Ginny Foster's World of Art

The ACWL-Nuveen is pleased to announce that we have mounted a special display of artwork by artist, educator, musician and overall creativity advocate, Ginny Foster. Ginny is well known in the White Lake area and Muskegon County for her 25 years of influential work leading programs and projects in arts education for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District. She also served on the Whitehall Board of Education, founded the Suzuki Summer Camp at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, was a board member for the West Shore Youth Symphony, and most important for us, Ginny was one of the founding members of the Arts Council of White Lake!

Mt. Baker, Washington - Cascade Mountains

As an artist, Ginny was influenced at a young age by her life growing up on a farm in Ferndale, Washington. She spent a lot of time outdoors, feeding chickens, petting cows and riding the hay rake with her father. These impressions of the natural world plus her introduction to the violin at the age of 9 became foundational experiences. Ginny feels fortunate to have had her family’s support of creativity and self-expression, in particular her mother, Gladys Adeline Lonseth Lee, who was also a painter.

A view from Ginny's studio and sketches

These early memories of her natural surroundings established a lifelong fascination with the world around her. She is an observer and collector, bringing rocks, leaves, seeds and bark into her studio to fully study and record in her numerous sketchbooks, drawings and paintings. She gained her painting skills by taking various workshops and by sitting down in her beautiful light-filled studio and putting in the time with pencil, brush and paint. Ginny has this to say about her favorite painting medium, “the magic of watercolor lives in the simplicity of being just color and water rendered simply but clearly. The challenge is to keep it new and interesting.”

Ginny, who is now 86, just gave up playing her violin a month ago, but she still spends time in her studio and with her writing, and enjoys creatively observing the world around her. Sharing her wisdom on creativity she believes that staying open to new ways of expressing the meaningfulness of life and/or nature will produce fresh and unexpected artistic results. She believes that anyone can become a creative artist. She states, “It is the responsibility of education to open the world of art to all students and people and communities. Art can be as big as a building; and as small as a dot. Art can connect us to each other and the world.”

Ginny Foster's artwork Ginny and her son, Tommy LLF in Summer

We will be hosting a free public reception for Ginny Foster’s World of Art on Monday, July 27 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Scheduling this special reception was timed to coordinate with her son Tommy Foster’s regular Monday gig at Fetch Brewing. The ACWL-Nuveen is very grateful to Jen and Dan Hain of Fetch Brewing Co for generously sponsoring this exhibit. We hope to see you and all of Ginny’s fans at the reception. This exhibit is on display - July 10 - August 22 in our Music Room and was coordinated to be up during our community exhibit – Water Wonderland. You can view both shows during our business hours, Tuesday – Friday 11:00am – 5:30pm and Saturday from 11:00am – 3:00pm. Any questions please call 231- 893 -2524 – or email nuveen@artswhitelake.org.  We are located in the heart of historic downtown Whitehall at 106 E. Colby Street.