Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Michigan Trip Summary
Grand Rapids Art Museum – Another Midwest museum about to build a new building. The old location, while gorgeous, definitely looks a little rundown for the collection.
LaFontsee Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI – This is a great framing and art gallery with a strong book selection. The owner is a brilliant art guy. The shop is one of the businesses driving revitalization on the north side of the downtown area. Scott LaFontsee took a long-term lease on the building many years ago and it’s just now starting to pay off with other warehouse buildings being renovated around him.
I like the way Grand Rapids is redeveloping its downtown with loft living and restaurant and shop districts. Now if they’d just build a few parking structures or make the parking meters more visitor-friendly. This is a city that was singled out in Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class as a prime example of an urban population that either needs to adapt to the social trends of diverse, artistic communities or sit on the bench and watch other cities become the cultural and technological hotspots. They’ll probably either need to fully embrace their conservative thinkers the way Colorado Springs did, or make a better effort to attract the creative types they could have with the Kendall School of Art and the growing gallery scene.
The Photography Room – Brian Kelly has developed a reputation and following in serious photography circles. His gallery on Ionia St easily rivals anything I’ve seen in New York in terms of quality of photographers and overall atmosphere he achieves to display the work.
Emery-Pratt – After Grand Rapids, I drove east through Lansing and around to the small town of Owosso. It’s the home of the library wholesaler, Emery-Pratt. They are one of the surprises I found on my list of accounts. They run a great business sourcing titles for college and public libraries around the country.
In Owosso, there’s a cool wine shop called Winers and Loafers, that I like stopping in even though they haven’t ordered any of our Mitchell Beazley books yet, and a small bookstore,the Book Mark. I stop in the bookstore because every time there are two or three 18-20 year olds working the register. I always get the feeling that this is the best job going if you live in the town and love reading. I give them a catalogue, who knows, maybe one of the publishers will be the spark that starts a career in books.
Partners – One of the hardest businesses I can imagine would be a small regional book wholesaler competing against Ingram and Baker and Taylor. And yet Partners is still around and serving a vital role in the book world. It’s located in a warehouse south of Lansing in Holt.
Bestsellers, Mason, MI
See Pictures of the Store
This store is an example of the Main Street bookseller. It’s probably 1000 sq ft and has the town’s happening coffee shop. The store is on the southwestern corner of the town square across from the county seat building in the center. Driving into the town of Mason brings home the stark contrast of commercial areas. Surrounding the town center are retail strip malls, fast food restaurants, and the usual quicklubewalmartcheckcashing bland retail districts I see everywhere. But the town itself is early-20th century homes, brick shop buildings, and a gorgeous County government building. The main difference I see is how town governments choose to let their communities develop. Unless a town has a vision for how they want their town to look, it will end up looking like every other small town in the Midwest. This used to be the goal when everyone stayed in their towns and rarely traveled further than a few miles. We’ve always been a mobile society, but I think there is a shift going on. People used to think designing every town to look alike would make it easier for people to move from place to place. Now we’re finding that creative community chooses communities with unique identities.
University of Michigan Art Museum – I like having three accounts to see in Ann Arbor. I start the morning at the art museum to see how Suzanne is doing. The university is in the design and fundraising stage of building the new annex. Groundbreaking should happen soon.
Shaman Drum, Ann Arbor, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Each season I’ve been lucky enough to have lunch and conversation with Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum. Karl opened Shaman Drum is 1980 with lots of ideas on the importance of books and a little business knowledge. He’s since devoted himself to learning the business side in order to keep Shaman Drum profitable. 25 years later Karl Pohrt is an active ABA Board Member and leads one of the best bookstore staffs in the country. Many, many Shaman Drum booksellers have gone on to positions in publishing, written books, or participate in other aspects of the industry.
