Taking part in creative activities at all stages of life positively impacts individuals as well as the communities they live in. Research says:

• Participating in 1–3 hours of weekly arts activities can help prevent cognitive decline in older adults, similar to the benefits of 1 hour of exercise.
• For teens, frequent arts participation helped to improve social connections and enhance flourishing.
• Across populations, ongoing cultural engagement like arts, crafts, volunteering, and community groups was associated with fewer emergency room visits and shorter hospital stays.
• Being part of community art groups has been linked to feeling happier, more satisfied with life, and having a stronger sense of purpose.

Music & Mental Health In Northern Minnesota

On this episode of Filling The Well, we talk with Sam Miltich, a professional jazz guitarist from rural Minnesota who lives with schizophrenia. Sam shares how he’s found solace in nature and how he’s been able to balance his music career and mental health.

This episode contains discussion about attempted suicide.

Listen Now

The post Midwesterners Embrace Art to Improve Community Health and People’s Wellbeing appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Take Lansing Makers Network in Michigan’s capital city. It’s a 14,000 square foot building with a woodshop, metal shop, jewelry bench, and a place to blacksmith and forge. It boasts a computer-ridden office space, a crafting and sewing room—shall we go on?—an area for 3D printing and laser cutting, an electronics bench, and a space for welding (to name more than a few). 

But it wasn’t always this grandiose (did we mention their digital wood carver?) 

“We started off in a 100-year-old church building with practically no heat, no insulation. Somehow we got off the ground and we got members to join,” says founding member Carl Raymond, who also manages the electronics area and serves on the network’s board of directors. 

Photo Credit: Lansing Makers Network

That was nearly 12 years ago, but the model remains scrappy: The current space is totally volunteer-run, Raymond included, and is funded by grants and membership fees. Volunteers staff the front desk, every area has a manager, and point people are responsible for trainings. 

Lansing Makers Network really is open to everyone. Members can pay $50 per month for entry at specified weekly hours; or for $150 per month, folks can get 24/7 access with their ID cards. But people can also check out 30-day passes at the local library at no cost. 

“We’re a nonprofit, both in spirit and according to the rules,” Raymond says. “We’re not doing this to make money. It can be a lot of work . . . but it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy helping people to learn something new; I enjoy learning something new from someone else.” 

That creative fellowship draws artists, makers, and everyday curious people to these makerspaces. They can try things out, fix something broken, or create something new. It’s not just about having the space and tools, but about having the support, accountability, and/or inspiration. 

Photo Credit: Lansing Makers Network

“It’s not just a building full of tools—it’s a building full of people . . . Everybody here knows how to do something. There’s an awful lot of cross-pollination that goes on,” when exchanging ideas and knowledge, Raymond says. 

He offers advice for inspired people looking to start their own makerspace: Simply know that you can.  

“This is something you can do in your town. It takes a little luck,” Raymond says, like finding the right landlord to start, but he’s “sure in any other Midwestern city, there’s a bunch of people who would love to do something like this.” 
 
Find them, he says: Start small and put in the work to make it happen. You’ll be glad you did. 

Makerspaces are increasingly found in local libraries, colleges, and universities. Here’s a running list of other makerspaces across the Midwest we love! Are we missing any? Tag us on Instagram @arts_midwest or email reporter@artsmidwest.org. 

The post Make That Idea a Reality at a Midwest Makerspace appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Oakland Orthopedic soon offered Harrier a job. Harrier has gone on to make an even bigger impact than the ones at the bottom of those staircases.

Photo Credit: Thane Snell

In addition to his day-to-day work as a prosthetic technician, Harrier designs custom, free-of-charge “jackets”: bespoke pieces of art, slipped over a patient’s artificial limb, in whatever form they so desire—be it dragon skin, body horror, or the iconic aesthetics of H.R. Giger. On Instagram, Harrier documents his work as @prostheticguy.

