We need more coverage about cultural arts- education & awareness of the importance of SUPPORTing local artists - WHEN ART is SUPPORTED, EMBRACED AND PROJECTED as part of our tourist overall package IT WILL BE A GOOD THING for Grand Haven's tourist economy. We have so many talented artists whose goal it is to make art their livelihood. Local painters or sculptures work hard to create for others but naturally, they need to get paid for it. If we don't support our local artists and gallery owners first- they won't make it and we need them to make it in order to have a healthy art community in GH- our art in tourism will be richer when our local art industry can sustain itself off-season. By the way- I hear it all the time... I hear from tourists, people who vacation every year with spending money in mind (and locals) that our art scene seriously lacks the vitality gained from diversity- meaning genres, content, style, the young & the old... The type of things that as a whole we should embrace are precisely the things that people are saying are missing all but together in Grand Havens art culture- even our art fair numbers are way down. We have to cultivate the arts, make our scene BIGGER- so that tourist recognize us as an art buying destination- which of course so many other businesses would benefit from. I'd love to see an article on the "like-minded," whose belief is that local art should be a bigger part of Grand Haven's tourist industry. Thanks for you time-

Jenny Joanisse
imagine360
Gallery& Studio
Grand Haven, MI 49417