Shaman Drum serves as an intellectual hub for the Ann Arbor community. The categories are divided almost into academic disciplines. Framed black and white photographs of writers line the walls. The events calendar is filled with visiting academics, famous literary authors, and well-known poets. Like Tattered Cover for Denver, Square Books for Oxford, Mississippi, and Elliott Bay Book Company for Seattle, Shaman Drum is a cultural landmark for Ann Arbor. The store adapted to competition pressures by building a strong textbook business among UofM professors. The store is the exclusive listing for almost 500 courses per semester. 500! The average enrollment of 25-40 students and 4-8 books per class equals a lot of cash flow in the small window of textbook buying three times a year (two semesters and a smaller summer session). Each August, the upstairs rooms go from empty pine shelves to jam-packed rooms of textbooks.
This season I met with Karl and Julia, his general manager, over lunch at Seva. We talked about trends in bookselling and new ideas that are emerging. (I'll post soon about a program to create a literature in translation month in May. Bookstores can create displays from a suggested title list and get promotional materials from the participating publishers. The goal is to create awareness about world literature and hopefully generate a strong enough story to attract media attention.)
Crazy Wisdom, Ann Arbor, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Inside the front door are statues of Buddha and Greek goddesses watching over display tables of metaphysical and alternative healing books. Crazy Wisdom is the resource center for the large holistic community of Ann Arbor. The space is designed to encourage peace and well-being. A mahogany paneled staircase leads up to a tea room and a quiet room with couches and chairs. (I almost felt like I was back at the Christine Center, one of my new favorite places in Wisconsin.) If I lived in Ann Arbor, Crazy Wisdom would probably be my study and reading retreat. They publish the Crazy Wisdom Community Journal, a newsletter and community bulletin for all holistic events or workshops.
Cranbrook Museum of Art – Nestled in the northern suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is a school environment like nothing I’ve ever seen. Possibly the east coast prep school climates of Andover or Phillips Exeter are comparable. But there really is only one Cranbrook. Here’s the school’s history from their website.
Halfway Down the Stairs
See Pictures of the Store
It’s a short drive to Rochester, home of a Borders, Barnes and Noble, and a small children’s bookstore, appropriately, a few steps down from the street. You walk through the wood paned double French doors into a room with hardwood floors and round wood tables displaying new titles. The register counter is in the center of the room with various stuffed animal monkeys hanging from the ceiling. Around the corner is a fireplace with a bench for kids to sit or lay down on while perusing books and a rocking chair for parents to sit in while reading books out loud. One of my favorite discoveries of the store was the middle readers section, which they call “Independent Readers.” According to Cammie, the owner, they chose that title because it more accurately reflected the age group. The kids are moving from being read to, to reading the books themselves. Plus it gives them to the idea of independence as something they can be proud of in themselves. I like it.
Cose di Lusso – "Things of Luxury" in Italian, this is a new wine store run by Andre Pidun, a German wine expert now living in Michigan. The store not only carries imported wine from around the world, but gourmet coffee, stemware, wine racks, and a growing selection of foods for a dinner party. We’re slowly growing a bookshelf of Mitchell Beazley wine titles in the store.
Detroit Institute of Art – They’re about two years away from finishing their remodeling project. The store is in a temporary space and may move again. It’s frustrating to have all of these museum stores running at half-speed, but it will be exciting when everyone is back and working in new spaces.
Book Beat, Oak Park, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Carey Loren and the incredible Book Beat is one of the most underrated, undertold stories in bookselling. Carey was a participant in the punk underground Detroit scene in the seventies and is now a well-known artist in the underground contemporary art world. The store is located in a strip mall in Royal Oak. The first time I drove up and saw the K-mart next door, I never expected to walk in and find rare art titles and limited edition artist books filling fourteen foot bookcases running the length of the store. Carey seems to buy one of each art book that comes out and figures someone will need it at sometime. The result is this amazing collection spanning almost every art movement from the last seventy years. Colleen runs the children’s side that fills the other half of the bookstore. As she says, they only have time to give personal service to each customer or to keep the store organized, and they’re going to choose the customer every time. It’s a browser’s paradise with picture books stacked on the floor, YA titles packed two deep on the shelves, and numerous stuffed animals and African tribal masks peering down from the walls. It’s a very unusual experience, within a few minutes of browsing I really feel like I’m in a different world.
