The small lakeside city of Muskegon, Michigan might seem undiscovered by some, but its sunsets and white sand beaches have seen over a century’s worth of artistic admirers. The legendary silent film star, Buster Keaton, once said, “The best summers of my life were spent in the cottage Pop had built on Lake Muskegon in 1908.”
In the early 1900s, hundreds of vacationers from large Midwest cities like Chicago would cross the lake by steamship and pile into the Lake Michigan Park Theatre to watch popular vaudeville performers touring the summer circuit. One family troupe, the Keatons, became enthralled with this area while touring and decided to make Bluffton, a small community in Muskegon nestled between Michigan and Muskegon lakes their regular summer home. Many vaudeville artists who found in Bluffton a perfect refuge from the grueling year-round touring schedule followed suit.
Take a walking tour past the cottages of Bluffton's Colony members and you'll start to understand just how eclectic were the artists who inhabited this region. There were The Grubers' whose show "Oddities of the Jungle" featured elephants and zebras kept in the family's barn and often seen walking freely around town. Or the Butowicks who toured the world with their gymanstic talents and acrobatic dogs.
The largest modern marker of Muskegon’s early vaudeville days is the annual convention organized by the International Buster Keaton Society. The event, held on the first week of October, draws participants from around the world and includes a public screening of Keaton’s films in Muskegon’s 1700-seat Frauenthal Theatre, built in 1930.
Although most of the original Colony landmarks were razed, one landmark is left standing and is operational still today. During the heyday of the Actors’ Colony, the Muskegon Museum of Art was built in 1912 to house art purchased with funds from Charles H. Hackley a local lumber baron whose bequest came only with the instruction to purchase "pictures of the very best kind."
In its 80 year history, the MMA did not let Hackley down. The museum's permanent collection that may surprise a seasoned art scholar, has helped the MMA gain a reputation as the premier collection between Chicago and Detroit.
Among its regular slated shows is the longest-running art exhibition in the state, The Annual Regional Exhibition a tradition that started from the vaudeville days of the MMA and to this day embodies the essence of that era.
The Regional Exhibition is a large juried show of paintings, glass, sculpture, prints, photography, fiber art, ceramics and other media all by local West Michigan artists. All eclectic. Or as nationally-known fibre artist Geary Jones, whose piece Torso was selected for the 2007 show puts it, “There are a lot of tourist and vanity artists in the area. Here you can put in a piece different than a lighthouse or a landscape.”
Western Michigan's iconic scenery isn’t the only homegrown inspiration fueling the creative process. In downtown Muskegon's Clay Avenue Cellars, wine tastings and art shows combine to loosen up artistic urges.
In Spring Lake, just twenty minutes south of Muskegon, you can find a wide variety of art treasures including iron and ceramic garden sculptures, pottery, raku artists and as many as ten different glass blowers, including renowned artists Louie Via and Tom Philabaum. Or, head to Terrestrial Forming Pottery Studio where ceramicist Peter Johnson creates both functional and sculptural pieces including lamps and large outdoor pieces like chimes surrounded by shrouds of clay, while studio-mate, Chester Winowiecki makes wall art, clay drums, didgeridoos and other instruments.
Art is in abundance in Western Michigan. Perhaps it is the sunsets and white-sand beaches that inspire the imagination of local artists or maybe, the members of the Bluffton Actors’ Colony never left.
For more information, visit www.visitmuskegon.org, www.whitelake.org or www.michigan.org
