Marshall Afterschool Arts Apprenticeship Program Chosen to Design the 2009 Michigan Downtown Conference Awards

Lansing The Michigan Downtown Conference Partners announced today the Michigan-based artist chosen to design awards for the 2009 Michigan Downtown Conference is the Marshall Afterschool Arts Apprenticeship (AAA) Program. The AAA will design award artwork specifically for the conference to be handed out at the awards ceremony. This year's conference will be held at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing September 15 and 16.

This year, the Michigan Downtown Conference theme is "The Three C's of Prosperity Creativity, Collaboration and Competition." In keeping with the theme, the conference awards committee sought proposals of hand-crafted, Michigan-made awards from artists across the state to present to winners at the conference awards ceremony.

Last year, the AAA program was recognized for its exceptional work when it received the 2008 Michigan Downtown Conference Innovation Award.

The chosen award artwork was designed by AAA coordinators Sonia De La Torre and Sabine LeDieu. The final product will be a collaboration of the AAA project and Marshall-area businesses. The artwork will be executed by the artists with the help of the AAA students that have been in the Fused Glass classes for three sessions or more. East End Studio Gallery will provide the studio space to produce the products. Lyndie Parrish of Lyndie's Windows will fuse the glass products and William Bennett of Bennett Woodworking will create the wood bases from Michigan-grown trees for the finished artwork.

"This is the first year the Michigan Downtown Conference has put out a call for Michigan-based artists to create the awards for us," said Jodie Willobee, Awards Chair of the Michigan Downtown Conference. "The Awards Committee was thrilled at the number of responses we received from incredibly talented artists all across the state. In the end, the Marshall (AAA) Program was chosen for their use of color in depicting the conference logo and the impact in their design. The whole process evoked pride as it showed, once again, that our Michigan artists are true craftsmen."

The AAA program was developed by artist Sabine LeDieu and the Marshall District Library, where students from Marshall Middle School are able to explore the design, production, marketing, display and sales aspects of the art pieces they produce. The proceeds from the art products sold are used to help fund the program for the next year's ventures. The AAA students create many types of projects, including some commissioned by patrons to make custom, fused-glass magnets and holiday ornaments.

The Michigan Downtown Conference Partners include the Michigan Downtown Association (MDA), the Michigan Municipal League (MML), Michigan Main Street Center @ MSHDA, the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM), the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, Main Street Oakland County and the State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO). 

The Michigan Downtown Conference is an annual conference to help community leaders create successful strategies and case studies to revitalize their downtowns.

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