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Are you looking for more ways to be involved in your community? Do you have an interest in or appreciation for art? The Arts Council of White Lake-Nuveen Center is looking for you! The ACWL-Nuveen has a very small staff so we rely on loyal volunteers to pull off all the diverse programming we provide for the White Lake community. We are incredibly grateful for the time and effort our multi-generational volunteers have contributed to our organization, some of which have been w

As a nonprofit, the ACWL-Nuveen relies on a volunteer Board of Directors to make the critical decisions necessary for ensuring the organization is fulfilling its mission in a responsible way. This year, we are excited to be welcoming Richard Vanderputte-McPherson into the fold! Richard has been involved with the ACWL-Nuveen for many years. He started as a class participant and just last year had artwork accepted into our annual Juried Exhibition. (His photograph received an h

At the ACWL-Nuveen we like to schedule thematic art classes that relate to our exhibits. In our current exhibition – Grand Gestures II – several artists chose to render the figure on their large format drawing paper. We were inspired by these drawings so we reached out to experienced Urban Sketcher Mary Jo Ernst to see if she would offer her Quick Sketch: People class. MJ offered the class to help students get over the “fear of sketching people”. She provided a helpful summa

Good news – if you haven’t been in to see our first exhibit of 2026 – Grand Gestures II  – you still have time!  We had planned our reception for the show in January but due to extreme cold and snowy weather we moved the date to Saturday, February 28th, the last day of the exhibit. We hope that you stop by the ACWL-Nuveen from 1:00 - 3:00pm on the 28th and say hello to the artists and find out more about their artwork. The artists participating in the show are: Tatsuki Hakoya

Kick off the summer season with one of the biggest parties of the year! The ACWL-Nuveen celebrates its 40th on Friday, May 15 from 7 to 10 PM at the Playhouse at White Lake and we're pulling out all the stops. Enjoy live music from the FAN Club with special guests Eric & Karen Smith, a silent auction to benefit the ACWL-Nuveen, plenty of birthday cake, and much, much more! This is a night that you will NOT want to miss!

Thanks to the generosity of 89 supporters, the Arts Council of White Lake - Nuveen Center (ACWL-Nuveen) raised $32,257 during our end-of-year giving campaign! We ran the campaign a little differently this year; rather than one matching donor, we aimed to raise $12,500 from several donors before the campaign started so we could use that as a matching goal and raise $25,000 in total. The wonderful people listed below, as well as several anonymous donors, helped us establish th

Make plans to spend Saturday, January 24 sipping drinks with friends and dreaming about warm, summer evenings spent enjoying live music! For their third annual event, the Snowy Sips Pub Craw will be raising funds to support ACWL-Nuveen's 2026 Free Summer Concert Series - our 40th year! Organized by Amy Myers and fellow realtors at Re/Max West in Whitehall, Snowy Sips is more than your average pub crawl. There's crawfish-themed swag, games, raffles, a long-sleeve Snowy Sips T

ACWL-Nuveen is kicking off the 2026 exhibition season on a bold note with 10 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. We celebrated this kindness by challenging invited artists to tackle the large sheets with some big strokes. The 2021 exhibit put a spotlight o

Upcoming regional exhibition opportunities: Annual ACWL-Nuveen Juried Exhibition is now open with a February 13 deadline. This year's juror is Amelia Anderson - Muskegon Museum of Art's new Director of the Bennet Prize and Curator of Women's Art. Click on this link to apply - www.artswhitelake.org/juried-exhibition Lowell Arts - the annual West Michigan Art Competition - Deadline January 5 https://www.lowellarts.org/opportunities/wmac-call-for-entry Ludington Area Center for

The estimates are in! We had approximately 350+ visitors stroll through the Made in Michigan Market at the ACWL-Nuveen on November 21 between the hours of 2:00pm – 8:00pm. The weather cooperated with us this year to help promote the great turnout and steady stream of shoppers all day. As you may know the Made in Michigan Market has been an opportunity for non-Artist Members to sell their work in our retail gallery. This year we selected six artists to put up a table and sell

