Petoskey Lectures
Coffee @ Ten Talks and Presentations at CTAC - Petoskey
Crooked Tree Arts Center’s Coffee @ Ten presentation series features engaging, arts-focused discussions from local and nationally recognized voices. Join us in person each week for complimentary coffee and pastries, along with a thought-provoking presentation from a guest lecturer.
All Coffee @ Ten events are free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Upcoming Coffee @ Ten Presentations
Our lectures are recorded and available to watch anytime. Catch up on past presentations and fill your cup.
- Coffee @ Ten | First ImpressionsLocation:Date: May 28, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
First Impressions
Jennifer Cantley, Visual Arts Director at Crooked Tree Art Center - PetoskeyGet a closer look at the professional path that led the new Visual Arts Director to CTAC and the values guiding her work. Reflect on balancing continuity and change through intentionality and steady cultivation.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | The CTAC School of Ballet Video Crew: Historic dance in filmLocation:Date: Jun 4, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
The CTAC School of Ballet Video Crew: Historic dance in film
Finley Van Patten, Operations Coordinator: School of BalletJoin the CTAC School of Ballet Video Crew for a presentation of student screendance works inspired by some of Martha Graham's original choreographies. Learn the process dance creators go through to bring their choreography into the medium of video and how early choreographers who worked with film shaped the field of screendance today.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Making Without Objects: Disability, Process, and Reimagining ArtLocation:Date: Jun 11, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Making Without Objects: Disability, Process, and Reimagining Art
Charlie Reynolds, Good Hart Artist Residency, Artist in ResidenceConfronting the art world as a disabled person, I immediately saw its inaccessibility. Out of necessity, I learned to make art however I could. Navigating these challenges led me to dematerialization—an ultra-conceptual art theory that centers process over object. Coined by Lucy Lippard, dematerialization invites artists like me to move beyond traditional objects toward ephemeral, performative, or installation art, and to actively resist commodification. Focusing on process is now at the core of how I discuss my own disabled experience.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | The Making of the Petoskey Passenger Pigeon MonumentLocation:Date: Jun 18, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
The Making of the Petoskey Passenger Pigeon Monument
Todd McGrain, Visual Artist and Documentary FilmmakerJoin Todd McGrain, sculptor of the new Petoskey Passenger Pigeon Monument, for a special Coffee @ 10 talk. McGrain will share insights into the design and bronze casting process behind the monument, as well as the inspiration that shaped this meaningful public work.
Throughout his career, McGrain has embraced art as a powerful form of public engagement—one that can shift perspectives and deepen our understanding of the world around us. Working across sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and film, he weaves together visual art and storytelling to explore humanity’s impact on the environment and the creatures we share it with.
McGrain is widely recognized for his ongoing Lost Bird Project, through which he has created permanent public memorials honoring bird species driven to extinction, raising awareness and inspiring reflection through art.
This talk is included in a weeklong celebration of The Great Petoskey Passenger Pigeon Nesting of 1878. To see the full lineup or events or more information, please visit: petoskeymuseum.org/passenger-pigeons.html.
? Interested in learning more? We are also hosting a film screening on Wednesday, June 17 at 7:00 PM at CTAC Theater. Learn more & register here.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Choreography: The Creative ProcessLocation:Date: Jun 25, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Choreography: The Creative Process
Robin Petterson, ChoreographerRobin Pettersen will be discussing the process of creating concert dance for the stage. She will share video segments of her pieces performed to a variety of composers. Robin will describe teaching Composition to university students and her participation in the Mentoring Workshops for the Crooked Tree School of Ballet.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | IN MOTION: Making Art Dance - Select Local Artists PanelLocation:Date: Jul 2, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
IN MOTION: Making Art Dance - Select Local Arts Panel
Connie Landis, Lesley Pritchard, Jennifer Shorter; Moderator: Jennifer CantleyThis artist panel brings together featured artists from IN MOTION: Making Art Dance for a lively conversation about translating movement into visual form. Panelists will share insights into their creative processes. The discussion will offer audiences a deeper understanding of how contemporary artists approach expressing energy, and movement, and invites attendees to engage more closely with the ideas and techniques behind the work on view.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Where Science Meets Art: Creative Exploration at the UM Biological StationLocation:Date: Jul 16, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Where Science Meets Art: Creative Exploration at the UM Biological Station
Karie Slavik, Associate Director of the University of Michigan Biological StationKarie Slavik is the Associate Director of the University of Michigan Biological Station (Pellston, MI), one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations which serves as a gathering place to learn from the natural world, advance research and education, and inspire action.
