Editorial: Belleville growing as cultural center

The plan to bring the Detroit Institute of Art’s Inside/Out Art installation back to the City of Belleville is yet another step in the growing reputation of Belleville as an artsy community. Most of this culture we’re getting winds around the Belleville Area Council for the Arts and the people leading it that plan one thing after another to encourage us to enjoy the arts.
Besides Monday’s city council approval of having about ten framed reproductions of paintings by the Great Masters installed around town for the 2023 summer season, we are alerted that we can learn all about Van Gogh without much effort. First, there’s the free movie about him at the library and then the low-cost bus trip to view the special exhibit at the DIA in downtown Detroit. No parking. No fuss.
Our beautiful new library is an art-filled cultural center and welcomes the community to use the building in unending ways. We have community art banners hanging from our streetlights, sculptures of all kinds in the parks and on the streets. The ducks in Horizon Park, painted by local people for the fun of it, are an annual treat.
The BACA Community Art show is encouraging people to enter their artworks for next month’s show and the Community Chorus is starting to rehearse for its next concert. Egan’s Pub has announced it is saving the “ghost sign” it found and will preserve it. When it’s no longer a sign for a business, it’s art, we’re told. What a great community we’re growing.