💖🔥❤️‍🔥 Help us light the Giving Match! Thanks to our generous matching donors, every dollar given is doubled until we reach our giving campaign goal of $25,000. Increase your impact by making a contribution at www.artswhitelake.org/giving The ACWL-Nuveen provides lifelong arts education, supports the local economy, fosters well-being, and creates community. Generous donors like YOU make all of that possible by helping us meet the costs of operating a non-profit. Thank you

Work in progress for Grand Gestures II - Tatsuki Hakoyama ACWL-Nuveen will be starting 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. We decided to celebrate this kindness by giving invited artists an oppor

Earlier this year, the grant support ACWL-Nuveen typically recieves from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC) was in jeapordy. State legislators had proposed eliminating funding for MACC entirely and Michigan arts nonprofits were bracing for impact. Luckily, the state budget was passed with funding for MACC intact, but as of this writing, the grant application portal for 2026 general operations support has not opened. In the midst of all this uncertainty and a potenti

Friends and family of local youth artists gathered together on November 15, 2025 to celebrate the opening of Fall into the Arts: From My Perspective. Eight different art programs and over 70 students are represented in this year's exhibit, which also serves as a fundraiser for those art programs. You can still make a donation in support of any of these schools on our website . Thank you to Fruitport Middle School, Fruitport High School, Montague High School, North Muskegon Hi

The Arts Council of White Lake - Nuveen Center welcomes entries for the sixth annual ACWL-Nuveen Juried Exhibition, March 13 - April 25, 2026. This exhibit is open to all artists 18+ working in 2-D, 3-D and digital media. Cash prizes awarded. This exhibition is generously supported by CatchMark Technologies. Deadline to apply is Friday, February 13 at 11:59pm EST. To learn more and to apply, please visit www.artswhitelake.org/juried-exhibition 2025 Juried Exhibit , L-R Top: C

It's the time of year when you might be looking to 'spruce' up your home with a handmade wreath! Lucky for you, the Arts Council of White Lake-Nuveen has two ways you can do this! Take a wreathmaking class! We have two opportunities to make your own wreath at Montague Tree Farms. You can join us on Tuesday, November 11 or Thursday, November 13 . If these classes fill up, we'll schedule some more! Purchase a wreath from the ACWL-Nuveen to decorate your home for the holidays

Several weeks ago, we put out a call to the community to help us with our end-of-year fundraiser. We wanted to get some fresh takes on the 'Giving' logo that we've used the past several years and we asked artists to send us their interpretations of it. The only rules were that the square image had to contain a hand, a heart, and (preferably) the word 'Giving.' As always, the artistic community came back with some wonderful work, each piece as singular as the mind that made th

This year's Made in Michigan Market - part of the White Lake Area Chamber's Holiday Walk - is sure to have something for everyone! Stop by the ACWL-Nuveen on Friday, November 21 between 2:00 and 8:00pm to join in on the fun! Holiday gift options handcrafted by Artist Members: ACWL-Nuveen Artist Members - whose work is on display year-round in the gallery - will be bringing in additional works that will make great gifts, are priced at $40 or below, and are 10" x 10" or smalle

In September the ACWL-Nuveen Gallery Committee put out a call for new Artist Members to sell their work in our retail gallery.  The committee wanted to bring in some fresh faces and broaden the scope of handcrafted treasures for the public to discover. Check out the brief bios of our new artists below and stop by the gallery to see their beautiful work in person along with the 35 o ther talented artists we represent. There are some great gifts for the holidays!   Rachel Balke

The ACWL-Nuveen is excited to announce that our exhibition galleries are now being filled with impressive K-12 student artwork. In November we host the annual Fall Into the Arts exhibit which is open to all the elementary, middle and high schools in the district. The exhibit is a showcase for young artists and a fundraiser for their school’s art programs. At the end of the 2025 school year, we emailed local teachers the theme for this November's show which was, From My Perspe