Community Calendar

This workshop provides clear, practical guidance for executive directors and board members on core governance roles and responsibilities. The focus is on how boards and staff work together, where accountability sits, and how to avoid common points of confusion. Participants will leave with shared language and tools they can use right away.

Executive directors are encouraged to attend with at least two board members to support shared understanding and application. Each organization may send 2–3 participants; additional board members are welcome as space allows. Please register early to secure your spots.

Facilitator: Cindy McSurely
Cindy McSurely is a nonprofit consultant with over 20 years of experience in the arts and culture sector, including leadership roles as a Development Director and Executive Director. As a consultant, she focuses on governance, nonprofit administration, and organizational strategy, helping organizations strengthen leadership and build practical systems. She is currently serving as a Transition Director/Interim Executive Director for an arts organization preparing to hire its first paid Executive Director—her second time leading this type of transition. Cindy serves as President of the Michigan Music Alliance, Vice President of NWMIARTS, Co-President of the Kiwanis Club of Petoskey, and as a Steering Committee member and mentor with Leadership Little Traverse.Audience: Who is this for?

This session is designed for:

Art & culture professionals / administrators
Board members

Presented by Don La Barre
Historian for the Michigan History Center & Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Join historian Don La Barre as he examines the early to mid-20th century history of Rockport Quarry and Stone Plant, focusing on its growth and technical development.

La Barre will explore how the quarry operated during its most active decades, including the methods used to extract and process stone, the machinery and technology that powered production, and the innovations that improved efficiency and output. The presentation will also highlight how the plant adapted to changing industrial demands and economic conditions during this period. Through an overview of mining practices, changes in national trends, and operational milestones, the audience will gain insight into how Rockport Quarry functioned as a key industrial enterprise in its era.

Today, Rockport is a public recreation area that stretches along the Lake Huron and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary coast and is managed by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources. Its 4,237 acres offers hiking trails, sinkholes, mountain biking, and a boat launch to visitors. It is also a designated dark sky preserve.

A presentation to talk about everything you want to know about Ranked Choice Voting.

What it is,
How it works,
Who uses it,
The benefits,
And efforts to bring it to Michigan.
For those not able to attend in person, please click here to register to join us online via Zoom.

Join us for part three of a five-part conversation series hosted by Derenda Lefevre of Open Your Eyes To Access (OYETA). These conversations will focus on centering disability stories, the history of disability in our communities, and provide opportunities for non-disabled people to learn about disability, ableism, and what it means to embrace accessibility and equity in our community spaces. Refreshments will be served and documentation for continuing education will be available upon request.

#3 Activism, Resistance, and Resilience: In conversation three we’ll explore major events in the Disability Rights Movement, celebrate the disabled leaders that led the way, challenged the societal view of people with disabilities, and pushed the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Tallest Dwarf follows filmmaker Julie Wyman as she searches for her place in the little people community and unpacks dwarfism’s impact on her own family. Through intimate stories, creative collaborations, and archival history, the film delves into identity and medicine, asking whether society should change people or the structures that limit them.

Fundraising veteran Beth Stoner Wiegand will facilitate a detailed, hands-on workshop regarding the art of writing donor appeal letters.

What are the ingredients for a compelling Appeal Letter?

Fundraising veteran Beth Stoner Wiegand will facilitate a detailed, hands-on workshop regarding the art of writing donor appeal letters. In this three-hour session, we’ll look closely at what makes a letter purposeful, compelling, and how thoughtful practices, like audience segmentation and handwritten touches, can deepen prospect connections resulting in favorable results. Participants will have time to work on their own letters and leave with a solid draft or an improved version ready for use.

Facilitator: Beth Stoner-Weigand
A graduate of Indiana University with a BS in Music Performance, Beth’s first job was working for a US Senator before moving to a federal agency, the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, D.C., followed by 22 years serving in a variety of roles in the Advancement Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts. When she isn’t golfing, sailing, gardening or on a travel adventure, she will be consulting, coaching or conducting annual teaching seminars in fundraising for Extended Education Services at Northwestern Michigan College, underwritten in part by Rotary Charities of Traverse City. She lives on Old Mission Peninsula with husband Bruce.

