It will be a showcase, sale and celebration of new art ideas at the Nativity Episcopal Church in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. The long running “Festival of Arts” will take place September 16-18, 2011. This year’s event will have the support of the Lakeland Society of Artists and the Polish Mission of Orchard Lake. Diverse and wide ranging fine art disciplines will be presented.
Jupena is also a fine arts historian receiving his advanced degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He is the president this year of the Michigan Surface Design Association, a professional arts group.
Co-Chairs Tim and Diane Wittlinger are longtime parishioners at Nativity and have been active with the “Festival of the Arts” since its inception in 1970. They are both on the church counsel and Tim, an attorney for Clark Hill in Detroit, is an avid nature photographer. He is a veteran community theater performer with the Village Players in Birmingham.
Pat Sarotte of the Lakeland Society of Artists said, “I am looking forward to the opening night reception so the artists can mingle and network.”
Nativity Episcopal Church has had a long pedigree of working with artists and creating a place to perform, teach, and display their art. Deborah Odette, formerly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will supervise the staging and hanging. The exhibition items will be for sale.
Education is one of the themes of this years Festival. Rayneld Johnson, PhD., the Fashion and Design Coordinator at Wayne State will be presenting a display regarding ‘Art to Wear.’ Student Erica Woodliff will display an innovative and sustainable “The Coffee Filter Dress” with each component hand painted.
Besides the fine art on display there will be many more visual arts presented. A re-emerging art medium that will have an instructional focus is felt. So very popular in Lithuania and Poland, the textile has endless versatility. The ancient connection with Europe is now considered innovative and modern. What is old is now new? Ethical, eco-art with sustainable principals will be part of the future.
The church has a permanent display of stained glass and unique fiber pieces by Jane Hooper. Hooper, a retired WSU professor had been a longtime supporter of the Festival. Her academic presentation on art in the new millennium, presented in 2000 is still referenced.
The opening reception is an opportunity to mingle with the artists and the affair will have the hospitality energies of Estelle Zelasko, stylist for Uptown Weddings. Music, wine, hors d’oeuvres and chocolate tasting will accompany.
Another not-to-miss presentation at the church is the outdoor garden art labyrinth. In 2005 the Episcopal Church & Visual Arts organization, a non-denominational virtual art group, highlighted Nativity as a featured congregation for their special inclusion of art in the community.
There will be a remembrance of longtime and celebrated “Palette and Brush Club” contributor Donna Andruccioli-Vogelheim. The transparent water-color master and Farmington’s Artist-in-Residence passed away recently after a long and brave battle with cancer. The Providence Hospital Foundation will be having a show in her name, “Donna Vogelheim Healing Power of Art.”
The Nativity Episcopal Church is located at 21220 West 14-Mile Road, Bloomfield Township, MI 48301. For more information and tickets to the gala opening, 248-642-5577.
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