“Every prosthetic place should have a prosthetic guy. It shouldn’t just be me and a few companies doing it,” Harrier says. “They need to up their game, because it’s not just about looks, and I’m so tired of hearing it reduced to that. We have empirical data that can disprove that.” 

Harrier cites a study out of University of Nevada that found that positive patient outcomes increase by as much as 70 percent, just by being offered a choice, and by being engaged in the design process of their new appendage.

“If somebody loves their leg, they’re gonna wear it more. If they wear it more, they’re gonna be more mobile. If they’re more mobile, their quality of life goes up. This isn’t just a cosmetic piece. It correlates directly to mental and physical health,” Harrier says. “And I’ll die on that mountain.”

Over the past decade, Harrier estimates that he’s crafted as many as 80 custom jackets. But he endeavors to test out new materials or techniques each time; every creation is a one-off prototype that will never be repeated.

“It’s yours,” Harrier says. “It’s not something that came off of a factory line. It doesn’t have some giant corporate logo on it. The mold is broken. And for some amputees, it’s not their first leg. But for a lot of them, it feels like it, because it’s the first one truly designed for them.”

One of Harrier’s clients, Cam Ayala, outlined the vision for his first cover via classic cinema: the 1991 Disney movie, The Rocketeer; Matthew McConaughey’s spacesuit from Interstellar; and blending both together via weathered, rusted steampunk.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Cam Ayala

“Nick has such a servant’s heart,” Ayala says. “There’s not a lot of people who would lose their leg to cancer and then decide to get into the field of prosthetics—and then, adding this whole layer of custom aesthetic that really does get to the psyche of the patient. To empower them, to be proud. To not just feel like this is just a durable piece of medical equipment.”

Harrier doesn’t simply hope that his work makes the world a more accessible, beautiful place. Rather, his art aims to challenge the paradigm of what disability can, or should, be: not as a marker of illness or tragedy, but as an emblem of pride and power.

“There’s a great quote,” Harrier says, “and you can pretend like I knew the guy who said it: ‘We rise by lifting others.’”

The post The ‘Prosthetic Guy’ Who Crafts Artful Appendages to Empower Patients appeared first on Arts Midwest.

The award is considered the highest honor in folk and traditional arts in the country. It is given to those with “artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Ambassadors for Ukrainian culture, music, and the bandura (a many-stringed lute-harp folk instrument), the men’s choir—known as UBC—is the only collective in the cohort this year alongside seven other individual folk and traditional arts practitioners.

“As stewards of cultural memory, they bring us ‘home’ with dances and songs passed down from one generation to the next. They adorn everyday expressive life with artistry in manual arts, costume, and regalia that animate traditions within communities across America,” says Leia Maahs, NEA Folk & Traditional Arts Director.

Photo Credit: Andrew Zwarych

The UBC’s 50 or so members, of all ages between 16 through 70, are based in the Great Lakes region but travel the world to perform. Compiled of both singers and bandura players, the group sings in Ukrainian and wears traditional clothing.

The stringed folk instrument was traditionally played by a solitary traveling musician—known as kobzar— who shared songs about Ukrainian history and issues of the times. These lone musicians were often seen as a threat to oppressive regimes.

In 1918, bandurist Vasyl Yemets united multiple individual performers to start the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The press release stated, “During political shifts in the Soviet regime in the late 1920s, bandura music was banned because of its religious, historical, and Ukrainian patriotic repertoire.”

Displaced by war and fear of persecution, UBC musicians and families were sponsored as one artistic unit to emigrate to the United States in late 1940s, from a refugee camp in Germany. Most of the 17 families settled in Hamtramck, Michigan, where they lived and worked alongside existing Polish and Ukrainian immigrant communities.

Photo Credit: Stefan Iwaskewycz

Conductor Oleh Mahlay has been the group’s artistic director since 1996. Its recording repertoire includes over 40 albums, and in 2022 the group also received the Michigan Traditional Arts Program’s heritage award.

