My Nonprofit Reviews

Defined as a “discovery of the arts in the woods”, Michigan Legacy Art Park, amazes me every time I venture there. In the quiet of the North forest where the Park lives, I can reflect on the big sailing ships that once moved passengers and freight along the Great Lakes shores. Sails mounted on telephone size poles, juxtapose in the trees as ‘Five Needles’.
And, I always stand for a while at “Table and Chairs’ where my mind creates stories around them. Did a house decay around them, a fight of some sort left them akimbo, or were they just discarded?

In Discovery Grove I look for the words on stones moved around to create short poems. And I admire the artworks and stories hung there, done by children reflecting their field trip or classroom Art Park experience.

Perhaps my favorite sulpture is ‘Fallen Commradel’ a two thirds skeleton of a P-15 World War II fighter plane. It may be my favorite because it reminds me of my Dad, a B-17 Navigator Bombidier. It reminds others of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew the fighter. One bomber pilot I spoke with at our first Legacy Gala fund raising event where we honored the airmen, said that you were pretty sure you were going to get home if you saw the Red Tails on your wing.

My other favorite piece is the ‘Frog’. It was one of the first pieces in the Park along with the massive Sawpath Series David Barr, park founder created. Since those first few pieces, the Park, over 25 years later, boosts so many others, nearly 40 in number.

But back to the ‘Frog’. I love it because as you enter the Park it causes almost every child to stop and laugh. Sometimes they hug the big metal shape. And ‘that frog’ has now become their first adventure into art appreciation.