March 22, 2021 FridayMusings is your source for what we love about Livonia
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Livonia needs to be ( & is) a cultural destination |
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The Livonia Arts Commission maintains an art gallery on the second floor of the Bennett Civic Center Library and an art exhibit at Livonia City Hall. |
Commentary offered up by the typewriter for your consideration:
It is fitting that our hometown explores the impact local art can have in shaping our future.
Let's start a community conversation on the critical importance of the arts and how we can harness the transformative power of the arts right here in our hometown.
As our Mayor harasses the impact of Vision 21 pulling together the disparate groups that can make our long-term planning succeed we should also determine the role that the arts could play in positively impacting our evolving community over the years.
Livonia is at a historical crossroads of social change. As a community, we can learn and move forward together through inter-community connections; people who may be different on the surface but who can be drawn together through the creation of their stories as told through the arts.
Artists and arts organizations are an important resource in our path to building stronger connections. Opportunities for conversation among groups will lead to insight and a shared sense of community, and in turn, lay the groundwork for exploration about how to maintain vital cultural and community traditions while inviting much-needed neighborhood networking.
Livonia could involve hundreds of artists, writers, painters, photographers, dancers, musicians, to create projects in our individual neighborhoods, drawing attention to how Livonia was developed and evolved. Each neighborhood serving as a strength that gives definition to a hometown of 95,000 people.
Community murals. Sidewalk paintings. Creative acts, like plays in the parks, defining a perception of neighborhood values.
Robert L. Lynch and Laura Zabel sum it up in an article titled The Importance of Art in our Communities, "Integrating the arts into our lives enriches all of us, and because engaging in the arts brings individuals together, it fosters community. Art and artists aren't only in museums or concert halls -- they are all around us. Every one of us has the ability to create and to imagine a way to make our neighborhood healthier or stronger."
Candidates for city council, school board, county, and state office, we need to have you speak up and out on how Livonia can be, and in effect is a cultural destination. How will you help tell the story? You have a role to play.
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Motor City Youth Theatre is a professional theatre company
Founded in 1990 by Fred and Nancy Florkowski as The Redford Youth Theatre, under the umbrella of South Redford Schools. The company later moved to the Detroit Masonic Temple where it was sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons. It was then that the name was changed to Motor City Youth Theatre. In 2005 MCYT found its own home in an old VFW hall in Livonia, where it has created a beautfful off-Broadway style theatre.
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Thanking one who steps up to support the arts
Livonia is appreciative of businesses stepping up to support the arts. One in particular is Dan MacIver, Financial & Portfolio Advisors, the presenting sponsor for the Bob Bennett Memorial Golf Outing, the largest fundraiser each year for the Livonia Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, F&PA is a major donor for the Livonia Civic Chorus, Livonia Youth Symphony, and providing reading materials for the sight-impaired through Seedlings.
One of many who believe in giving back to the town they call home.
Who believes that Livonia is a cultural destination.
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Music From the Heart is Livonia's Summer Concert Series that runs Thursdays through July and August.
The Free concerts are from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm. Put your dancing shoes on, bring a chair/blanket and enjoy the music! And rest assured that FridayMusings will let you know all the details as they come available.
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The mission of Barefoot Productions is to be the preeminent non-profit theatre company in the Livonia Community. Barefoot Productions is driven to provide a broad range of theatre for our community in an intimate setting.
Their mission is to entertain, provoke, and inspire all their guests, patrons, and donors as well as to provide a creative space for all interested in the theatre arts, to create arresting and moving theatre unique to our community.
Barefoot Productions also seeks to provide opportunities for the cultural, technical, and educational growth of its membership through workshops, community action, outreach, and talent showcases.
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Trinity House Theatre exists to enrich and enliven the communities of Southeastern Michigan through brave, truthful, and necessary works of art.
Founded in 1981 by Paul Patton and members of Trinity Baptist Church in Livonia as a venue for live theatre, it was incorporated separately as a non-profit arts organization in 1988.