I'm spending next week in Toronto and driving back to Madison on Friday (woohoo!). These two week out trips are hard, but necessary for getting everywhere.
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LaFontsee Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI – This is a great framing and art gallery with a strong book selection. The owner is a brilliant art guy. The shop is one of the businesses driving revitalization on the north side of the downtown area. Scott LaFontsee took a long-term lease on the building many years ago and it’s just now starting to pay off with other warehouse buildings being renovated around him.
I like the way Grand Rapids is redeveloping its downtown with loft living and restaurant and shop districts. Now if they’d just build a few parking structures or make the parking meters more visitor-friendly. This is a city that was singled out in Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class as a prime example of an urban population that either needs to adapt to the social trends of diverse, artistic communities or sit on the bench and watch other cities become the cultural and technological hotspots. They’ll probably either need to fully embrace their conservative thinkers the way Colorado Springs did, or make a better effort to attract the creative types they could have with the Kendall School of Art and the growing gallery scene.
The Photography Room – Brian Kelly has developed a reputation and following in serious photography circles. His gallery on Ionia St easily rivals anything I’ve seen in New York in terms of quality of photographers and overall atmosphere he achieves to display the work.
Emery-Pratt – After Grand Rapids, I drove east through Lansing and around to the small town of Owosso. It’s the home of the library wholesaler, Emery-Pratt. They are one of the surprises I found on my list of accounts. They run a great business sourcing titles for college and public libraries around the country.
In Owosso, there’s a cool wine shop called Winers and Loafers, that I like stopping in even though they haven’t ordered any of our Mitchell Beazley books yet, and a small bookstore,the Book Mark. I stop in the bookstore because every time there are two or three 18-20 year olds working the register. I always get the feeling that this is the best job going if you live in the town and love reading. I give them a catalogue, who knows, maybe one of the publishers will be the spark that starts a career in books.
Partners – One of the hardest businesses I can imagine would be a small regional book wholesaler competing against Ingram and Baker and Taylor. And yet Partners is still around and serving a vital role in the book world. It’s located in a warehouse south of Lansing in Holt.
Bestsellers, Mason, MI
See Pictures of the Store
This store is an example of the Main Street bookseller. It’s probably 1000 sq ft and has the town’s happening coffee shop. The store is on the southwestern corner of the town square across from the county seat building in the center. Driving into the town of Mason brings home the stark contrast of commercial areas. Surrounding the town center are retail strip malls, fast food restaurants, and the usual quicklubewalmartcheckcashing bland retail districts I see everywhere. But the town itself is early-20th century homes, brick shop buildings, and a gorgeous County government building. The main difference I see is how town governments choose to let their communities develop. Unless a town has a vision for how they want their town to look, it will end up looking like every other small town in the Midwest. This used to be the goal when everyone stayed in their towns and rarely traveled further than a few miles. We’ve always been a mobile society, but I think there is a shift going on. People used to think designing every town to look alike would make it easier for people to move from place to place. Now we’re finding that creative community chooses communities with unique identities.
University of Michigan Art Museum – I like having three accounts to see in Ann Arbor. I start the morning at the art museum to see how Suzanne is doing. The university is in the design and fundraising stage of building the new annex. Groundbreaking should happen soon.
Shaman Drum, Ann Arbor, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Each season I’ve been lucky enough to have lunch and conversation with Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum. Karl opened Shaman Drum is 1980 with lots of ideas on the importance of books and a little business knowledge. He’s since devoted himself to learning the business side in order to keep Shaman Drum profitable. 25 years later Karl Pohrt is an active ABA Board Member and leads one of the best bookstore staffs in the country. Many, many Shaman Drum booksellers have gone on to positions in publishing, written books, or participate in other aspects of the industry.
Shaman Drum serves as an intellectual hub for the Ann Arbor community. The categories are divided almost into academic disciplines. Framed black and white photographs of writers line the walls. The events calendar is filled with visiting academics, famous literary authors, and well-known poets. Like Tattered Cover for Denver, Square Books for Oxford, Mississippi, and Elliott Bay Book Company for Seattle, Shaman Drum is a cultural landmark for Ann Arbor. The store adapted to competition pressures by building a strong textbook business among UofM professors. The store is the exclusive listing for almost 500 courses per semester. 500! The average enrollment of 25-40 students and 4-8 books per class equals a lot of cash flow in the small window of textbook buying three times a year (two semesters and a smaller summer session). Each August, the upstairs rooms go from empty pine shelves to jam-packed rooms of textbooks.
