Mercedes Michalowski\u2019s yellow brick road has led her to Frankfort\u2019s Elizabeth Lane Oliver Center for the Arts, where she has been named the new executive director, following two years as associate director. Michalowski replaces outgoing director Steven Brown, who is moving to England with his German husband, Stephan. Brown, a published author in Germany, plans to write fulltime.<\/p>\n
Unlike the German automobile, Michalowski\u2019s first name is pronounced with an emphasis on the first syllable, and not the second\u2014\u201cMERR-said-eeze.\u201d She is half-Spanish and half-German and was named after her great-grandmother.<\/p>\n
Michalowski\u2019s background is in museums. Before coming to Frankfort, she was director of the Oz Museum in Kansas for three years. Among the museum\u2019s notable specimens was one of the original flying monkeys that was used in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. <\/p>\n \u201cThey actually used three- to four-inch rubber models of the monkeys in the movie,\u201d Michalowski says. \u201cThe flying monkey named Nikko was my favorite character.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to Kansas, Michalowski was assistant curator of the now closed Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It boasted one of the world\u2019s largest collections of Coke artifacts, including a drivable van with fiberglass sculptures of people crawling out that was stamped with Coca-Cola logos. <\/p>\n Before that, as a 17-year-old, Michalowski was a tour guide on a submarine in Muskegon, where she grew up. \u201cI felt dehydrated when I lived in Kansas,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a big lake girl. I love Frankfort.\u201d<\/p>\n During his time as executive director, Brown helped to focus the Art Center\u2019s education on area youth.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing the Art Center\u2019s impact on kids was the first time I realized what it\u2019s like to change lives,\u201d Brown says. \u201cSeeing kids come out of an art class totally aglow, because of a great teacher like Sarah Abend, is to see kids\u2019 minds open up. Some people are seeing quality abstract art for the first time, and it changes their mind. Every community deserves world-class art.\u201d<\/p>\n Michalowski intends to continue honing the vision that she shared with outgoing director Brown. A big part of that is marketing the Oliver Art Center to kids in Northern Michigan, many of whom have watched their art curriculum gutted from their public schools.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething close to my heart is our youth outreach,\u201d Michalowski says. \u201cThat means getting into the community to serve more local residents. We need to be a bigger presence in the schools. I\u2019d love to hear kids\u2019 voices echoing through these hallways. We\u2019ve also been developing our online social media presence, and we\u2019re trying to reach a younger market. Every age should feel comfortable here and want to visit the Art Center.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, the Oliver Art Center will offer mini summer camps for area youth ages six to 11. Mediums range from drawing to ceramics and needle felting to sculpture. \u201cMercedes is the best teammate anybody could wish for,\u201d says Brown, who was executive director for three years and who has worked with Michalowski for the last two. \u201cEverything she has done, she has hit out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on his time at the Art Center, Brown expressed gratitude for the tremendous connections he made in the local community and how generous and supportive people have been. He called his position at the Oliver Art Center the \u201cproject of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they hired me, I told them that my background was in public art and that I wanted this to be one big public art project,\u201d Brown says. \u201cI\u2019m not a nonprofit wonk who lives to sit behind a desk and look at a spreadsheet\u2014it turns out that I got the same creative fulfillment here as I would from any of my art projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the community are invited to welcome Michalowski as new director during the Art Center\u2019s annual open house on Friday, June 26, from 5-7 p.m. An expanded Family Art Day follows on Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To see a line-up of classes for the summer, visit OliverArtCenter.org<\/a> online.<\/p>\n Featured image: Mercedes Michalowski will take over the position of Oliver Art Center director for Steven Brown this month. 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\nThis modern-day Dorothy\u2014along with her 8-year-old daughter, Julia\u2014are no longer in Kansas, and that\u2019s just fine with Michalowski. <\/p>\nFocusing on Kids<\/h2>\n
\nBrown had words of praise for Michalowski.<\/p>\n