State library director in town
State library director in town
Developing cultural economic strategy
| CAPTION: Laura Kirby/Daily Mining Gazette Director for Michigan’s Department of History, Arts and Libraries Bill Anderson congratulates lead role Kevin Hayden following a Pine Mountain Music Festival performance of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” Sunday. Anderson was on a four-day visit to the area. |
By LAURA KIRBY, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — Director for Michigan’s Department of History, Arts and Libraries Bill Anderson sampled Copper Country culture on a visit from Lansing this weekend.
Currently working on a statewide “cultural economic development strategy,” Anderson sailed on the Great Lakes schooner recreation and educational sail ship S/V Denis Sullivan Saturday before visiting Calumet.
On Sunday, Anderson toured the new Portage Lake District Library, and attended the Pine Mountain Music Festival’s opera performance of “The Magic Flute” before leaving today.
“When I go a great distance I stay awhile,” he said, noting frequent visits around the state are a key part of his job.
“Relationships are fundamental, and the way you build relationships is to talk to people,” he said.
Impressed with a “fantastic” new library on the Portage waterfront, Anderson enjoyed the facility’s inviting atmosphere, which is “less formal and institutional,” than the previous venue of Huron Street, putting to use an “incredible location ... aesthetic architectural archways,” and “lots of seating,” he said.
“The library of today is like a community center. It gives us many, many reasons to go there,” he added.
Having multiple reasons to draw people in is a useful nugget for boosting area tourism, he suggested.
“In order to really attract people you have to create both destination and critical mass,” he said. “You have to provide enough to see and do to support their trip, so that it’s not just a case of ‘Well, we came to go fishing and then it rained.’”
Creating multiple attractions for destinations will be a part of the cultural economic development strategy, he added.
As HAL director Anderson oversees five agencies sharing a goal to foster culture and heritage in the state; including the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Michigan Film Office, the Michigan Historical Center, the Library of Michigan and the Mackinac Island State Park Commission.
Laura Kirby can be reached at lkirby@mininggazette.com
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