music of David Diamond, which will be performed live by a Western Michigan University Quintet and Conductor Bruce Uchimura.
Wellspring will revive its partnership with local musicians Blue Dahlia with the encore performance of “Wellspring/Blue Dahlia Redux II,” Jan. 28 – 29, which mixes live music and dance from both Wellspring’s and Blue Dahlia’s repertory.
The “Dance Forum” is back Feb. 18 – 20, featuring a selection of emerging, established and experimental choreography. The “Dance Forum” has featured performers from Kalamazoo, Chicago, New York and Detroit in past years. This year the “Dance Forum” will feature special guest artists, The Detroit Dance Collective.
Wellspring’s “Alternative Dance Project” will feature internationally acclaimed solo dance artist, Margie Gillis from Montreal, Canada, March 18 – 20. Margie has performed throughout North America, Greece and Hungary.
The season will close with Wellspring’s “Spring Concert of Dance,” April 22 – 24 and 28 – 30, featuring new choreography and works from the Wellspring repertory.
For more information on Wellspring’s 25th Anniversary season call 269-342-4354 or log onto www.wellspringdance.com.

An ‘Off the Wall’ grand opening

ANN ARBOR – The Ann Arbor Art Center will celebrate the grand opening of its Off the Wall Gallery with a community reception on Oct. 8 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Art Center.
Events for the evening include live music and food provided by the Firefly Club, and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Special guests include the teen artists and instructors from the Art Center’s ArtMakers program who created the inaugural exhibit. Community members are invited and encouraged to attend the celebration.
Off the Wall Gallery is a community project uniting professional artists, local youth and area businesses. It consists of hand-painted banners created by a variety of artists including youth from the Ann Arbor Art Center’s ArtMakers Teen program. The banners have been installed on lampposts throughout the Main Street neighborhood where residents and visitors can view them daily.
Exhibits for the Gallery will change quarterly, providing 50 new works of art every three months. Subsequent quarterly banner exhibits will be created by professional artists to promote the Ann Arbor Art Center and its goal to unite the Ann Arbor community through visual arts.
For more information about the Ann Arbor Art Center, visit www.annarborartcenter.org.

B’Jazz in B’ham starts ninth season Sept. 19

BIRMINGHAM – B’Jazz Vespers opens its ninth season with The Mark Moultrup Group on Sunday, Sept. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. in downtown Birmingham.
B’Jazz Vespers, a popular jazz series, is held in the English Gothic Sanctuary of First Baptist Church at the comer of Willits and Bates Streets, across from The Willits, at 300 Willits, one block north of Maple Road and one block west of Old Woodward Avenue. Free parking is available in the adjacent lot.
B’Jazz Vespers features 100 minutes of secular jazz performance and 20 minutes for a non-sectarian worship interlude between two jazz sets. Admission is free; a free will offering is taken for the musicians.
For more information, please contact Leslie Jaquez, B’ Jazz Vespers, 248-644-0550.

The Detroit Art Parade to create awareness and raise funds for Detroit non-profits

DETROIT – The Detroit Artists Market, along with the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Detroit Synergy, WDET and Detroit Summer, has organized the Detroit Art Parade. Beginning at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26, pledged participants will meet in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts and then travel along Woodward Avenue to Nine Mile Road in Ferndale on the east sidewalk. Following the parade there will be a Ferndale Pub Crawl at bars and restaurants along Woodward Avenue near Nine Mile Road. A percentage of food and beverage sales will be donated to the benefiting organizations. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Parade participants are encouraged to dress in creative costumes and create non-motorized floats to pull along the parade route. Participants and their items will be bussed back to Detroit at the end of the night. The Detroit Artists Market hopes the Detroit Art Parade will include at least two hundred participants and raise close to $5,000 for the organizations involved.
The Detroit Art Parade is inspired by DAM Executive Director Aaron Timlin’s “Got Art?” fundraiser trek from Detroit to New York City in the summer of 2000. “We are extremely excited about the parade and are confident we will raise a significant amount of money for local non-profit organizations,” said Detroit Artists Market Executive Director Aaron Timlin.
For more information regarding the Detroit Art Parade, visit the official site at www.detroitartparade.org or contact Kerri at Detroit Artists Market at 313-832-8540.

Fuentes Gallery says, ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’

WYANDOTTE – Fuentes Gallery, “Wyandotte’s best kept secret,” proudly presents its 3rd year anniversary show, “Don’t Mess with Texas,” Sept. 17 – Oct. 10.
The featured artist is founder Adelina Fuentes Connelly, as well as other notable local artists from the past 3 years.
The gallery’s 3rd anniversary gala will be held Friday, Sept. 17 from 5 – 11 p.m. and will be a celebration of the remarkable accomplishments of its founder.
Fuentes gallery is located at 904 Oak Street (corner of Oak & 9th), Wyandotte.
For more information, call 734-285-3715 or visit online at www.fuentesgallery.netfirms.com.