October 11, 2000
Front Door: Great first impression
NMC project features signs, sculptures and landscaping
By Carol South
Herald Contributing Writer
Putting its best foot forward, Northwestern Michigan College officially welcomed their new look Saturday afternoon.
With a nod to the importance of first impressions, this summer the college installed new signage along its Front Street entrance, a new sign for the Dennos Museum and a major addition to its outdoor sculpture collection. They also upgraded landscaping at the entrance.
Museum officials and volunteers proudly showed off the results of two years of planning to 100 people at the dedication, moved indoors due to inclement weather.
"These additions make our college look like the college that it is," declared NMC president Ilse Burke.
The Front Door project began two years ago as a way to better present the college and the Dennos Museum to the community. Before this summer's upgrade, the front entrance to Northwester Michigan College on Front Street was an area of high wires and no special markings or signs to indicate there was a college and museum nearby. Temporary signs were put up to announce special museum exhibits.
"When I came here in 1988 to plan for the museum, I was already planning the sculpture garden," said Eugene Jenneman, Director of the Dennos Museum and chair of the Front Door Project. "I commissioned my first sculpture then, 'Elan Muse' by Marcia Wood, which symbolized the creative spirit of NMC."
Since then the sculpture garden has grown to include ten pieces, with one under construction. Saturday's dedication welcomed the largest piece to the collection, the new Clement Meadmore sculpture, 'However,' installed south of the Dennos Museum last month. JoAnne Zimmerman of Traverse City donated the funds to purchase the sculpture, an abstract made of painted aluminum that measures 17 feet long by 11 feet high by 12 feet deep. Four of the garden's sculptures are by Michigan artists and funded by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Jenneman's vision is now moving to include more sculpture in the center of the campus.
"We have other sculptures in our college that have been in storage and now we can bring them out," Jenneman said.
Private donations and grants are the backbone of art museums, and the Dennos Museum is no exception, noted Donald Morris of Donald Morris Galleries in Detroit, who procured the However sculpture for the museum.
"All the museums in America have started with little or nothing and grown into great institutions only through the generosity of private donors like JoAnne Zimmerman," Morris said. "We are very impressed with the Dennos Museum, the programs here are the focal point of culture in Traverse City."
Zimmerman's decision to donate the funds for this sculpture dates back to the college's earliest days. She became involved with the institution when it was first founded and had classrooms at the airport. She recalled selling barbecue tickets for the college's annual fund-raiser in those early years and has been a supporter of the institution ever since.
A patron of the arts, the Dennos Museum drew her special attention. Zimmerman was an inaugural member of the museum's Foundation Board and continues to be actively involved to this day.
"Two of my children started college here and I'm just very proud of the work here," Zimmerman said. "Gene and I stood at a window one day two years ago and I said, 'You know, we need a sculpture out there.'"