Tag Archives: Art Gallery

LaFontsee Galleries sold to new owners

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By McKenna Peariso
WKTV Contributor

A memory wall in LaFontsee Galleries shares its story. (WKTV/McKenna Peariso)

For the first time in nearly four decades, new leadership is taking hold at LaFontsee Galleries.

This month, founders Linda and Scott LaFontsee announced that Jason and Kate Meyer have bought the business. Artist Kate Meyer will take the lead on running the gallery, with Linda LaFontsee assisting her with the transition over the next six months.

“We found the right people,” said Linda LaFontsee. “We started thinking about it several years ago and I finally got to the point where I could entertain the idea of letting go of my baby.”

The LaFontsees have overseen growth of the art-hub enterprise for more than 36 years. From humble beginnings in 1987 as a small framing business to the award-winning 24,000 square foot gallery now located at 833 Lake Dr. SE.

In that time, LaFontsee Galleries has received many state and national recognitions. In 2022, the American Art Awards named it one of the top 20 galleries in America. The gallery also received the ArtServe Michigan Governor’s Award for Arts and Culture in 2004.

“Initially when the gallery started, there was not really much of an art scene in Grand Rapids,” said new owner Kate Meyer. “It really just started with a small framing shop and Linda and Scott showing a couple of pieces on the walls where they had a little bit of space from local artists and it grew from there.”

Growing its Grand Rapids

The tiny framing operation run out of Scott LaFontsee’s basement was fittingly named Underground Studio. As the area’s art scene began to take shape, the business moved downtown into the North Monroe Business District and rebranded to LaFontsee Galleries in 1994. Then in 2012, the founders reopened the gallery in its current home on Lake Drive.

LaFontsee Galleries started a a framing operation. During the May 24 open house, visitors will be a behind-the-scenes look at the business’s iconic framing department. (WKTV/McKenna Peariso)

“We have grown with the city for sure,” LaFontsee said. “It’s wonderful to be able to not only show their work but create a community with the artists as well.”

It’s estimated more than 60,000 works of art are stored at LaFontsee Galleries, with only a quarter currently decorating the walls. LaFontsee says the depth of the work the space holds for each of the artists is rather unusual, thanks to the building’s generous square footage.

The gallery’s entire collection including the current portfolio of more than 70 artists will be retained under the new leadership. Fifteen team members will also remain on staff.

An artist herself, Meyer has had her work displayed across Grand Rapids and has been featured at ArtPrize several times. She admires the gallery for its balance of a warm, welcoming environment with a professional caliber of fine art.

“It’s more than just a gallery,” said Meyer, “it really is a community space that has so many different facets to it.”

Just the Right Match

LaFontsee Galleries has a long history of involvement in local nonprofits and community events. Its list of collaborators include Frey Foundation, Gilda’s Club, Artists Creating Together and more.

LaFontsee Galleries has been an art-hub in Grand Rapids for 36 years. (WKTV/McKenna Peariso)

Connecting through non-profits is what originally brought the LaFontsees and Meyers together; Jason and Linda met while working with the Blandford Nature Center. Along with his advisory role with the gallery, Jason Meyer currently serves as executive director for the White Oak Initiative, a coalition addressing the decline of America’s white oak population.

Kate Meyer also has over a decade of experience in fundraising, event planning and leadership in environmental nonprofits and conservation. Her most recent role was associate director of development for the state’s chapter of the world’s largest conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy. She also previously served as the Kent County Parks Foundation’s executive director.

“They really hand-picked us and I think they see a lot of themselves in us and vice versa,” Meyer said.

Celebrating a New Era

Terms of the gallery’s transaction were not disclosed. The LaFontsees were advised by Calder Capital LLC on the deal. The Meyers used financial consultant DWH LLC as their advisors.

The gallery will host an open house on May 24 from 4 to 5 p.m. where the public can meet and greet with owners old and new. Attendees will also have the opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the business’s iconic framing department and learn more about the process of preserving art.

New director named for GVSU Galleries and Collections

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Nathan Kemler

By Peg West
Grand Valley State University

Nathan Kemler is the new director for Grand Valley State University’s Galleries and Collections for the Art Gallery, where he will lead an operation that places a premium on surrounding the GVSU community with art. 

Kemler will oversee a continuous display of art throughout 130 buildings and grounds at the university. A commitment to widely displaying art and making it accessible to all is a core value of the university and an important reason why Kemler wanted to lead the Art Gallery.

