4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART FOR EVERYONE Art on a Journey! Let's take a journey through the wonderful culture of art here in Washtenaw County. From Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor and beyond you can find art galleries, art supply stores and everything else to satisfy one’s artistic tastes and desires. Let us begin our journey in downtown Ypsilanti and the Riverside Arts Center located on 76 N. Huron St. The Riverside Arts Center offers, promotes and nurtures dynamic arts and cultural programs through arts education, performing arts and visual and fine arts activities primarily intended to serve and engage the Ypsilanti community and surrounding Washtenaw County area. The center offers diverse and high-quality arts programming that makes a positive contribution to the image, culture, education and economic development of the Ypsilanti community. It acts as a hub of artistic ventures, producing and hosting various fine and performing artist activities in an accessible facility that includes a theater, art galleries, dance studio, artist studios and classrooms. West of Ypsilanti in Ann Arbor, Gutman Gallery is an inclusive fine arts space located at 118 N. 4th Ave in downtown A2. Not only is the gallery home to rotating art exhibitions and a gallery shop, it also provides a creative space for the community to come together for workshops and events. Gutman Gallery is the gallery of The Guild of Artists and Artisans. The gallery is open to all regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, racial group, etc. With artists at the heart of everything that The Guild does, the Gutman Gallery exhibitions feature artwork from both Guild artist members as well as non-members and is curated through jury selection. The gallery shop is an opportunity for current Guild members to showcase and sell their work. It offers an exceptional MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 opportunity for artists as they have highly competitive commission rates, with artists receiving a large percentage of their sales. Recent renovations to the space were made possible with support from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. Art is a journey we all experience through life itself. Moments are captured by those who choose to do so, through the means of their artistic expression. We all have artistic ways of expressing ourselves consciously or unconsciously. Those who are conscious of this expression seek to explore new ways to create something for others to appreciate. We are privileged to have a variety of resources in the Ann Arbor/Ypsi area to inspire and help us artists come up with something awesome. Places like Michaels, Ypsilanti Art Supply and SCRAP Creative Reuse are a few notable art supply stores in our neck of the woods that help us creators on our quest to create something to appreciate. In life's journey, as time takes hold and life's challenges weigh on us heavily at times, we all seek some form of therapy. A lot of artists I know express how being in a creative mode is so beneficial to their well-being because they are thinking about creating something beautiful instead of thinking about how to pay the bills, etc. (read: stress). It's all about making time and space to create. If one does not have the time and space, one cannot create a masterpiece because one is using up all his or her time to find space to exist here on planet earth. Imagine on this journey you find yourself unhoused. Imagine trying to create when displaced, and constantly on the move. Imagine having all these artistic visions in your head but not being able to manifest them because you are too occupied with basic survival.This often happens to people who find themselves unhoused: their artistic talents go unused, not allowing that individual to thrive, but only to survive. This is why Rose Marcum-Raugh started Art on a Journey back in 2019, and celebrated six years on this journey last April. Once homeless herself, but having artistic talents and knowing the difficulties involved with trying to create while on this insecure journey of homelessness, she committed to finding an artist space for those in the homeless community. Marcum-Raugh always dreamed of starting an art studio. She often saw housing-insecure and unhoused artists who could not afford to display their art in regular local art galleries. One day while volunteering at the Daytime Warming Center at the Journey of Faith, she was asked to do some clean-up work in the basement. Once she started working in the basement she thought to herself, this would be a good space for artists like myself to practice their craft. This space would eventually grow into Art on a Journey. Art on a Journey is no longer physically at the Journey of Faith Church (the building on Manchester Road has been demolished), but now serves as a mobile gallery and online platform. Go to artonajourney.gallery to see and purchase art. Phil Huhn joined Marcum-Raugh on JULY 11, 2025 Now that Art on a Journey no longer has a brick and mortar gallery, artists temporarily display works at different cafes, galleries and other gathering spaces. Rachel (left) and Phil Huhn (right) in front of Rachel's visiting gallery at Bridge Community Cafe. this journey in 2022 by displaying his art on the website and local art shows and also making connections with local businesses and organizations to display Art on a Journey artists and their work. Huhn has a background in dance, photography, and art administration, so Art on a Journey was a good fit for him. Just like Marcum-Raugh, Huhn was once homeless and now volunteers at the Daytime Warming Center. He is great at making connections with the unhoused community and getting their art displayed in public places. He convinced me to display some of my photographs at different showings in Washtenaw County. Art on a Journey would like to let readers know they are currently looking for space to create and display art from an unlikely source — the unhoused. So, if you have space and are willing to share or have any good ideas, connect with Marcum-Raugh or Huhn and have a talk. Cheers! Rachel's paintings Seth Best with landscape painting at Art on a Journey's April 25 art show/sale.
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