From Kellogg to Kalamazoo
A wealth of arts, museums and other attractions await groups visiting Kalamazoo. But before visiting the city proper, I stopped at the W.K. Kellogg Manor House, located between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek in Hickory Corners.
This sprawling Tudor “cottage” was built by cereal maven W.K. Kellogg as a summer retreat in 1926. Now the property of Michigan State University, the home is open as a museum and also offers on-site lodging for groups. As they tour the house, visitors learn about Kellogg’s life and career and see the amazingly intricate woodwork, tile and craftsmanship that make the home a living work of art.
In Kalamazoo proper, groups will find a number of arts attractions that offer interactive experiences. The West Michigan Art Glass Center is a 10-year-old organization that offers studio space to glassblowers and artists. Visiting groups can see a glassblowing demonstration by artists who work and exhibit at the center, or take part in a variety of hands-on classes that help them make small pieces of glass art.
Not far away, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts is a 90-year-old museum that has put together a robust art education program. Groups can tour the main exhibit, which features American painters from the 1700s to today and includes more than 200 works by significant African-American artists. After the tour, they can participate in an interactive art workshop in the on-site classroom space.
Nobody should leave Kalamazoo without stopping at Air Zoo, a large aviation museum founded by local pilots and air enthusiasts. More than 75 aircraft are on display inside the museum, and exhibits include high-powered military jets, World War II rockets and training vehicles used in the space exploration program. A number of simulators at the museum give visitors a chance to try piloting an aircraft or to experience a space launch firsthand.
Good Times in Grand Rapids
The largest city in western Michigan and the second largest in the state, Grand Rapids exudes a sense of growth, progress and vigor. Perhaps some of its energy comes from the 16 colleges and university campuses in the city; the 40 craft breweries around the region may also have something to do with it.
For groups, one of the chief draws in Grand Rapids is the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the 158-acre park features more than 200 sculptures, as well as numerous horticultural displays.
Visitors can start their experience at Meijer Gardens at the indoor conservatory, which features hundreds of tropical and succulent plants under glass. Each spring, the conservatory becomes especially colorful when the Butterflies Are Blooming event brings thousands of tropical butterflies to the setting.
Next up is the sculpture park, where groups can take a narrated tram ride or explore on foot. The park features dozens of large-scale pieces of art enveloped by woodland gardens, botanical displays and a Michigan farm garden.
This year, the institution is unveiling its long-awaited eight-acre Japanese garden.
“We’ll have international sculpture in here, plus a zen garden, a functioning teahouse, a number of different waterfalls and a zig-zag bridge built in Japan,” public relations manager Andrea Wolschleger told me as we peeked over the fence into the area where crews were finishing their work on the garden.
Grand Rapids also has a number of first-rate museums. Downtown on the banks of the Grand River is the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, where visitors learn about Ford’s unexpected rise to the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal. In addition to an informative timeline detailing Ford’s life and political career, the museum features a full-scale re-creation of Ford’s Oval Office, as well as his Cabinet Room. The president and his wife, Betty, are buried in a garden park outside the museum.
Just across the street from the presidential center is the Grand Rapids Public Museum, an institution with a wide-ranging collection of more than 250,000 artifacts. Exhibits include a re-creation of a Grand Rapids street scene from the 1890s and a giant whale skeleton that hangs from the ceiling in the main hall. The museum also offers archives tours for groups led by curators.
Travelers who enjoy culinary exploration have a number of options for enjoying Grand Rapids. Opened in 2013, the Grand Rapids Downtown Market occupies a LEED Gold-certified building filled with local purveyors of meats, produce, artisanal cheeses, ethnic foods and baked goods. Groups can arrange to have tasting tours of the Market Hall or hands-on cooking classes in the on-site demonstration kitchen.
More food activities await at the Local Epicurean, a gourmet pasta shop and restaurant in a cool 1880s building downtown. In addition to making more than 190 pastas, the staff at the Local Epicurean offers 27 different cooking classes for groups, which can be combined with happy hours or full meals in the dining room.
For an extra layer of excitement, groups can plan their Grand Rapids visits to coincide with ArtPrize. Billed as the world’s largest art competition, ArtPrize features more than 1,500 pieces of art displayed around the city for more than two weeks in late September and early October.