“Art is everywhere on campus. It is a borderless museum,” Kemler said. “I also believe art tells the story of the whole human experience, therefore I believe art matters because we matter. It’s a catalyst for social change. What Grand Valley has is a unique model that is not seen very often. You cannot move through Grand Valley without encountering artwork.”

Kemler replaces founding director Henry Matthews, who is now serving as distinguished university associate, Galleries and Collections. Kemler had been serving as interim director until the recent permanent appointment.

He will lead a team managing more than 19,000 pieces of art, including the largest public collection of Mathias J. Alten paintings in the world. Other high-profile collections include the recently acquired life’s work of photographer Douglas R. Gilbert, which includes rare Bob Dylan photos, and a highly regarded contemporary art collection procured in collaboration with artists in the Chicago area.

While at Grand Valley, Kemler has served as collections manager, curator of collections management, assistant director and then interim director before this appointment. He said over a 20-year career in the museum field, he has worked in every aspect, from collection care and curation to working with community partners and donors.

That wide-ranging experience will be an asset for the Art Gallery’s future, said Ed Aboufadel, associate vice president for academic affairs.

“Nathan brings extensive experience in the museum field, including the collection and exhibition of artwork,” Aboufadel said. “He is well-known across the state for his leadership of the Michigan Museums Association. Nathan’s collaborative leadership style will be critically important to the Art Gallery as we move forward in the 2020s.”

Kemler’s goals for the Art Gallery going forward include leading innovation efforts in digital initiatives, seeking even more community collaborations and curating collections that reflect the university’s learning values, such as stories of empathy and social justice.

Poets, musicians, dancers, artists, it’s the GVSU’s Fall Arts Celebration

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“Art of Today: Contemporary Collections from Chicago” runs through Nov. 1. (Supplied)

From dance that combines movement and technology to music that captures the power and mystery of the sea, the 17th annual Fall Arts Celebration events at Grand Valley State University are set to bring out “all the feels.” 

Each year, Fall Arts Celebration shines a spotlight on some of the world’s foremost poets, musicians, dancers, artists and scholars. For the past 17 years, West Michigan audiences have enjoyed a series of six free events every fall that celebrate the positive impact of the arts. Below are the four of the signature events that are scheduled for September and October. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit gvsu.edu/fallarts.

ART

“Art of Today: Contemporary Collections from Chicago”

Through Nov. 1

Art Gallery

Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus

Working with Chicago-based artists, gallery owners and collectors, Grand Valley has developed a collection of contemporary art over the last 15 years.

Drawn from Grand Valley’s collection and enhanced with additional loans from Chicago, Art of Today brings together more than 40 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media. This curation includes both bold and minimalistic works exploring simplicity in design, society’s relationship to the environment, and the intersection of pop culture and art by artists Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, David Nash and Takahashi Murakami. 

Other artists, such as Tony Fitzpatrick, Jane Hammond, Erika Rothenberg and Kara Walker, provide challenging imagery that examines the meaning of identity, race, culture and sexuality.

MUSIC

Water on the Mind: A Baroque Musical Journey


Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Cook-DeWitt Center, Allendale Campus

Water has transfixed the imagination and creative artistry of the human race since the earliest days on earth. To the ancient Greeks, water defined life and was seen as the essential element in the creation of civilization. At the dawn of the Baroque Era, as classical teachings spread across Europe, Baroque composers were as equally inspired as the ancients by the power and mystery of the sea.  

See that inspiration come to life through works such as the “Storm Scene” from Marin Marais’s opera, Alcyone, which convincingly delivers the terror and dread from a powerful ocean tempest, and Georg Philipp Telemann’s hauntingly beautiful and imaginative orchestral suite, Hamburger Ebb und Fluth. This piece musically depicts the rise and fall of the ocean while invoking the story of Neptune and his son, Triton.  

Rounding out the performance is Handel’s Water Music, composed in 1717 for a barge party given by George I on the River Thames, and Antonio Vivaldi’s fiery violin concerto, La Tempesta di mare (The Sea Storm). Famed Baroque violin virtuoso, Ingrid Matthews, one of the most-recorded baroque violinists of her generation and solo violinist with Toronto Tafelmusik Ensemble, will perform the dazzling composition that concludes the concert.

