Dearborn celebrates April Arts Month with Arty Party at COMPAC

 

By SUE SUCHYTA

Times-Herald Newspapers

DEARBORN – The city celebrated April Arts Month with visual, audible and even flavorful art displays April 6 in a well-attended event at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. 

In addition to the artwork of Dearborn Public School students, adult art in a wide range of media was on display, with some demonstrating and explaining their process. 

People sampled culinary treats, browsed visual work on display, and listened to musicians in Studio B as black light art glowed invitingly.  

Special short films were available for screening in the Michael A. Guido Theater, and in the Padzieski Gallery, artists from Dearborn High School offered an interactive demonstration with clay. 

Dearborn Community Fund Executive Director EmmaJean Woodyard said the annual Arty Party has evolved from an adult party to an event for all ages to enjoy.

“This is more like an art fair, an art circus, a performing circus – it’s just a combination of things,” she said. “And it’s free and open to the public to introduce everybody to the wonderful artists that are in the region.”

 

Woodyard said the emphasis on all of the arts, including visual, performing and even culinary arts emphasizes the beauty that is possible in different art forms. 

“I love seeing the variety of people and the different ages,” she said. “There are families, there are older people, there are people alone, and there are people in groups,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful.”

Theater Manager Martin Zbosnik said it was phenomenal to have such a large turnout on a Saturday afternoon. 

“We can’t get people sometimes to show, so to have this many different people come here, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I had no idea there were so many artsy people in this area.”

Zbosnik said the student artwork on display is amazing. 

“It shows you all the things other than sports that we have here in the city,” he said. “This really shows the interest.”

On of the many artists showing their work on the upper level was glass artist Marc Vandenberg, who had a variety of blown glass, or glass that’s made out of a furnace, and flamework glass, where a different heat source is used, on display. 

“A lot of what I do is very Venetian influenced,” he said. “The Italians and their mastery of the craft is something I’ve really pursued over the years.”

 

Vandenberg said he’s been honing his blown glass technique for 14 years, and has learned from other glass artists at Greenfield Village.

He said people enjoy seeing his glasswork on display.

“Everywhere I go, glass is such a seductive material,” Vandenberg said. “It’s shiny, it’s colorful and it has so many qualities that just draw people in,” he said.  

His work includes both sculptural and functional pieces. 

“There are so many different avenues that you can go with glass,” Vandenberg said. “The possibilities are endless. That’s one of the coolest things about it.”  

On the lower level, in the Padzieski Gallery, Dearborn High School student artists were working with clay and interacting with attendees. 

Iyanna Wilson said they hope to encourage younger students to pursue art when they get to high school. 

“I like working in clay a lot,” she said. “I hadn’t even thought about working in clay, but I started in my junior year doing clay and I started doing it a lot and liking it.”

Wilson said she enjoys talking to the attendees who stop at their table to talk about their work-in-progress. 

Zeinab Zorkot, who was sculpting, lightheartedly admitted that what started out as a cat has ended up looking more like something from the Pokémon realm. 

She said she enjoys interacting with attendees. 

“I’ve enjoyed seeing how cool kids think it is,” she said. “I hope they are going to be inspired to go into art in the future.”