Other heritage fellows, announced April 17, include: Arizona-based Mexican folk costume maker and dancer Carmen Baron; New Yorker and Haitian dancer, drummer, and artist Peniel Guerrier; California-based Bon Odori artist Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga; bit and spur maker and silversmith Ernie Marsh from Wyoming; Texas-based Creole musician Edward Poullard; and traditional Lakota artist and educator Steven Tamayo (Sicangu Lakota) in Nebraska.

The post Midwest-Based Ukrainian Chorus Receives National Heritage Award appeared first on Arts Midwest.

– Mary Oliver, When I Am Among the Trees 

Park your car and follow the sounds of the flowing river. Hike a quarter mile over hills and across uneven terrain. 

You reach a rustic, handmade, timber frame cabin. The one-room structure is surrounded by hundred-year-old hardwoods; there’s no running water or electricity. 

It is time to creatively rest. 

‘Absorb the Atmosphere’ 

Both Laura Annis and Jessica Bohus spent portions of last summer in this cabin as artists-in-residence at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Located in the northern wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the park covers 60,000 miles with 90-plus miles of remote trails. 

“My days were dictated by the light that I had,” says Annis, who lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity to be able to shut off.”

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Annis is a painter who works with woodcuts and cyanotype. While she did spend time sketching and even running a workshop, her residency was more about just being there.

Taking nature in, staying awhile. 

“I roughly hiked about 10 miles a day, if not more. I just wanted to absorb the atmosphere in the land and use the experience to just take in the inspiration and all the visual inputs and stimulation from the land itself,” Annis says. 

Typically, she’s affixed to her studio — and the power tools (read: electricity) that come with it. For two weeks, Annis pared down her practice to simply pencil and paper thanks to the Friends of the Porkies residency.

Art Grows in the Wild

Michigander and artist Bohus didn’t leave the cabin save a few times.

She describes her experience at the Porkies simply: “There’s no people. There’s only trees and animals”  — and her practice even simpler: “I make things out of wire.”

Her grand piece from her residency is “Armor of Flowers,” made by bending steel into the shape of flowers and a woman.

“I feel like nature needs some guards,” Bohus says of the model. “[My art piece] was there in the woods in the dark with me … It was like the best place she could grow, and it was a good place for me to grow with her.” 

Bohus says the residency changed how she perceived the world around her; it changed how she noticed things and appreciated others. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist

“Everything is connected. And I saw so many good mushrooms and so many big trees, and you really felt that the planet is one organism and we’re just part of that organism,” Bohus says. 

Annis says no matter your background, almost everyone is proud of the natural beauty in our country. She hopes it translates to protection of public lands like the Porkies, which faces a mining proposal. 

“I’ve been exploring a lot of ideas revolving around symbiotic relationships and just learning lessons from nature about how ecologies evolve through cooperation,” Annis says. 

“Because they want to continue to grow and thrive and it’s easier done by finding ways to connect and build connections as opposed to destruction.” 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist

The post Rest as Inspiration: When Artists Spend Time in Nature appeared first on Arts Midwest.

In a new-to-the-internet hair and makeup class, the two have come together via the University of Michigan. 

Free and accessible to anyone with decent Wi-Fi, the goal is simple: 

“That no matter who is sitting in the chair, that the person who is applying the makeup understands how to work with whatever skin tone is in front of them, and they understand how to work with whatever hair texture is in front of them,” says Sarah Oliver, the U Michigan professor who created this Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair course. 

From 8 Chairs to Hundreds 

Oliver, who teaches costume technology and design, knew she needed to broaden her students’ understanding of on-stage presentation.  

There are over 250 performers at the school at any given time—from opera and dance to musical theater. 

The catch? They can’t all fit in an eight-seat makeup room backstage. So the idea was born: Film demo videos and put them online.  

In a matter of months since its March 2024 launch, over 1,800 people have taken the course, which includes lessons in aging, special effects, hair, and drag. Special guests collaborated (read: TV star Alexis Michelle) to bring expertise to the table. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy Sarah Oliver

That expertise, colleague Christianne Myers says, has too long rested on the shoulders of performers themselves. 

