March 28, 2024

CREATE Community Arts Stydio Bringing a New Artistic Vision to Boyne

Nov. 27, 2015

Longtime artist Sara Manchester grew up in East Jordan, graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 1997, attended the Chicago Art Institute — and then stepped away from her personal artistic pursuits to “be sensible,” moving back Up North in 2001 to chase a career in graphic design.

The result? “I hated it!” laughed Manchester. “I just really did not like designing for other people.”

After spending some time considering her options, Manchester attended an art therapy workshop out of state on a whim and “loved it,” she said. She returned to college, this time in Indiana, where she received her Master of Arts in art therapy.

“Then I went back to Boyne City and I thought, well, now that I’m pursuing something that I actually do love, how do I make a living with it?” The answer to that question was to literally create a job for herself.

EDUCATED DECISION

For Manchester’s thesis, she’d researched community art studios, traveling the country visiting them and collecting information about different demographics.

“The biggest problem I found was that many of them were run by people who shopped, lived and schooled their kids elsewhere, not in the neighborhood, or even the city, where the community art studio was,” Manchester explained.

“So they didn’t have an understanding of what that community really needed.”

She quickly discovered that the successful community art studios were the ones that really invested in their communities, giving the residents a strong voice in deciding what kind of artistic programs would be offered.

She began researching how to apply this to her own community, which led to the founding of the nonprofit community arts studio called CREATE in Boyne City.

ALL ABOARD

Fortuitously, the train depot in Boyne City had been empty for a while, waiting for the right person to figure out what to do with it.

Built in the late 1890s, the depot was originally used to load lumber trains, then it ran passenger trains until the late ‘70s. Next, several restaurants came and went, including the popular BBQ joint Lester’s. With so many different uses and tenants over the years, the depot was in disarray.

Manchester was not deterred. She acquired the property and has already begun work on its renovation.

“Renovating is a huge project, for starters because all restaurants have kitchen equipment, which means grease and grime,” Manchester said. “We’ve also opened up the mezzanine level; the ceiling was closed off, so the upper floor is a place most people have never seen. It has two round windows on each end and 26-foot ceilings. It’s going to be gorgeous.”

Digging down to the original floors was another revelation: “once we got to them, we found they still had train soot on them!” Manchester said.

The depot itself is influencing her vision of how the creative arts studio is going to function.

GETTING ON TRACK

“When I visualize a train station, I see people of all different backgrounds and interests, all heading in their own direction and picking a track to get there,” she explained. “So, essentially, we all start together, but the track you choose and the end destination are up to you.”

Manchester plans to offer many different spaces for people to gravitate toward, all within the same building.

A downstairs reception area will welcome artists and visitors with a modern, industrial look: brick, exposed ductwork and glass doors. A wrought iron stairway will lead to the rest of the facility, with a separate area for kids downstairs, and the upstairs reserved for teen and adult projects.

The Open Studio will be an inviting environment for all kinds of creation. There will also be an Artist in Residence program housed in the mezzanine; people can apply for individual studio space within a communal room by submitting their portfolios for review.

“Those studio spaces will be one per person, but they’re only partially closed off, so there’s still communication between the spaces. This is so the community can inspire each other,” she said. “Both groups need their own space, so when you graduate from middle school, you move upstairs.”

INSPIRING SPACE

Also in the works are soundproofed music studio rooms, for professional musicians to offer lessons or for local musicians seeking a place to practice.

These spaces are only the beginning. The arts studio will grow and expand with the community’s needs even after it opens in fall 2016.

“The way we’re building this space really is by finding out what’s needed,” she said. “We can move into more visual arts, more music, even dance and movement. We have so much space, we can bring in all of these things.”

Manchester’s biggest wish? Simply that her community will find value in her plan and her project.

“Everyone needs a positive place to go and create,” she said. “We’re all in such technology overload now, people need a place to unplug and have a creative outlet, so what we offer are time and space.”

“I want the environment, the creativity, the sense of community here to become so infectious and so inspiring that everyone will want to find a way to become part of it! Some might say it’s a little utopian vision, but the easiest way to explain it is that it’s going to be built upon what the community wants. So, in the end, it’s theirs.”

The CREATE Community Arts Studio is located at 151 Ray Street in Boyne City. Donations or correspondence may be sent to PO Box 391, Boyne City, MI 49712. To participate, volunteer or inquire, call (231) 459-4066 or find them online at letscreatetogether.org

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