First art walk planned for downtown Muskegon

June 20, 2010
by Lisa Medendorp
Muskegon Chronicle

Downtown Muskegon will host its first Lake Michigan Art Walk, according to organizers.

The site for the art walk is the large lobby of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts.

The first date coincides with the Muskegon Museum of Art’s Thursday free-admission day. The next day, a Party in the Park will be in progress in nearby Hackley Park during a portion of the art walk.

An art walk offers art lovers and potential art buyers a chance to see a wide variety of work. They’re also able to meet the artists and sometimes watch them at work.

Art walks usually center around a gallery district or downtown area. While the Frauenthal is the focal point for the first event, the artist organizers hope to attract additional venues for future art walks.

“This is going to be our learning experience,” said Muskegon artist Gary Packingham, one of the organizers. “The lessons we learn from this art walk will shape the future of the art walks.”

The dates for the first art walk fall between Summer Celebration and Bike Time. Bryan Snuffer, a Muskegon artist who initially came up with the local art walk idea, said he hopes that eventually there could be some overlap with other downtown events.

A small group of artists formed the Lake Michigan Art Walk organization in mid-April. The other organizers are Robert Packingham of Muskegon and Sheree Lincoln of Fremont.

“We’re coming out of the studios and ‘going public’ to improve the image of downtown Muskegon,” Gary Packingham said.

For the artists, the location is a place to show work at no cost, hopefully sell work and potentially line up commission work.

Nine artists have thus far committed to the endeavor. The artists and media, in addition to Gary Packingham (watercolor), Robert Packingham (egg tempera), Snuffer (acrylic) and Lincoln (mixed media) are: Scott Rosema (varied media), Rick Herter (oil painting), Michael Ward (bronze sculpture), Michael Schaafsma (varied media) and Ron Head (varied media).

An art walk differs from an art fair in that “art fairs are much more about crafts,” said Gary Packingham. Work by the artists participating in art walk is much more likely to be found in galleries, museums and special shows.

Efforts to publicize the event are under way. Posters will be displayed at various locations. “A few posters will be for sale and signed by the artists,” said Gary Packingham. “We plan to have different posters for each art walk so that they will become collectible.”

In the future, organizers hope that art walks will include multiple stops. “If we can demonstrate the success of this, we can make our case to other businesses to participate,” Gary Packingham said.

For more information, contact Snuffer at bsnuffer@comcast.net, or visit the Lake Michigan Art Walk blog at http://lakemichiganartwalk.blogspot.com.