Audience: Who is this for?
This session is designed for: Organizations

WATERCOLOR ABSTRACT - 2-day Workshop

APRIL 10 & 11 , 2026
Friday & Saturday
9:30am - 4:30pm

REGISTER BY: April 5th
CLASS FEE: $200, or $180 for members​
FORMAT: in-person

Creating Spontaneous Watercolor with Abstract Elements and Techniques Workshop with exhibiting artist Rocco Pisto! For beginners & dabblers to experienced.

In this two-day workshop students will learn how to free up their paintings with abstract elements and various techniques used by professionals around the country. Learn about art history and how it translates to today’s artists. Discuss and work on a color therapy project. Learn about color value, hue and gradation. Discuss the elements of art and how it relates to both representational and abstract painting. Push your painting beyond your comfort zone and explore the freedom of working with a mop brush on quality watercolor paper both white and black. Bring at least six sheets of paper and have your paint already dried on a palette.

SUPPLY LIST: Click HERE to download & print.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Email roccopistoart@gmail.com

WATERCOLOR ABSTRACT - 2-day Workshop

APRIL 10 & 11 , 2026
Friday & Saturday
9:30am - 4:30pm

REGISTER BY: April 5th
CLASS FEE: $200, or $180 for members​
FORMAT: in-person

Creating Spontaneous Watercolor with Abstract Elements and Techniques Workshop with exhibiting artist Rocco Pisto! For beginners & dabblers to experienced.

In this two-day workshop students will learn how to free up their paintings with abstract elements and various techniques used by professionals around the country. Learn about art history and how it translates to today’s artists. Discuss and work on a color therapy project. Learn about color value, hue and gradation. Discuss the elements of art and how it relates to both representational and abstract painting. Push your painting beyond your comfort zone and explore the freedom of working with a mop brush on quality watercolor paper both white and black. Bring at least six sheets of paper and have your paint already dried on a palette.

SUPPLY LIST: Click HERE to download & print.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Email roccopistoart@gmail.com

Runners, dog lovers, truly anyone who loves a miraculous story, are invited to hear ultra-marathon runners Dion and Lucja Leonard talk about the New York Times bestseller Finding Gobi. It’s an amazing account of how Dion crossed paths with a small, stray dog during a 155-mile race across the Gobi Desert in China. The lovable pup, who would later earn the name Gobi, went step for step with Dion over the Tian Shan Mountains and across massive dunes, keeping pace with her new friend for 77 miles.

As Dion witnessed the incredible determination and heart of the tiny dog, he found a sea change in his own heart, which had been repeatedly broken during a rough childhood. By the end of the race, he decided to bring Gobi home to Scotland to live with him and his wife, Lucja, who also competes in ultra-marathon races.

The only problem: Dion had entrusted someone to take care of Gobi in China while he organized the required medical tests and a quarantine to fly the dog home to Scotland. Gobi had inexplicably vanished in Urumqi, a sprawling Chinese city of three million people. What happens next is so unbelievable you truly couldn’t make it up — a twist that captured the world’s attention as the story exploded across international media and became a global sensation. Come along to hear how this extraordinary true story unfolds.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ET with live music. Programming begins at 7:00 p.m.

For more information about the event and ticket options/packages, please click here.

CERAMICS - SLAB PLATTERS
2-Part Class with Bethany Newman
APRIL 14 & 21, 2026
Tuesday & Thursday
6 - 8pm each day
REGISTER BY: April 11th
CLASS FEE: $75, or $67.50 for members​
FORMAT: in-person

Join instructor Bethany Newman for this platter-making adventure! Students will have the opportunity to learn how to use a slab roller and various forms to create a hand-built slab platter. Day 1 will be the making of the platters, and then they will be bisque-fired by the instructor, then ready for glazing on Day 2.

If you have a platter or form you enjoy, feel free to bring it to use in class!

All supplies are provided.