“For us, [this course] really was about hair and makeup and meeting performers’ needs,” says the University of Michigan costume designer. “Particularly Black performers have so often been called upon to be the experts of their own hair in a really specific way in regional theaters.” 

In addition to equity concerns, having unnatural makeup or hair takes viewers out of the show, as does a performer who isn’t their best self on stage. 

“Maybe your performance is suffering because you’ve haven’t had as long a break because you had to go and do your own hair instead of knowing you were going to hair appointments that everybody else did, or that someone doesn’t understand the hair texture that you have and they don’t have the proper wig for you,” Oliver says. 

“You don’t even realize that those performers are wearing a wig except for you because you have a wig that clearly doesn’t work for your hair texture or your skin tone,” she adds. 

Accessible Across Stages 

The Coursera modules are truly for anyone, performers and instructors alike. 

People having makeup done in these instructional videos have a range of skin tones; ages across the spectrum are represented. 

“Inclusivity is sort of baked into all the teaching modalities,” Myers says. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy Sarah Oliver

The videos, three years in the making, are high-quality and broken into sections—you don’t need to take them all. Click, watch, learn.  

Then, take your whole self, and go perform. 

The post Blush, Blend, and Break Barriers One Makeup Course at a Time appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Look no further for your guide to all things wacky, theatrical, and artsy galore.

‘Indiana’s Nicest Day’ 

The Penrod Arts Fair means 400 booths, live music, food, and beer. It’s been alive since the 1960s outside the Newfields museum grounds in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organizers call it one of the biggest single-day art fairs in the U.S. 

‘House of a Thousand Dreams’

Imagine the brightest colors you can. Now imagine them even brighter. The Immersive Art Fun House in Fairfield, Iowa, is home to artist Tom Lassota’s 20-years-in-the-making walk-through display that truly puts the fun in fun house. 

Artist Haven

Ask any local what Makanda Village is, and odds are you’ll hear something about art. The small Illinois community is home to many artists and is often called Valley of the Arts, with its annual Vulture Fest and countless galleries and studios for visitors to peruse.

We’re Not in (Ohio) Anymore

An old OfficeMax store turned truly bizarre, immersive trip Otherworld is, well, otherworldly. The Ohio bucket-list item has 50 rooms and different storylines meant to make you feel like you’ve truly left Earth.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Otherworld

Photo Credit: Courtesy Interact Facebook

Art from Your Car Window

Fancy a road trip? Over 30 miles of sculptures are scattered along the road across North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway, from the world’s biggest tin family to Theodore Roosevelt riding a horse. It’s all wheelchair accessible with audio tour options.

Bookworms Unite

South Dakota’s Festival of Books is for all the bibliophiles out there. This year, authors and readers gather in Spearfish for signings, big ol’ book clubs, and panel discussions galore. Read on!

Art for All

Over 100 artists work at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, whether it be painting, dissecting a script, or working a loom. The St. Paul, Minnesota, non-profit caters to artists with disabilities and the wider area looking for a show, a print, or community.

Celebrating Black Culture

Awaiting to fully open, A Museum of Black Experience in Saginaw, Michigan, established a brick and mortar building in 2023. Inside is an artist-in-residence space, gallery and reflection area, a library, and a reading room. 

Mid-Winter Art Crawl

Coming up in February is Eau Claire’s Banbury Art Crawl—we’re talking all the art, food, live music, and demonstrations. The free-to-attend Wisconsin event has been running since 2008 and includes over 100 artists and vendors, from woodworking to stained glass. 

The post 9 Midwest Must-Visits from Enchanted Highways to Winter Art Crawls  appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Photo Credit: Rachelle Baker

“I consider myself a culture practitioner, because I’m always learning new things,” he says. To him, the master artists who have been his gateway into Philippine indigenous music are true culture bearers. Now ten years into his own practice, Almendras is a teacher too, passing on all he continues to learn about this art form—in particular, kulintang.