This season I met with Karl and Julia, his general manager, over lunch at Seva. We talked about trends in bookselling and new ideas that are emerging. (I'll post soon about a program to create a literature in translation month in May. Bookstores can create displays from a suggested title list and get promotional materials from the participating publishers. The goal is to create awareness about world literature and hopefully generate a strong enough story to attract media attention.)
Crazy Wisdom, Ann Arbor, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Inside the front door are statues of Buddha and Greek goddesses watching over display tables of metaphysical and alternative healing books. Crazy Wisdom is the resource center for the large holistic community of Ann Arbor. The space is designed to encourage peace and well-being. A mahogany paneled staircase leads up to a tea room and a quiet room with couches and chairs. (I almost felt like I was back at the Christine Center, one of my new favorite places in Wisconsin.) If I lived in Ann Arbor, Crazy Wisdom would probably be my study and reading retreat. They publish the Crazy Wisdom Community Journal, a newsletter and community bulletin for all holistic events or workshops.
Cranbrook Museum of Art – Nestled in the northern suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is a school environment like nothing I’ve ever seen. Possibly the east coast prep school climates of Andover or Phillips Exeter are comparable. But there really is only one Cranbrook. Here’s the school’s history from their website.
Halfway Down the Stairs
See Pictures of the Store
It’s a short drive to Rochester, home of a Borders, Barnes and Noble, and a small children’s bookstore, appropriately, a few steps down from the street. You walk through the wood paned double French doors into a room with hardwood floors and round wood tables displaying new titles. The register counter is in the center of the room with various stuffed animal monkeys hanging from the ceiling. Around the corner is a fireplace with a bench for kids to sit or lay down on while perusing books and a rocking chair for parents to sit in while reading books out loud. One of my favorite discoveries of the store was the middle readers section, which they call “Independent Readers.” According to Cammie, the owner, they chose that title because it more accurately reflected the age group. The kids are moving from being read to, to reading the books themselves. Plus it gives them to the idea of independence as something they can be proud of in themselves. I like it.
Cose di Lusso – "Things of Luxury" in Italian, this is a new wine store run by Andre Pidun, a German wine expert now living in Michigan. The store not only carries imported wine from around the world, but gourmet coffee, stemware, wine racks, and a growing selection of foods for a dinner party. We’re slowly growing a bookshelf of Mitchell Beazley wine titles in the store.
Detroit Institute of Art – They’re about two years away from finishing their remodeling project. The store is in a temporary space and may move again. It’s frustrating to have all of these museum stores running at half-speed, but it will be exciting when everyone is back and working in new spaces.
Book Beat, Oak Park, MI
See Pictures of the Store
Carey Loren and the incredible Book Beat is one of the most underrated, undertold stories in bookselling. Carey was a participant in the punk underground Detroit scene in the seventies and is now a well-known artist in the underground contemporary art world. The store is located in a strip mall in Royal Oak. The first time I drove up and saw the K-mart next door, I never expected to walk in and find rare art titles and limited edition artist books filling fourteen foot bookcases running the length of the store. Carey seems to buy one of each art book that comes out and figures someone will need it at sometime. The result is this amazing collection spanning almost every art movement from the last seventy years. Colleen runs the children’s side that fills the other half of the bookstore. As she says, they only have time to give personal service to each customer or to keep the store organized, and they’re going to choose the customer every time. It’s a browser’s paradise with picture books stacked on the floor, YA titles packed two deep on the shelves, and numerous stuffed animals and African tribal masks peering down from the walls. It’s a very unusual experience, within a few minutes of browsing I really feel like I’m in a different world.
I'm spending next week in Toronto and driving back to Madison on Friday (woohoo!). These two week out trips are hard, but necessary for getting everywhere.
