- You can now use Zelle within your online banking institution.
- Search for the Grand Rapids Arts Council. Use "Grand Rapids Art" as the nickname.
Grand Rapids Arts Council Gallery
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2024 GRAC JAZZ & ARTS FESTIVAL
August 18, Grand Rapids from 2-dusk
River wildlife & fisherman in their waders listened to soothing jazz along our beautiful towpath.
- Artists were displaying/selling along the towpath
- Jazz performers:
The Lake Erie Jazz Band, Morgen Hammer Quintet,
6th Edition, and Keigo Hirakawa were our talented musicians.
- Tim Tiederman was the Emcee, local Grand Rapids jazz talent
Thanks to our numerous community volunteers who
worked to make this day a success.
We couldn't have done this without you!
Thank you to all our donors and sponsors as well, especially Suzanne Carroll & Georgette Kohn, of the Optical Shop
SCULPTURE GARDEN BEGINNING
JULY 18, 2024: INITIAL WORK PREPARING THE GROUND
Our new sculpture garden is in the vacant lot between Fernando's & Waymaker's.
The space was offered to us at no cost, and a contract was drawn up with the owner. We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for 2 years, going on field trips to Perrysburg and Gibsonburg's sculpture gardens.
We are very excited to bring our dream to fruition, thanks to the support of the
community GRAC members and the Village Council.
Rapids Rally Days GRAC FuN. Thanks to all who made this a blast!
thanks to artist, Teeth419 for painting our duck
& thanks to Craig Hamilton, GRAC's treasurer, for constructing the duck!
2024 GRAC ARt Camp, June 10-14
"Critters on Our River"
40 campers 1st-6th grade
video coming soon
Pop-up Art GAllEry, Otsego Park, Thursday,May 23, 4-8 pm
20 artists applied and sent pics. 30 artists showed up! We set up originally for 20,
Thank you for being understanding; we did not expect this.
5th Annual GRAC poetry contest grade 6-adults
poets Reading their winning poems at the Grand Rapids Town Hall April 11, 2:00 pm
December 9, 'LIGHT UP THE NIGHT' parade
The Arts Council created a float that symbolizes one of our holiday traditions with a Gingerbread House theme.
Because of your generous donations, we've been able to share this popular event
for 14 years of gingerbread house decorating completely free.
THANK YOU to Terry Green who supplied his tractor/trailer to haul the float during the parade.
40-50 lbs of candy was thrown to our Grand Rapids villagers
as they experienced such great enthusiasm for this event.
SUPPLIES:
- We used paper plates for the tiled roof & window wreaths
- tons of Christmas lights
- a Christmas tree
- twinkling lights inside
- the armature of an outdoor greenhouse
- and balloons on top of cut PVC pipe to welcome our lit-up Santa.
It took many hours to build, and 45 minutes to disassemble.
Our creative ingenuity is already being discussed for next year's float.
Gingerbread House Decorating
See if you're in one of these pics
About 120 houses were decorated on November 18, from 2-4,
during our village's Christmas Open House.
Thank you to every volunteer who helped with this. We made all the houses,
filled bags of candy and stuffed frosting into containers.
Thank you for your donations so we can keep this event free for 14 years.
2023 Ghostly Gilead winners
2023 October 15- Harvest Moon Gala at Nazareth Hall
Our biggest fundraiser of the year
Thank you GRAC volunteers. Without you, this evening would not have been possible.
Thank you everyone who attended and bid on our silent auction items.
Congratulations Mike Bailey, 2023 Volunteer of the year.
You are most deserving!
Thank you for donating to the Gala! We couldn't have done this without you.
2023 Sunset Jazz & Arts Festival
We haven't had this festival since 2019!
River wildlife, a fisher in his waders, and canoes in the canal listened to wonderful jazz that evening.
Artists along the towpath; 'Jazz Giant', Gene Parker, was the headliner & celebrating his 80th birthday;
Suzanne Carroll was the Emcee, past host of the Sunday jazz show on 101.5, the River.
Thanks to all the GRAC & community volunteers who worked
to make this a success.
Thank you to all our donors and sponsors as well.
Brenda Hynell, winner of the 2023 Jazz Fest Carruth raffle-
Thank you Brenda for coming to our Jazz Festival!
SEE IF YOU'RE IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS
2023 Plein Air in our village
Artists painted on the towpath/around town from 9-2 in the drizzling rain and even in their cars.
HISTORY - The "Plein Air" movement was pioneered by John Constable in Britain. In 1860, it became fundamental to "impressionism". The popularity of painting en plein air (in open air) increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes.
2023 GRAC Art Camp @ the Old Fire Station
June 12-16
We had a total of 36 campers!
On Friday, at 11:00, we had a final program for parents/friends/grandparents.
Their final program consisted of:
- An 'art walk' so parents could see art related to water throughout the week
- Musical renditions/motions of the music related to water
- Explanations of their STEM boat projects
Thank you to our engaging teachers: Ali, Chris, & Karin
2023 Easter Egg Hunt
Sponsored by the Grand Rapids Care Center
& the Grand Rapids Arts Council
Decorate a Gingerbread House on us!
...because we believe in giving back to our community!
(since 2011)
November 19th 2022, 2-4, at the Old Fire Station
We made over 100 gingerbread houses
& stuffed over 100 bags of candy
WE USED:
17 bags of various candies
1 large bag of graham cracker crunch cereal
4 gallons of frosting
20 cartons graham crackers
Ghostly Gilead Decorating Contest
For Grand Rapids Villagers
October 30th, 2022
Harvest Moon Gala
Nazareth Hall, Grand Rapids, Ohio
October 22, 2022
Congratulations to our Volunteer of the Year: Joe Schroeder
Past Volunteers of the year on homepage
Wonderful entertainment by comedic magician, Dwayne Hill.
Our 50/50 raffle throughout the evening brought in $718!
2022 Applebutter Festival
Every 2nd Sunday in October 10-5
GRAC is in charge of the children's area every year
2022 Glow Roll
Last Monday before school starts
Thank you Sierra Cousino for organizing this event!
2022 JULY 10, PLEIN AIR PAINTING/WINNING ARTISTS
Artists painted on the towpath/around town from 10-2,
and then displayed their paintings at "Our Town Gallery" in Grand Rapids where people voted for their favorite.
Winning artists were given gift certificates to our town gem, LaRoe's restaurant.
1st place: Susan Ritter (left pic)
2nd place: Joan Hetzner (center pic)
3rd place: Aaron Bivins (right pic)
THANK YOU ARTISTS FOR MAKING THIS A SUCCESS!
This was our 2nd Annual "PLEIN AIR" event
Last year, we had 3 artists; this year, we had 9 local artists set up along the towpath and around town.
We also had Taylor Mac, a finger style ambient guitarist and Lynne Long, who played classical pieces that quietly set the tone for the backdrop of art on this day.
COMMENTS FROM PASSERSBY:
"We are thrilled to see this going on!"
"What a complete serendipity on this lovely day!"
"We're amazed at the local talent here!"
Thank you to all artists & musicians who participated!
ART CAMP "OUR NATURAL WORLD"
June 27-July 1, at the Old Fire Station
TOWN HALL OPEN HOUSE
May 28, 2022

