Dick and Nancy Erickson cut the ribbon to officially open the Erickson Center for the Arts in 2008. The path that led to that event began in 2000 when Lynda Soder persuaded the Curtis Area Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a festival, Art on the Lake, to showcase artists from the area and beyond. The one-day fall festival attracted 40 “vendors.” The next year was bigger and better.
Around that time Ruthette Mills was creating Finn and Fern, two giant puppets and organizing (6) volunteers to operate them. She called the group The Portage Players. Soder and Mills, two former teachers, began looking for a place to do children’s theater and their quest converged with Dick Erickson who had let it be known “he wanted to do something for Curtis.”
The Curtis Community Arts Council filed papers for incorporation in July of 2002, “to promote cultural and educational activities in a rural area.” The incorporators were Erickson, Soder, Mills, Harlan Maurer, and Margery Painter. Mary Smith, owner of the 40-acre parcel upon which the center now stands, and Dick and Nancy (Gowan) Erickson were invited to Chamberlin’s Ole Forest Inn for the 2002 Art on the Lake artists’ reception at which Finn and Fern performed the skit, A Sip in ¾ Time. The Ericksons and Mrs. Smith were impressed. Negotiations for the purchase of the property began.
The first “people” performance of the Portage Players occurred 6 months later in March of 2003 when Chamberlin’s hosted “Friday Night Live”, a sort of talent show. Meanwhile, the newly formed board of directors of CCAC was dreaming its plans out loud, and Dick Erickson was listening. He provided funds and the CCAC purchased the property. It was officially dedicated as Curtis Park at AOL 2003.
The house on the property was named the Park Center and soon hosted pottery and weaving classes and regular meetings of a photography club and the Second Saturday Writers Group. In July 2004, Kelly Chamberlin redirected the proceeds from the popular Wine and Cheese Auction and Fundraiser to support the new Curtis Park. That event, along with the Holiday Gala at Chamberlin’s were major annual fundraisers for the arts council.
The Bandstand in Curtis Park was built in 2004 in time for Art on the Lake. The Music in the Park series, featuring musical acts from around Michigan, became an instant tradition in 2006, bringing lawn-chair and cooler crowds into Curtis on Wednesday evenings in June and July to this day.
Along Came Claude
In the summer of 2004, a tourist strolled into the gas station and asked if there was an active theater group in town. The man was Claude File, professional actor and director and chairman of the theater department at Cleveland State University. He offered to help get things moving.
No theater? No stage? No problem. Volunteers designed and built a massive stage of plywood sections on stilts and the chamber of commerce provided their big blue tent. In August of 2005, File directed The Ransom of Red Chief to the delight of enthusiastic theater lovers. Live theater came alive in Curtis. File directed You Can’t Get There from Here (in the tent) in 2007 and Fish and Visitors (in the new building) in 2009. In between he taught acting classes and workshops and directed kids’ productions. File’s contributions to CCAC’s ambitions cannot be overstated.
In December of 2005, the Wellness Center opened on the ground floor of the Park Center. A collaborative operation with Helen Newberry Joy Hospital, the center offered exercise equipment and trained technicians to area residents. The upstairs continued its use for meetings, “coffee house” concerts, and rehearsals.
The Portage Players stayed busy. In the next few years, the big puppets got married, went on a picnic, and eventually had a child. A comedy review, Saturday Evening Live, was held in 2006 at the Curtis School and the next year Murder at the Inn kept the dinner crowd at Chamberlin’s in suspense.
In March of 2008, in the lounge at Chamberlin’s, the players presented the first of 4 annual variety shows entitled Yooper Home Companion. Later shows were performed in the Erickson Center.
To fans of folly far and wide, Follywood is synonymous with the Erickson Center. It was Lynda Soder’s idea and started on the lawn at Chamberlin’s in 2006 before moving to the new Erickson Center. Follywood began with lip-sync local celebrities, gradually adding “live” talent (singers, dancers) to the show.
Mission accomplished; Mission begun.
On June 7, 2008, Dick and Nancy Erickson cut the ribbon, opening the new 10,000 square foot, million-dollar-plus “Erickson Center”. The dream had come true.
