Advertisement

This article is the last in a three-part series about the various organizations and individuals pursuing artistic endeavors to enrich our community.

CENTRAL LAKE - Rachel Krino wants to help make Antrim County a destination area.

And she's helped rural areas before. In a community in southeast Ohio, where most businesses were boarded up and the average household income was around $14,000, her organization helped bring an interest in the arts to the community. By the time she left five years ago to head north to Central Lake, there were 10 galleries in town and people streamlining to the area on the weekends to check it out.

Here, Krino is starting with a gallery, to complement some of the other art in the area and to help make this area an even more interesting place to visit.

"I want to help local business through interest in the arts," Krino said. "If I can get 100 people to go to an art opening, they're likely to go to the local gas station and restaurant too."

The gallery, a 600-square-foot space in the same building as Northbound Publications and Graphics at Ballard Street and M-88 (the old video store), is slated to open April 26 of this year.

It will feature contemporary art from paintings to sculpture to ceramics and jewelry. She has four artists signed and is working on 10 more. Some are from Antrim County and others hail from contact Krino made in Ohio and in her hometown of Pittsburgh.

"Adams Madam's (gallery) has a traditional feel and I want to be a complement to her," Krino said about her selection of art.

"Contemporary art is something fresh, out of the norm, and sometimes an extreme idea."

Krino has wanted to open a gallery since she came to the area, but says only now is it economically feasible.

"When the opportunity came up, I didn't have to think about it," she said. "I already had a business plan in my head from the last six years of plotting it."

But Krino emphasizes this gallery isn't just for those seasonal residents or ones from out of town. She thinks it is important to make it for the locals too. People are welcome to come in to the gallery just to look around, and Krino plans on having the art there cost anywhere from $5 to $5,000.

"My goal in designing this is not to seem like I have my nose up in the air. I want it to be accessible to everyone," Krino said.

Krino hopes once the gallery gets rolling, she can find partnerships and connections with others in the community including the schools. She said she dreams of having students put on an art show there.

Krino has background and passion in bringing art to rural communitiesÑher thesis for her Master of Arts degree was about investigating the needs of rural communities compared to urban ones.

She says much of it is about accessibility and having arts available in the community and in the school.

Krino believes art is good for every individual whether they become a professional artist or not.

"If a student has art education, they're more of an independent thinker," she said. "They'll be better workers, problem solve and think outside the box."

But the finances of the state and region can have an impact on programs in schools and the success of artists.

"When economic times are harder, art is the first to go," she said.

But, though the Michigan economy is struggling, Krino is trying to make art a catalyst for growth and that will take working together with others in the community.

"We become a destination when it's more than one gallery or restaurant here," she said.

And, there's already a good start with places like Adam's Madams, Torch Tip Ironworks, and blossoming restaurants in the area.

"I'm a fan of group marketing to make it a destination," Krino said.

And an art gallery is something that can be open when other activities are less available. Krino asked, "What do people do if there's a bad day on the slopes or the waves are too big to go boating?"

She's hoping soon they'll come inside to look at some art.

Hadley Robinson can be reached at hrobinson@michigannewspapers.com or by calling 231-533-8523.