Art Works Alliance History

In December of 2005, I attended a reception at the Art Center to introduce the area arts community to the new director of the Traverse Area Arts Council, Debra McKeon. Earlier in that year I had produced a short six minute audio essay for the radio show Radio Anyway on “What this town needs”. My subject was that we needed to bring back the artists-run gallery that the former Arts Council had on Front Street in downtown Traverse City. I passed out six copies of that radio piece to Debra and other board members and within a week Debra called me  wanting to talk. Soon after I met with Diane Hubert and Debra and it was in this meeting that the idea of forming a separate arts group began.

Through e-mails and word of mouth, the organizing for what has now become Art Works Alliance produced our first gathering on January 7th. Almost 30 artists attended and three weeks later on the 28th we met again. My studio in the alley on 2nd Street has become our unofficial meeting place once a month since. The enthusiasm and energy for the forming of such a group has been brewing for these last 5 years since the closing of TAAC’s gallery space. There are many artists and art enthusiasts who are supporting Art Works Alliance, but one person deserves our special thanks - Debra McKeon. It is her networking magic that brought us to the Minervini Group, the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, The Copy Shop and SEEDS. As the director of the Traverse Area Arts Council, she has made us realize how valuable this new Arts Council is for us and our community.

“The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow”. -- Kurt Vonnegut-Jr.

We are not done yet evolving. In sharing our work with each other and our community, we are achieving the real art of living. We are defined and ultimately designed by the artists from within and without.

-- Charly Hansen, May 25, 2006

Photograph: Christopher A. Oliver