News
C. S. Lewis Festival 2003 Recognized for “Imagining Michigan”
Given the success of the first annual C. S. Lewis Festival in 2003, it’s no wonder the event caught the attention of the Imagining Michigan Award Committee! The festival was one of only four organizations statewide to receive recognition at the first annual "Imagining Michigan" Awards held in Grand Rapids in May of 2004. Read the news article below for more information.
C. S. Lewis Festival Honored
BY RYAN BENTLEY NEWS-REVIEW STAFF WRITER A Petoskey festival which commemorated the life and writings of author C. S. Lewis in November of 2003 was one of four projects to receive statewide recognition at last week’s Imagining Michigan Awards.
The Imagining Michigan partnership encourages institutions of higher education to cooperate with community organizations in support of the arts and humanities.
Imagining Michigan distributed awards for the first time last week during its fourth annual cultural conference in Grand Rapids. These recognized campus-community collaboration on artistic projects.
Petoskey’s C. S. Lewis Festival received honorable mention.
“The selection committee for the Imagining Michigan Award is delighted to recognize the C. S. Lewis Festival,” said Imagining Michigan director Julie Ellison. “An unprecedented number of collaborating organizations, including North Central Michigan College, produced an event that drew record audiences and strong citizen support for doing the whole thing again next year.”
Churches, schools, musical and theatrical performers, Crooked Tree Arts Center, local video documentarian David Crouse and the Little Traverse Community Reads program were among the collaborators that helped arrange Lewis-themed events last year.
Festival board president Tom Arthur said the Lewis program had the largest number of partners of any program recognized by Imagining Michigan. “That was kind of an exciting part of it,” he said, adding that the honor likely will help increase the festival’s statewide visibility.
North Central offered a class on modern mythology that focused on the work of Lewis and his friend and fellow author J.R.R. Tolkien. Suzanne Shumway, an English and speech instructor at the college, taught it.
Bill Anderson, director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, presented the certificates of recognition at last week’s conference. Accepting for the C. S. Lewis Festival were Arthur, festival executive director Anne McDevitt and Crooked Tree Arts Center executive director Dale Hull.
The Arts of Citizenship program in Ann Arbor and the Matrix Theater of Detroit’s Homelands Project were winners of the two Imagining Michigan prizes this year. The Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing received honorable mention along with the Lewis festival.
Plans are in the works to make the C. S. Lewis Festival an annual November event in Petoskey. Ryan Bentley can be contacted at 439-9342, or rbentley@petoskeynews.com
