Community Calendar

Shanny Brooke and Cynthia Marks, artists in the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Taking Flight exhibit, provide insights into the original idea for this exhibition of story-rich work. The conversation will touch on the creative process and how these makers’ works reflect the world around and within them both.

Missing from the conversation is Michelle Tock York, whose work is also part of Taking Flight. Brooke and Marks will talk more about why they decided to go forward with the exhibition after their friend and co-exhibitors Tock York died in 2025. Brooke, owner of the Traverse City gallery Higher Art, and Marks are both experienced practitioners with decades of experience in the studio between them.

Pictured: A Wren In The Garden, Cynthia Marks

Come to the museum and take part in a vibrant participatory artistic experience every second Sunday of the month (except November)! From printmaking to weaving, each session offers a unique and creative activity. Second Sunday Art Projects are included with museum admission. Please pay admission at the front desk when you arrive.

Second Sundays are made possible with support from the Linda O'Meara Fund for Arts Education.

This historical display started in August and has been extended until September 29, at the Alden District Library. The free display features materials from the Alden Depot Museum (www.aldendepot.com). View during library hours: Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 9:30-5:00; Tue 9:30-6:00; and Sat 9:30-2:00. Library is located at the Helena Township Community Center: 8751 Helena Road in Alden. (231)331-4318.

Created by artist Mary E. Burns, the exhibit features 29 handwoven jacquard portraits celebrating scientists, activists, educators, artists, and Indigenous water protectors from more than 20 countries. Through intricate textile art, the exhibition explores the universal importance of water and the women whose work helps sustain and protect this essential resource.

The exhibition will be on display on the Petoskey District Library's second floor from August 27 through October 15, 2026.

Throughout its run, the library will offer docent-led tours, related programs, book displays, and community conversations that explore themes of water, environmental stewardship, Indigenous knowledge, and women's leadership.

We see birds everyday, everywhere, some more often than others, but pollution and the consequences of modern technology, pesticides, and land development as well as the spread of invasive species increasingly impact their natural habitats, threatening their survival. How often do we stop to look and listen, take in their beauty, colors, patterns, behaviors, songs, and marvel at the magic of flight? Songbirds, raptors, shorebirds, arboreal birds and scavengers—each play an essential role in maintaining balance in our ecosystem.

“For the Birds” includes nine artists whose compelling works explore their own attraction to birds as a subject, whether rendered as two-dimensional images or 3D objects in printmaking, pen and ink, fiber, found materials, mixed media or the moving image. Each artist’s distinct approach and vision brings heightened awareness to the act of looking—imperative to both birding and art. “For the Birds” offers an opportunity to meditate on the shapes, colors and details within the broad range of avian species—inviting us to appreciate their diversity as vital to the environment, and our role in protecting the natural habitats we share.

Open during library business hours.

During her Glen Arbor Arts Center artist’s residency Honore Lee will create a series of shoreline and Sleeping Bear Dune studies – field research and documentation that will be translated into a larger, mixed media work. Lee, a Grand Haven resident, will share vignettes and work from her plein air investigations during a public presentation September 17, 10 am at the GAAC.

“I plan to organize my daily practice into time spent on-site with materials, including a journal and plein-air tools to document areas of the shoreline and dunes at Sleeping Bear,” she said. “An on-going thesis dealing with erosion and the changing landscape continues to be my focus since 2020. Through this lens, I will be looking at patterns created by wind and water, residual objects along the shore and native species.”

Step back in time at the 1842 Dougherty Mission House built by Chief Agosa, the Odawa and Ojibwe people and Rev. Peter Dougherty. Explore life from 1842 to 1917 through the house, outbuildings and demonstration garden.

See unusual pure American chestnut trees. Docent led tours Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11am to 4pm. Discover the Mission House that gave Old Mission Peninsula its name.

Tours:
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Admission: $5 adults
(12 and under free)

Live Well Kalkaska Substance Free Coalition is excited to announce the third annual Talents of Recovery Up North, a community celebration taking place Saturday, September 19, 2026, in Kalkaska.

The event will celebrate the talents, creativity, accomplishments, businesses, and journeys of people in recovery while bringing the community together to connect, support one another, and celebrate the positive impact of recovery.

Community members are encouraged to attend, support the participants, visit the vendors, and help celebrate the many positive stories and accomplishments within the recovery community.

For more information about the event or how to participate, contact Live Well Kalkaska Substance Free Coalition at Sprentice@catholichumanservices.org or 231-714-7332

Dr. Carl Palazzolo, a wildlife veterinarian for over 47 years, will be giving a presentation on his book "The Comeback of our National Symbol in Michigan." The 200 page, hard-cover coffee table book with 174 photos, was 10 years in the making. In his presentation you will see beautiful photos of bald eagles, and learn about the biology of our national symbol, along with behind-the-scenes pictures and stories on how they are cared for medically and surgically.

The proceeds of sales will go to the rehabbers and other behind-the-scenes people that do so much of the work to care for injured wildlife.

This historical display started in August and has been extended until September 29, at the Alden District Library. The free display features materials from the Alden Depot Museum (www.aldendepot.com). View during library hours: Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 9:30-5:00; Tue 9:30-6:00; and Sat 9:30-2:00. Library is located at the Helena Township Community Center: 8751 Helena Road in Alden. (231)331-4318.