2024 Harvest Moon Benefit for the ArtS, nazareth Hall

2024 GRAC SCULPTURE GARDEN

9/22/24 WORKED FROM 11:30-2:30

     Our sculpture garden plot was donated to us by a fellow-citizen.

We then, drew up/signed a contract & are so grateful to have this opportunity- THANK YOU!

We installed trees/sun/drought-tolerant perennials that we worked with a landscape on. A couple benches and a winding path tucked in with rotating sculptures will be, yet another photo-op for visitors when coming to shop at our village. We brought our commissioned mural across from Huntington and soon this! Research shows art beautifies a town. Trending now, are sculpture gardens in Perrysburg and Gibsonburg. We’ll be on the ‘sculpture garden’ tour someday.

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

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