Their faces, rich with expressions of struggle, joy and faithful devotion, tell the story of an enduring human spirit without saying a word.

Holiday parades and pre-Black Friday sales signal the start of the holiday shopping season. But for people who seek locally made works of art, the opening of Signature Gallery in Kalamazoo is their sign.

A typical preview of an art exhibition might start out with a Cliffs Notes version of Art History 101 to set the scene.

Every season, choristers congregate between poinsettias and evergreens to lend their voices to the holiday spectacle. Among the winter-themed carols and sacred songs on concert programs, a venerable Yuletide musical tradition almost always claims a spot in the lineup: George Frederick Handel’s Messiah. 

When budget cuts hit schools, the axe falls first on anything that’s not considered a “core subject.” For many school administrators, music education falls into the category of a luxury, rather than a necessity. In fact, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) put math, reading, science and social studies above all else. The arts simply weren’t considered essential to being “career ready.”

At first glance, the soft, subtly shifting hues in artist Mary Brodbeck’s Japanese woodblock prints take on the look of a painting. 
But there is a much more labor-intensive process that goes on behind-the-scenes, one that she explores in the documentary “Becoming Made.” It can take months to find the right imagery and inspiration, then sketch, carve, paint and create one print.

If you perform theater or comedy in Grand Rapids and don’t know Eirann Betka, you may be missing out. 

The 30-year-old child at heart has a full schedule by choice, working as the outreach specialist at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, director of Comedy Outlet Mondays, and as a comedian and actress at Funny Girls.

The artists of the Tanglefoot Building in Grand Rapids aim to keep a tradition of 25 years going this month. For the past quarter century, the first of its kind studio in Grand Rapids has hosted the Open Studio event on the weekend before Thanksgiving. The event has gone beyond an exhibition and sale, as the public is invited to observe and interact with artists in their unique studio spaces.

When patrons visit National Parks, they expect to hear the wild sounds of nature — the wolves howling, geysers churning and insects humming, but perhaps not plucked spines of an amplified cactus.

It depends on who you ask, but Gustave Flaubert’s literary masterpiece “Madame Bovary” is about either a hapless dreamer or an adulterous drama queen.