The Review Magazine : May-June 2022

MADISON HEIGHTS

A Champion for Arts and Community By Margaret Mooney

O ver the past two years, municipalities everywhere have faced the challenge of how to gather their residents safely. Beloved arts experiences like live music have been compromised, and the efforts made to reimagine and recreate them have been tremendous. From “masks required” to “must show proof of vaccination” (and everything in between), the adaptability and resiliency of communities has not gone unnoticed. Through it all, the City of Madison Heights has been a champion for the arts and a leader in community engagement. Madison Heights formed its Arts Board in 2017, after a meeting at city hall brought the community’s desire for more public art to the forefront. Madison Heights councilmember and chair of the Arts Board, Mark Bliss, shares that the meeting sparked many “outstanding community members” to get involved. With an initial goal of creating public art throughout the city, the Arts Board quickly raised enough money to create the city’s first mural. Since its inception, the energy of the Arts Board has also been contagious across the city. It has prompted several other city boards and commissions to embrace creativity and embark on new projects of their own. This has all come with the help of the passionate volunteers who have continued to envision the future of the city over the years. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the community craved connection more than ever. Bliss says that the effects of prolonged isolation were something that “only music could heal.” Arts Board Co-Chair, Vita Palazzolo, also felt the frustration of concerts and community events being canceled during this time. Through this frustration, Madison Heights’ “Trail Tunes” event was born. Bliss explains that “the idea was simple: we could invite local musicians to play an outdoor concert with each being appropriately spaced out so that attendees and performers would both be safe.” He goes on to say that while the idea was simple, it was also very “important” and “gave [the] community a bit of a reprieve from the isolation of the pandemic.”

MADISON HEIGHTS pop. 28,468

MAY / JUNE 2022

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