She will share how the Biological Station creates a space for art within research-filled experiences to explore the connections between science and art. The UMBS Resident Artists engage the community through hands-on workshops, leading UMBS community-wide projects, and interactions with the broader northern Michigan community.
She will highlight artists of many genres who have spent a summer with a community of students, researchers, and staff to exchange ideas and create experiences that celebrate place-based art and science.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Dialogue and MovementLocation:Date: Jul 23, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Dialogue and Movement
Benjamin Cheney, Founder and Artistic Director of Croft ResidencyIn his Coffee @ 10 talk Ben will share through dialogue and movement about the emotional and visceral weight of embodied expression. He will speak about his experience exploring the Graham technique. How it can be a tool for opening the expression of emotional pathways through embodiment. How the technique provides a structure that highlights and empowers vulnerability and passion. He will open dialogue on the power of witness, and what it means to be seen. We will seed the connection between witness, vulnerability, and developmental movement patterns/pathways.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | MomentaryLocation:Date: Jul 30, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Momentary
Catie Newell, Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban PlanningNewell, an artist and architect, will present a selection of architectural and design works that reinterpret everyday spaces through careful material shifts and the focused presence of light and darkness. Moving from installations that creatively remake existing spaces to new work from Objects for Passing, the talk considers how space, photographs, and designed objects can support us in difficult times, including loss, grief, and death. Through objects, images, and spatial studies, Newell invites audiences to reflect on how we mark transition and how material presence can hold memory, care, and connection.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Photography & MotionLocation:Date: Aug 6, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Photography & Motion
John Fergus-Jean, Emeritus Professor of Photography Columbus College of Art and Design & CTAC Board ChairJoin us for a Coffee @ 10 lecture featuring Emeritus Professor of Photography and CTAC Board Chair, John Fergus-Jean.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Small Sets, Big Stories: Stop-Motion and the Art of Personal NarrativeLocation:Date: Aug 13, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Small Sets, Big Stories: Stop-Motion and the Art of Personal Narrative
Tamara Finlay (GHAR artist)In this artist talk, I’ll share my process as a stop-motion animator exploring memory, cultural identity, and neurodivergence through handcrafted puppets and miniature sets. I’ll show clips from my films and discuss how personal stories can be translated into animated performance using simple materials and expressive visual language. Followed by a short Q&A.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | The Elusive Practice of Framing MotionLocation:Date: Aug 20, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
The Elusive Practice of Framing Motion
Peter Sparling, Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Dance at University of Michigan.As a dancer/choreographer, video artist, painter and CTAC guest curator, I attempt to locate the intersection of my many roles as a still point of suspended animation, one that I can circle around and bring to a halt long enough to talk about. The vibrating juxtaposition of dance, music, and the visual arts featured in Dance Legends: Little Traverse Bay Celebrates Graham100 takes us on a wild ride while hovering between stillness and motion, the art gallery and the stage, the “pose” and the “move”. What does the gallery visitor or audience member bring to these acts of kinetic engagement in order to meet the artist halfway? Who’s zooming who? My informal talk proposes ways of looking at the legendary dance photography of Barabara Morgan, the contemporary visual art of In Motion in the adjoining gallery, and how they invariably awaken the same kinesthetic empathy that moves us while watching or performing dance.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.
- Coffee @ Ten | Portraits of Change: Inspiring Activism through ArtLocation:Date: Aug 27, 2026Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AMDays of the week: ThursdaysAge Group: AdultCTAC - Petoskey - Gilbert Gallery461 E. Mitchell Street, Petoskey MI 49770Details
Portraits of Change: Inspiring Activism through Art
Mary Burns, Weaver and Fiber ArtistJoin artist Mary Burns as she discusses how art can inspire activism. She will be focusing on her exhibits, "Women and Water: Woven Portraits from Around the World" and "Ancestral Women: Wisconsin’s 12 Tribes.” Between the two exhibits, there are over 40 hand-woven portraits of women who have made a remarkable difference in the world. Burns will share insights into the exhibits, their impacts and inspirations through stories of these women and images of the weavings.
This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.