The administrative office remained in the Park Center, and the groups and clubs continued to meet there, as the lower level of the new building would not be finished until 2012. School concerts, holiday open house, piano, voice and dance recitals dotted the Erickson Center calendar. The Curtis Garden Club, designed, planted and maintained 6 separate gardens on the grounds along paths and walkways leading to the center. The Curtis Buckeyes sponsored a Classical Concert that delighted audiences in August. The Buckeyes continue sponsoring free concerts annually.
In August of 2011, Jeff Daniels parked his motor home next to the hedge garden and played and sang to a sold-out house.
In June when Dick and Nancy Erickson snipped the ribbon to open the Arts and Education Level of the center. A modern office, large classrooms, storage rooms and display space made the building an active community gathering place. Soon, a gift shop featured local artwork and season-long gallery exhibits of the works of selected artists graced the walls and tables. Beginning in 2015, the works of area school children warmed the gallery in the coldest days of winter, the annual “Student Art Show”.
The big event of the year was an 8-week traveling Smithsonian Institution Exhibit, Journey Stories. It recalled the paths our ancestors took to get us where we are. Additional events including Leslie McCurdy’s, Spirit of Harriet Tubman, and presentations by local historians complimented the Smithsonian presentation.
Grants from the Michigan Arts and Cultural Council and the Nancy A. and Richard P. Erickson Foundation helped pave the parking areas and walkways, facilitating access and keeping the carpet clean.
In November, the Erickson Center family was saddened at the news of the death of Nancy Erickson. Dick Erickson retired as chairman of the board the following July. A memorial garden with a “living tree” art piece honors Nancy near the entrance to the lower level.
In 2015, five piano concerts, featuring the Beckman sisters, the annual Evening of Piano showcase of local players, classical pianist Derek Yaple-Schobert, Dr. Sergio Ruiz, and boogie-woogie maestro Bob Milne inspired the center to launch a fund drive to purchase an instrument worthy of the performers. Bob Milne was back the next August to fill the Erickson Center with the power and precision of a new Steinway Grand.
Dick Erickson passed away on January 25, 2016, his gift to the town he loved was an established and unqualified success in enriching the lives of ordinary people. Measures had been taken to secure the center’s mission far into the future. Programs and fundraisers provide less than half of operation expenses. The difference is made up by individual donations, business sponsors and grants. A “donor tree” in the EC lobby recognizes contributors that make the organization’s programs possible.
The Steinway Grand got lots of use that summer, and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame regaled a July audience with an evening of song and story.
In 2018, theater fans looked forward to The Wizard of Oz, another musical directed by Nicole Gustafson. Theater fans were not disappointed. The 906 Festival in August, emphasizing Upper Peninsula fun, food and handiwork, replaced the venerable Art on the Lake, which 18 years earlier provided the seed that grew year-by-year to bear the magical fruit of performance art.
The above-mentioned milestones and events are highlights. Many more classes (drawing, pottery, basket weaving, jewelry, etc.) occur regularly. “Music in the Park”, Follywood, Finn and Fern, a Classical Concert, Christmas Concert, volunteer receptions, have made artistic expression and entertainment valuable parts of everyday life in the Curtis area.
The main Erickson Center building, generously donated by Richard and Nancy Erickson, was built as a multipurpose building and had served the Center’s needs well, but more was needed.
In 2019, the ECA announced the acquisition of a one million dollar grant to partially fund the construction of a new Performing Arts Theater to be constructed next to the Erickson Center Building. The new facility would have a 160-seat theater with a large permanent stage and a graduated floor for better sight lines to the stage. In addition it would provide a welcoming lobby and backstage dressing rooms for the performers. These features were not present in the current facility.
The Center engaged in a capital campaign to raise 1.65 million dollars for the construction of the Performing Arts Theater. The Center received a grant of one million dollars from the Nancy A. and Richard P. Erickson Foundation, administered by Stuart and Peggy Erickson. Together the donations from the Board, private individuals, and local businesses exceeded the ECA’s goal and matched the foundation’s grant allowing for state-of-the-art lights and sound to be included with the new construction. Construction of the new theater began in the Spring of 2020 with completion and a grand opening in early 2021. The new facility was named, The Pine Performance Center.
–Written by Tom Hoogterp
