celery pond

Eight delegates from South Haven recently attended an all day workshop called “Arts & Culture as an Economic Necessity”, part of the Regional Leadership Alliance program in Marshall, MI.

The group included Mayor Dorothy Appleyard; Sharon Mack, executive director of the SH Center for the Arts; Rachel Vochaska, executive director of the SH area Chamber of Commerce; Dorris Akers of Water Street Glassworks in Benton Harbor; Janice Varney, executive dean of Lake Michigan College; Suzanne Trenkle of Lake Michigan College; Pat Gaston of the Cool Cities committee of SH; and Jan Haglund of Janney’s Beach House of South Haven.

The seminar emphasized the need to build awareness on the true impact of arts and culture in all aspects of the quality of life. Keynote speaker, Robert McNulty, President of Livable Communities, was joined by a panel discussion that looked at economic development opportunites related to arts and culture, with the need for the development of “creative spaces” in both urban and rural areas. Included in the panel were George Erickcek of W.E. Upjohn Institute; Kathy Eftekhart, director of the Calhoun County Arts & Industry Council; and Tony McGhee of Cornerstone Alliance.

What can an arts/cultural destination do? It can affect and improve education, health, human service, social interaction, and even entrepreneurial enterprise by attracting corporate and industrial entities to help build creative space that is affordable, permanent and inclusive for community needs and the vision of leaving a cultural legacy to inspire others.

This format created some lively discussion among the SH delegation. How might SH as a community leave a legacy for future generations? How might SH combine the philosophy of interconnectedness of art and nature? How might that combination of honoring our environment while inspiring creative expression be applied in SH? How could SH be established as a year-round “creative” destination point?

The inevitable location for such an idea would ideally be on public lands, near the water to capitalize on SH’s natural legacy. So without a doubt, the Dunkley area came up as a pivotal spot for creating this “creative destination point.”

We hope to hear more from the attendees and a followup of what a consortium of such organizations might envision for the Celery Pond area, which is dear to the heart of the blog readers. We’re hoping there’ll be more action taken to create such a destination point of art and Nature.

If you think about a cultural center such as Interlochen or the sculpture park on the riverfront in Seattle (a recent blog article), you might start to see the Dunkley area in a whole new, creative way.