Ch...Ch...Ch....Changes

In 1987 at 5:15pm on any day of the week downtown Grand Rapids, MI was a ghost town. I was an impatient 22 year old and I moved to Chicago soon after graduating from Grand Valley State College (now University, the feelings of bastardizartion are not mine alone but that is a blog for another day) because I longed for nightlife and cultural activities like museums and theatre and the choices for all these things were limited, to say the least, in Grand Rapids.

I returned to Grand Rapids for the Midwest Museum Conference last week and was amazed at the changes. There are loads of things to do now. There are a lot of bars and restaurants downtown and cultural options are spread out all over town.

You can visit the Gerald R Ford Museum or the new (9 year old) Van Andel Museum Center on the banks of the Grand River. The Public Museum in the Van Andel Museum Center is beautiful and has several wonderful exhibits, I especially like the furniture exhibit.

The Grand Rapids Art Museum (http://www.gramonline.org/) now known as "The GRAM" has began construction on a new, larger building for its art museum collection in mid-2004. The new building site is several blocks from the present museum, facing downtown's Rosa Parks Circle. Rosa Parks Circle is new to me.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculture Park, which opened a handful of years ago, is now one of Grand Rapids' premier attractions. The 125 acre park features the 24-foot bronze da Vinci Horse as well as sculptures by renowned artists including Claes Oldenburg. Also featured are a conservatory, amphitheater, farm garden, library and several galleries with changing exhibits. They've come a long way since the installation of the fish ladder on the Grand River.

The Grand Rapids Children's Museum and the Spectrum Theater are new to me. The Spectrum Theatre (http://web.grcc.cc.mi.us/Theater/spectrumnew.htm) includes all the lastest technological amenities necessary to produce over a dozen productions a year for the GRCC Players, Actors' Theatre, Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids, and the Heritage Theatre Group.  The theater has also housed numerous special events like the Grand Awards, Opera Grand Rapids' "The Fall of the House of Usher",  "Critical Mass" (college poets' union version of Woodstock), and dance presentations. 

The Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (http://www.uica.org/) presents innovative and diverse programs in dance, film, music, literature, performing and visual arts. Wish I had know about this stuff in college.

I was impresssed when I heard the news that The Grand Rapids Symphony (http://www.grsymphony.org/) will be playing at Carnegie Hall, of "practice, practice, practice" fame.

Grand Rapids even has sports teams to cheer on now. There's an arena football team, the Grand Rapids Rampage and the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team. Baseball fans can cheer on the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Whitecaps of the Midwest League are the Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

Some things haven't changed though. Yesterdog, a funky hot dog stand with a great display of old ad signs is still doing good business. I was glad to see the weatherball is back. It was dismantled in the mid 80s and I was sad to see it go. I liked seeing the neon forecaster. Knowing what the weather was going to be like in GR meant being able to memorize a short poem:

Weatherball red, warmer ahead.
Weatherball blue, cooler in view.
Weatherball green, no change foreseen.
Colors blinking bright, rain or snow in sight.
Weatherball black nuclear attack

The 'adults' didn't appreciate it when we added the last line in the early 80s.

There are still stretches of urban blight featuring old homes in various states of disrepair.

There was also the old familiar feeling of being left out. I don't work in a museum and at times that difference made me feel like the ugly girl alone at the dance. I've never liked that feeling but it's been around since that first high school dance.