EASTER EGG HUNT - GRAND RAPIDS CARE CENTER
April 16, 2022

2021 APPLEBUTTER FESTIVAL
1st Sunday of October 10-5
GRAC sponsors all the kids area entertainment

Gingerbread House Decorating for kids!
From 2-4, while parents/grandparents took a break from shopping,
children decorated pre-made (over 100!) gingerbread houses at the Old Fire Hall
during the Grand Rapids Christmas Open House
Father Christmas came to sing,
along with members of the Otsego Choir
2021 PAINTED ROCKS #GRACOH
(Post them to our FB or Twitter)
We painted rocks with uplifting messages and placed them around town.
Trending now! We asked people who found them to take a pic and post to Instagram or our GRAC FB page.
Below are pics of some we've painted and some that have been found thus far.
2021 1st ANNUAL GRAC "GLOW-ROLL"
August 16, 2021
Below: photos/video of the event, our flyer and
the 3.3 mile route that bicyclists rode through the village
2021 JULIE PONTASCH MOSAIC- past GRAC President
by Otsego area artist, Gail Christofferson who
created this in honor of Julie.
The mosaic hangs in the Wright Pavilion on the towpath.
We also invited 3 artists to join in "Plein Air" painting along
the towpath during the day -
Taking advantage of natural light, artists created their paintings/drawings,
popular in impressionism in the mid-1800's.
Julie Pontasch also created the G.R.A.C. logo mosaic hanging in our window on Front Street.
2021 OTSEGO AREA POETRY CONTEST
1ST GRADE-ADULT
(APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH)
Submissions were due April 30th, 2021
Read last year's winning poems (upper Right)
2020 HONORARY SNOWFLAKES
NOVEMBER 5th-DECEMBER 21st
Thanks to our community, we donated $465.00 to the Otsego Food Pantry
You could purchase snowflakes honoring family or friends that graced the
Old Gilead windows from November-January
2020 GHOSTLY GILEAD DRIVE-BY DECORATING
Because of our events being cancelled that year, one of our board members, Carole Sarkan,
suggested a village decorating contest.
"Boo-Crew" judges drove around to vote on houses and businesses
who applied to be in the contest.
Watch the video below :-)
Winners are highlighted below as well.
GHOSTLY GILEAD PHOTOS
CONGRATS to all the winners of our passionate and creative little village.
You helped to create such a wonderful and lasting memory! It was so fun-THANK YOU!
The 1st photo is a map of pinned addresses of the houses/businesses that entered our contest.
The last photo in this section was of our "Boo-Crew" judges compiling the winners using our subjective rubric.
2020 OCTOBER MURAL- Dave Rickerd
Dave is from Cincinnati, originally Deshler, Ohio
Watch the video explaining the mural project

2020 OTSEGO AREA POETRY CONTEST
7 artistic writers! From 5th grade - Adult
This year's 2021 guideline- flyer on the left.
Read last year's winning poems (upper right)
PHOTOS BEFORE 2019
I, Amy Fitch, wasn't the publicity chair/website designer then

You can now do everything online in 3 EASY STEPS!
Email for membership: grandrapidsartscouncil@gmail.com
1. Save the membership form (in the membership tab) as a new document and then fill out your information.
Save it as: your last name-GRAC2024Membership
(For example, SmithGRAC2024Member)
2. Send the new document (w/ the new info) you just made to us below:
grandrapidsartscouncil@gmail.com, and tell us what you paid for the membership fee
3. Pay your membership fee using Zelle (embedded in your bank's mobile app.)
Businesses wanting to send a donation?
We're a non-profit, ( 501-C) (3)
- Send and email indicating donation amount.
In the subject field, type the "name of your business- Business name-GRACdonation"
Use the ease of PayPal to donate
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CONTACT
419-832-ARTS (2787)
grac@grandrapidsartscouncil.org
For poetry submissions & online membership:
grandrapidsartscouncil@gmail.com