Volunteer Spotlight

The start of the new decade hasn’t been easy for anyone, but it’s given us a new perspective, brought people together and forced us to slow down and rest. While the latter is positive for people who have been on-the-go for years, volunteers in the performing arts community are struggling. 

Remember back to reading your history book as a student, witnessing the portraits of prominent leaders, honored and depicted through the art form of portraiture? Do you remember more portraits of women or men? The Midland Center for the Arts is taking a look at prominent women on a local and national scale who have had achievements in civil rights, public policy, philanthropy, art and science. Seeing HERstory, the role women have played in history.

Starting at an early age, Blue C. M. Dingman dreamed of assembling her own Christmas village. “I’ve always loved villages, since the time I was little, watching them get assembled for department stores in holiday movies on our families black-and-white television set,” said Dingman, the artist behind Blue’s Christmas Village at the 1874 Bradley Home this December. What started as a childhood memory signifying the holiday season quickly grew into 102 hand-painted homes, storefronts, hospitals and even a cemetery.