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Attendance at the Great Outdoors Culture Tour is growing.
In 2000, the
programs attracted 8,500 people—a 42
percent increase from the first full year of the program in 1998.
 The program creatively supports arts and humanities
presenters in Michigan. The
performers and interpreters receive publicity to further their
careers and at the same time find the tour experience enriching
for their repertoires.
Enthusiastic support and response to the programs by
visitors includes inquiries about the Humanities and Arts Councils’ other
services and programs. The councils thus fulfill their missions
to broaden their reach and visibility.
Cultural affairs agencies in Wisconsin, working with
the Michigan Humanities Council and their parks and national
forests to adopt the concept, are collaborating on their own
pilot culture tour for the summer of 2001.
In the fall of 2000, Michigan’s Great Outdoors
Culture Tour received the 2000 “Windows on the Past” national
heritage award for excellence from the Chief of the Forest Service "for
innovative work ... to showcase natural and cultural heritage."
Planners of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial are looking
at this concept as a model for their observances in 2003-2006.
The recreation and heritage program staff in national forests
in the eastern region of the Forest Service are looking at this
program as a model for their observance of the agency’s
100th anniversary in 2005.
“When people see that it’s
the Great Outdoors Culture Tour doing the presentations,
they know they’re getting a
professional quality program.
It’s developed quite a following.”
— Gregg Bruff, chief of interpretation,
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Munising, MI |
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