The Arts Council of White Lake – Nuveen (ACWL-Nuveen) will start the 2026 exhibition season on a bold note with 11 oversized original drawings in our show entitled Grand Gestures II running January 9 – February 28. The first Grand Gestures drawing show held in January 2021, was conceived after artist Diane Zoellmer gifted 100 sheets of 44”x 84” tagboard to the ACWL-Nuveen. ACWL-Nuveen decided to celebrate this kindness by giving invited artists an opportunity to tackle the large sheets with their creative vision. The 2021 exhibit put a spotlight on diverse drawing techniques executed by local intergenerational artists and highlighted the notion of a ‘grand gesture’ and its implication in a society undergoing the restrictions and misinformation surrounding the pandemic.
For Grand Gestures II, ACWL-Nuveen extended the invitation to several artists who are new to exhibiting at the ACWL-Nuveen. They asked Tatsuki Hakoyama, Grand Rapids-based artist and instructor at Kendall College of Art & Design (KCAD) if he had any advanced drawing students who would be interested in taking on the large format paper. Luckily for ACWL-Nuveen, both he and five of his students agreed to the challenge, Drew Dougherty, Philip Martin-Luckhurst, Luke Landreth, Sarah Kramer, and Sophie Zichterman. Showing alongside the KCAD students will be a KCAD alumni and adjunct instructor, Hallie LeBlanc, Montague artist, Christopher Jones, Aili Casano from North Muskegon, and three advanced art students from Reeths-Puffer High School – Hailee Le Roux, Alexis Gillihan and Brooke Mulder.
ACWL-Nuveen is excited to start the year off with this dynamic show. The big, expressive drawings will fill our main exhibition gallery as well as our back entry gallery. ACWL-Nuveen hopes that it will inspire more grand gestures – of course more marks on paper – but also creativity, compassion, and overall goodwill. They invite the community to join them in celebrating all the artists at a free public reception on Saturday, January 24 from 1:00 – 3:00pm. Of course snacks will be served! ACWL-Nuveen’s winter business hours are Wednesday – Friday 11:00am – 5:30pm and Saturday 11:00am – 3:00pm. You can also reach them by phone – 231-893-2524 or email nuveen@artswhitelake.org.