Kulintang is both an instrument and a music tradition practiced by several indigenous communities of the Philippines, notably the Maguindanao, Marao, and Sama-Taūsug. The instrument itself consists of eight pitched gongs. A kulintang ensemble also includes a drum called a dabakan and two bass gongs called agongs. Some Maguindanao music features an additional set of four gongs called the gandingan.

Learning kulintang has been “a means of self-discovery” for Almendras. “I’ve been able to uncover a lot more about my ancestral heritage [by] diving deeper into my own indigeneity and pushing past the influences of outside cultures.”

Almendras began his practice as a teenager in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when the Philippine Arts & Culture Ensemble of Michigan (PACE-MI), which he co-founded with his mother, began hosting workshops. Among the invited artists were teachers of kulintang. Through them, Almendras learned not just an instrument, but a new way of approaching music: oral tradition.

“It’s very different than classical training, which is largely relegated to studying a page of notation we’re meant to play back exactly,” says Almendras. “Oral tradition is a living tradition, so each iteration of what’s taught changes from person to person. It’s always evolving.”

Today, Almendras teaches through PACE-MI and at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. His students there range from music majors to young Filipino Americans looking to connect with their culture.

Almendras has spent time in the Philippines cultivating relationships with indigenous music practitioners. He has experienced the kulintang in action in community life, including ceremonies. “As an outsider looking in, these indigenous practitioners were so welcoming because we were so interested in learning more. It gave them a sense of validation and pride,” Almendras shares. “When I got to see the practice of kulintang in the context of indigenous culture itself, it builds bridges of community between groups of people.”

Photo Credit: Philippine Arts & Culture Ensemble of Michigan (PACE-MI)

Photo Credit: Philippine Arts & Culture Ensemble of Michigan (PACE-MI)

Receiving the Midwest Culture Bearers Award had a similar impact for him. “It was like what I said about [indigenous practitioners] feeling validated by our interest,” he says. “My own practice was validated.”

His next goal is to branch into scholarship, studying the music of smaller Philippine indigenous groups. He encourages individuals and organizations interested in his work to reach out.

“No matter what your traditional practice may be, it’s always of value,” he says. “There are times you might ask yourself: Is what I’m doing worth all the laborious hours, effort, and stress? As long as your heart’s in it, and you have a vision and a mission, keep going.”

Gean Vincent Almendras is a 2024 recipient of the Midwest Culture Bearers Award, which celebrates and financially supports the work of Midwest culture bearers and folk arts practitioners.

The Midwest Culture Bearers Award is supported by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts for project management.

The post Meet Gean Vincent Almendras, a Michigan Teacher-Practitioner of Traditional Philippine Music appeared first on Arts Midwest.

In addition to growing organic fruits and vegetables on a one-acre plot, Carr’s organization acts as a “mobile grocery store” linking BIPOC-owned and operated family farms with the wider Detroit area. After produce has been harvested, Deeply Rooted helps prepare it for the market and distributes it to grocery stores, schools, food pantries, and directly to consumers at farmers’ markets. 

Carr’s journey to Deeply Rooted began during her college years as a student facing food insecurity. During that time, she understood how vital nutritious and affordable food is and became passionate about growing it for herself and those in her larger community.

Volunteers play a crucial role at Deeply Rooted. Carr believes that working with the land, in addition to eating locally grown produce, benefits people’s wellness and connection to place. 

Deeply Rooted offers a weekly produce box subscription service, and members receive the added benefit of attending a Sunday Dinner program where Carr collaborates with local chefs to incorporate the farm’s surplus produce. Recent menu items have included vegan wingz, vegan mashed potatoes, and vegan cheeze cake. Deeply Rooted ensures that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, can access their products by accepting SNAP, EBT, and other government-subsidized programming.

