Edition No. 62
Arts and Culture
Grosse Pointe Artists Association hosts QUENCH by portrait artist Robert Maniscalco.
Community and Family
Learn how to prepare your own Michigan-made maple syrup!
American Democracy
“A perfect storm brewing for extreme politicians” - Axios
QUENCH: A solo show by Robert Maniscalco
Born in Detroit in 1959, Robert Maniscalco is a nationally renowned portrait artist. Since 1980, Maniscalco’s exquisite, commissioned portraits and fine art have become part of over 850 distinguished private and public collections throughout North America. Maniscalco built his own reputation on his commissioned work, exhibitions, and classes he offered at the Maniscalco Gallery on Mack Avenue between 1997 and 2005, and as the lively host of Art Beat on PBS.
Maniscalco won his solo show QUENCH as a prize for taking first place in the Grosse Pointe Artists Association’s Our Rivers, Our Lakes exhibit in 2021. Much of the work from his solo show is from his Quench Project, an exploration of the many ways people express desire and the ways they find to quench them.
Upcoming activities with Maniscalco will include:
Demonstrated talk: Wednesday, March 23, 6:30 p.m.
Painting workshop: March 25 and 26, 10 a.m. -4 p.m.
The Grosse Pointe Artists Association’s next exhibition theme is Black and White. This exhibition challenges artists to look at a world without color. From subtle shades of grays to black, the exhibit will feature work ranging from realism to surrealism and abstraction. The Juror for this exhibition is Marat Paransky, a sculptor, painter, photographer, and mixed-media artist. Born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1986, his family settled in Metro Detroit in 1997.
For more details, visit grossepointeartcenter.org/calendar/#!event/2022/1/20/call-for-entries-black-and-white-deadline-monday-feb-21.
Have you heard of Maple Sugaring?
A recent article by Metro Parent shares how in the early spring months, the maple trees in Michigan celebrate the end of winter by contributing enough sap to produce tubs full of sugary syrup. Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties are all offering opportunities for the whole family to learn more about the maple sugaring process — from tapping a tree to turning sap into syrup! Some events and maple syrup festivals also feature hikes through nature and the opportunity to enjoy maple treats.
Click the button below to explore a variety of locations hosting events to make your very own Michigan-made maple syrup!
“A perfect storm brewing for extreme politicians”
Axios, January 23, 2022
We are drawing on a new source this week. Axios is an online news site and collection of newsletters about which we knew very little until Nathan Bomey, one of the speakers in our series of live American Democracy events, moved there from USA Today.* With Nathan’s encouragement, we started paying more attention to Axios and found our American Democracy print item for this week.
Using data on various “open seats” in the US House (districts that will have no incumbent running for re-election later this year), Axios writers Stef Knight and Neal Rothschild concluded that, “Redistricting and a flood of departing incumbents are paving the way for more extreme candidates in this year's midterm elections.”
Ironically, rising partisanship in Congress is likely to be a bipartisan phenomenon as most of the re-drawn districts with no incumbent will be “safe” for one party or the other. “Safe”, as opposed to “Competitive,” districts effectively turn the party primary into the real election for those seats. And, in both parties, the primary election is where that party’s “base” wields its greatest influence. As a result, 2022 elections appear likely to tip the House Democratic Caucus a little more to the left, and the House Republican Caucus a little more to the right.
The Axios piece is a quick read once you get a handle on “PVI” (Partisan Voter Index) which, in an unfortunate bit of copyediting, is not explained until after the term first appears in a table accompanying the article. For access to the Axios piece, click below
*Nathan Bomey was most recently with us on January 12 talking about his new book, Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in Today’s Polarized Age. A recording of our conversation with him is available at www.warmemorial.org/virtualevents-calendar/bridgebuilders.
Inspired Thoughts is a collection of highly curated content that embraces the spirit and purpose of The War Memorial: arts and culture, community enrichment, leadership, and patriotism.
Derived from the notion that learning from others is the key to success, Inspired Thoughts is meant to shine a light on those making a difference in the world around them. This collection features artists, poets, writers, architects, and every thought leader in-between. Inspired Thoughts is the strongest reflection of what The War Memorial stands for, and what we aim to be.
The content featured on Inspired Thoughts is curated by War Memorial leadership — we also look forward to featuring special guest curators in the near future. If you are interested in providing content for Inspired Thoughts, please email our Communications team at dmurphy@warmemorial.org.