Poets Ellen Bas and Kevin Young are featured on Oct. 3. (Supplied)

POETRY

An Evening with Ellen Bass and Kevin Young

Oct. 3 with poetry readings at 6 p.m.

L.V. Eberhard Center, second floor, Pew Grand Rapids Campus

Acclaimed poets Ellen Bass and Ellen Young will read their works. Bass is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her most recent book, “Like a Beggar” (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), was a finalist for several notable literary awards. Previous books include “The Human Line” and “Mules of Love,” which won The Lambda Literary Award. She co-edited (with Florence Howe) the first major anthology of women’s poetry, “No More Masks!” (Doubleday, 1973).

Young is the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and is poetry editor at The New Yorker. His newest book of poetry is “Brown” (2018). Also an essayist and curator, Young’s “Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels” was the winner of an American Book Award. His work “Jelly Roll: A Blues” (2003) was a finalist for the National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize.

 

The dance program “Water: A Vision in Dance” is Oct. 28. (Supplied)

DANCE

Water: A Vision in Dance

Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m.

Louis Armstrong Theatre, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus

In this performance, Bedřich Smetana’s “The Moldau” traces the path of this mighty river from its origins deep in the Bohemian Highlands to its final journey bringing life and sustenance to the Czech people. Debussy’s “La Mer” presents a musically evocative, suggestive image of the sea in all of its beauty. Bringing these works to life in a brilliant new choreographic vision is BODYART, a New Orleans–based dance theater company founded and directed by Leslie Scott. Focusing on the intersection of movement and technology, Scott and the artists of BODYART will unite dance, video, and the music of Smetana and Debussy performed by a full orchestra in an absorbing multimedia experience.



Pieces examining the issues of the day featured in Fall Arts Celebration art exhibition

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The art event for the 2019 Fall Arts Celebration is showcasing contemporary pieces, many of which originate from Grand Valley’s carefully developed collection of art in that genre.

“Art of Today: Contemporary Collections from Chicago” features more than 40 pieces, from paintings to photographs to sculptures, that offer compelling imagery examining the issues of the day.

A public reception is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Art Gallery in the Haas Center for Performing Arts on the Allendale Campus. The exhibition runs through November 1. 

All Fall Arts events are free and open to the public as a way to thank the community for its support of the university.

The exhibition also pays tribute to the important role that Chicago plays in the contemporary art world and Grand Valley’s alliance with the city’s art experts. Grand Valley art experts for the past 15 years have assembled a contemporary art collection by working closely with Chicago-based artists, gallery owners and collectors. This exhibition draws from Grand Valley’s collection and is augmented by loans from Chicago.

“Contemporary art takes courage and challenges us,” said Nathan Kemler, interim director of Grand Valley’s Galleries and Collections. “This exhibition provides perspectives on today’s society and allows our community to explore complex global themes that widen our awareness and build empathy about the human condition.”

Visitors can expect to see both bold and minimalistic work that explore and examine contemporary issues.

For more information, visit gvsu.edu/fallarts.

GVSU composition competition to examine media overload

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By Matthew Makowski

Grand Valley State University

 

Grand Valley State University students will put their composing skills to the test when they create original pieces of music for an upcoming competition inspired by the current Art Gallery exhibition “Comfortably Numb.”

 

The one-minute compositions will be performed by Grand Valley’s award-winning New Music Ensemble in rapid succession and judged by a guest panel and the listening audience for various prizes.

 

The competition will take place Friday, March 17, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., in the Art Gallery (room 1121), located in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus.

 

“Comfortably Numb,” created by Nayda Collazo-Llorens, combines more than 2,000 pieces of clippings from various magazines and other printed materials, and stands nine feet high and spans across 45 feet of wall space. Collazo-Llorens, the Art and Design Department’s Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, said the piece spotlights media overload in today’s world.

 

Jack Sligh, a senior majoring in music composition, said he approached his two composition submissions in very different ways.

 

“One is a straightforward interpretation of media overload during which the instruments all start to blur together into a mess,” he said. “The other is a stylistic subversion of the whole idea based on the title in a jolly style as an old-timey folk tune. If we are in fact comfortably numb to all of this daily media exposure, then we’re left with something completely normal.”

 

The exhibition serves as one of the culminating projects of Collazo-Llorens’ residency as the Stuart and Barbara Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence. Her residency will conclude at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year.

 

“Comfortably Numb” will be on display through March 31. For more information about the composition competition or the exhibition, visit gvsu.edu/artgallery.