Photo Credit: Nisa Brooks

In addition to providing practical support to farmers, Carr’s website shares updates about laws affecting small farming practices including the Justice for Black Farmers Act. She provides resource guides for those interested in deepening their zero-waste practices. Deeply Rooted also offers in-person educational sessions, most recently about how being with horses can help heal trauma and aid in suicide prevention. 

Carr believes that knowing where one’s food comes from helps people form holistic connections with food and those who grow it. When farmers support one another, everyone benefits. 

The post Meet Dazmonique Carr, a Farmer Strengthening Detroit’s Local Food System appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Kahlo’s story especially resonates with Ramos because in 1925, when the art icon was 18 years old, a traffic accident changed her life, too. She was confined to bed in a full-body cast and spent her days painting. It was during this time that she developed some of the themes she is best known for: pain, healing, and honesty. 

Ramos’s own experiences forever changed her life and redefined a creative path. She connected with other Latino women in Chicago and began to develop a series called Crip Paint Power. For this project, she creates bold, empowering portraits of disabled friends and collaborators. From June 2 to 21, she was also the artist-in-residence at Good Hart Artist Residency in northern Michigan. Here, she connected art and community to celebrate and uplift diverse perspectives.

Putting accessibility front and center

Good Hart was founded in 2013 by Sue and Bill Klco to foster more art, learning, and creativity in daily life. Eleven years in, the residency has expanded to include partnerships with local community organizations as part of its mission to support artists at all career stages. In 2019, Good Hart completed construction of a new studio and residence. An accessibility plan was built into the project, making it more reachable for artists with diverse abilities.

This year, Good Hart embarked on a program called “Elevating Diverse Voices” in collaboration with Challenge Mountain, an outdoors initiative for people with disabilities. Crooked Tree Arts Center also provided the space for Ramos’s workshop. Ramos was selected from a pool of three nominees put forward by Matt Bodett, who is also a disabled artist. He understands that making work and connecting with the local community happens only when it’s as accessible as possible.

“I had been invited to spend a long weekend there [at Good Hart] and went with access needs in mind,” Bodett says. Good Hart had already thought about access guidelines when they began building the new space. Bodett drew on his own experience there to help facilitate the June artist’s stay. He focused on day-to-day tasks, like what it was like to get to the local grocery store or to the beach. “Thankfully,” he says, “Good Hart had done so much preparation in building the residency that so many aspects of access had already been considered.”

Photo Credit: Genevieve Ramos

Photo Credit: Genevieve Ramos

Photo Credit: Genevieve Ramos

Photo Credit: Genevieve Ramos

Celebrating diverse perspectives

Ramos focused on creating new work during the residency. She opened the studio doors so others could visit and presented a talk at Crooked Tree Arts Center. Arts Midwest is thrilled to have supported the event through the GIG Fund.

For several years, Challenge Mountain and Crooked Tree have teamed up for a series of art classes, which allow artists with disabilities space and time to make art.

“One of the most amazing things I enjoy in the class is how the students don’t have the constraints or competitiveness regarding their artwork,” says Linda Armstrong, program director for Challenge Mountain. “They don’t compare their artwork or try to do it just like the person sitting next to them. They are just free with expressing themselves, and most of all, they compliment each other.”

In Chicago, Ramos is deeply committed to highlighting and advocating for the disability community. She co-organizes major events like the Chicago Disability Pride Parade. In Michigan, she welcomed others with disabilities to share ideas and create something together. ”My artwork champions disability culture,” Ramos says, which provided the foundation for the event.

For the group project, Ramos conceived of four poster boards assembled into a vertical, grid-like surface. She painted a number of power fists, representing resilience and strength. Then participants collaged images cut from magazines to reflect ideas about representation and visibility. Phrases like “the story of human difference” and numerous heart cutouts surround the central fist motif.

“I wanted to engage people who attended,” Ramos says, emphasizing that she wanted everyone to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. She adds, “To express themselves creatively alongside each other is to rejoice in disability identity and community.”

The post Meet the Collaborative Residency in Michigan Uplifting Artists with Disabilities appeared first on Arts Midwest.