The theatre’s focus switched to live music in 1999, and since then Trinity House has provided concert-goers with one of the state’s best listening rooms.
Please visit their website to learn more: https://www.trinityhousetheatre.org/about/
Trinity House is a member of the National Independent Venue Association
The Outrospectives perform "Mirage" by Gregg Hill
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Conrad Schwartz: Let's create a Livonia Conservancy for promotion of the Arts |
I have lived in Livonia for over 40 years and I have always thought of Livonia as a great city. Many times during my career at General Motors my colleagues would ask me why I lived here, as I could afford to move to some “sexier” city. I always responded “why?”, Livonia has everything you need. Parks and Recreation centers, Educational opportunities at all levels, Police and fire professionals better than most, and on and on the list goes. Livonia provides for its residents! That, my friends, is also what bothers me about this city. With its great riches and resources could it do more, could it look beyond its borders and reach out to other communities and do something special? Could it cooperate with Garden City, Redford, and Westland and create the Conservancy for the Promotion of the Arts. Could it cooperate with schools and universities and individuals and lead in its development.
As John Lennon would say, “Imagine” a location where artists of our area could come to paint and sculpt and create stoneware and porcelain. Imagine a location where these objects and others could be displayed. Imagine the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art lending pieces to this Conservancy.
In my opinion, the success of this venture is having a critical mass that is made possible by joining with other communities, institutions, and organizations. Livonia has the initial components for success. The Livonia Arts Commission would take the lead and the old courthouse would be the location.
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The Conservancy for the Promotion of the Arts would be organized similar to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and seek funding from government grants, foundations, corporations, and individuals. The Arts Commission would be reprogramed and become the Western Wayne Arts Commission.
The old courthouse on Farmington Road would be designated for this effort, providing some surety to donors that this project has a chance to succeed. If anyone doubts this project can grow and prosper I would ask they to drive to the Detroit Riverfront and visualize what can be if only they too could “Imagine”. Now the reality, establish a budget, pick a figure right here, right now, say Five Million Dollars to get it off the ground. We will need to fund a major redevelopment of the old building and the staff time to put it all in motion. Take it from me, Five Million Dollars is peanuts to foundations if the project is possible.
I am aware that others have tried to put together similar projects and have not succeeded, so let us learn from their mistakes and missed opportunities. Think big, reach outside of ourselves, non-believers will become believers. Art survives us all. Just “Imagine”.would be organized similar to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and seek funding from government grants, foundations, corporations, and individuals. The Arts Commission would be reprogramed and become the Western Wayne Arts Commission.
The old courthouse on Farmington Road would be designated for this effort, providing some surety to donors that this project has a chance to succeed. If anyone doubts this project can grow and prosper I would ask they drive to the Detroit Riverfront and visualize what can be if only they too could “Imagine”. Now the reality, establish a budget, pick a figure right here, right now, say Five Million Dollars to get it off the ground. We will need to fund a major redevelopment of the old building and the staff time to put it all in motion. Take it from me, Five Million Dollars is peanuts to foundations if the project is possible.
I am aware that others have tried to put together similar projects and have not succeeded, so let us learn from their mistakes and missed opportunities. Think big, reach outside of ourselves, non-believers will become believers.
Art survives us all. Just “Imagine”.
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These 16 individuals and organizations have enhanced cultural and artistic environments helping define the quality of life in Livonia.
They have each been inducted into the
1835 Livonia City Hall of Fame over the last 15 years.
Virginia Bosak, Dr. Peggy Gaskill,
Livonia Symphony Orchestra, Richard Gaskill, CAPA, Dr. Jerry Smith, Livonia Civic Chorus, Steve King, Bill Bresler, Robert Bishop,
Francesco DiBlasi, Midge Ellis, Livonia Town Hall, Electra Stamelos,
Friends of the Library, Livonia Youth Symphony
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