Holiday Loop offers shoppers one-of-a-kind gifts

11/22/2012
BY TAHREE LANE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Buy local, buy artsy at the Holiday Loop that will connect guests with nearly 100 artists/crafters at 30 galleries, studios, and cafes in and around downtown, 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Nov. 30. Similar to other Gallery Loops organized by the Arts Commission, free shuttle buses will travel two routes between the Warehouse District on downtown's south end, UpTown along Adams Street, Toledo School for the Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, and the Collingwood Arts Center.

Artists range from glass masters at the Schmidt Messenger Studio to the ambitious up-and-comers at Gathered Art Gallery and Studios. Several locations, such as 20 North Gallery, Sur St. Clair Gallery, the Secor Building, the Prizm Gift Boutique in Swank Gifts, the Attic on Adams, and the University of Toledo's Center for the Visual Arts adjacent to the museum, will host groups of artists.

Some venues will offer refreshments and entertainment; all offer a respite from the chilly night. Free parking is available at Manos restaurant, the Toledo School for the Arts, and the Collingwood Arts Center. Information: 419-254-2787 and the artscommission.org.

Manet's Paris will be discussed by Richard Putney of the University of Toledo at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in the Little Theater. In this free, illustrated talk, Putney will discuss Paris in the Time of Manet (1832-1883), a period of artistic, political, social, and physical transformation.

The same evening from 7 to 9 p.m. Jim Beard will draw caricatures in Gallery 1.

A show of 60 works by faculty at Owens Community College is on view through Dec. 15 in the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery in the Center of Fine and Performing Arts. The college is on Oregon Road in Perrysburg Township. Information: 567-661-2721.

The Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward Ave. (near the Detroit Institute of Arts) will reopen Friday after being closed for six months of renovations. For 55 1/2 straight hours, the museum will be open for free (from 9:30 a.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Sunday). Features include:

● Allesee Gallery of Culture showcases people, places, and moments that are distinctly Detroit from 1900 to the present, such as the Tigers' Al Kaline's baseball bat and the Model T.

●America's Motor City details the growth of the automotive industry.

●The Arsenal of Democracy explores the ways Detroit helped shape the outcome of World War II, and how the war changed the city.

● Detroit and the Underground Railroad.

● Frontiers to Factories, from the city's French fur-trading beginnings in 1700 to its development as a center of industry by 1900.

● Gallery of Innovation celebrates key moments of invention from Henry Ford's Model T to Mary Chase Stratton's ceramic glazes that built the foundation of Pewabic Pottery. And, inspired by Vernors and Faygo, it includes hands-on opportunities to create your own soft drink.

● Glancy Trains, the city's rail history with trains donated by Alfred R. Glancy Jr.

● The Kid Rock Music Lab, an interactive space, spans all genres and more than a century of the city's musical history.

● Legends Plaza, a new outdoor exhibit dedicated to 25 of Detroit's biggest names including Barry Sanders, Al Kaline, Elmore Leonard, Lily Tomlin, and others.

● Streets of Old Detroit, the most beloved exhibit, has been improved with hands-on activities, a Grand Trunk Railway Station waiting room, and a Sander's Confectionary store.

Information: 313-833-1805 and detroithistorical.org.

Send items two weeks before the event to tlane@theblade.com.