By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published September 30, 2025
HUNTINGTON WOODS — The annual ArtPrize festival has been ongoing in Grand Rapids for a couple of weeks, and it features the art of a longtime Huntington Woods resident.
Michelle Sider has three glass mosaics featured at ArtPrize inside the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. They are titled “Harbor View,” which is a piece featuring a sunset at Lake Michigan; and “Preening” and “Crazy Hair Day,” which both portray colorful birds.
Sider’s mosaics were created under the theme “A Moment of Light: Mosaics for a Restless World,” which are about capturing and seeking light.
“I feel like it’s super important to seek out light, especially in the midst of darkness,” she said. “We’re living through some dark times right now and how important it is to always be seeking light and looking for light physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, all that coming together. And that really is what my art is about, is seeking light and capturing light and using glass that I put in at different angles to actually physically capture light. So the materials themselves also help to tell the story of what I’m trying to convey.”
Sider estimated it took her between 200 to 250 hours to create the Lake Michigan mosaic and around 65 hours for each one of the birds.
All the pieces were based on photographs she took along the shorelines of Michigan.
“It takes a lot of time to create these,” Sider said. “There’s no grout in between the glass pieces. Each piece is cut precisely to fit into the next one. And some of it is stained glass, or just thinner glass, and some of it is really thick glass from Italy and Mexico that you have to actually chisel with a hammer.”
While visiting Grand Rapids with some friends, Huntington Woods resident Ann Duchan happened to run into Sider as she was installing her art.
Duchan, who’s lived next door to Sider for more than 25 years, has seen Sider create her mosaics and even participated in Sider’s art classes where Duchan learned to make her own. Duchan said what she loves most about Sider’s art is her interpretation.
“I can really feel the inspiration from what she’s done,” she said. “Her pieces at the museum, she talked about light into the world. And I have to say, I grew up on Lake Michigan. … I have spent many sunset evenings on Lake Michigan, and I just have to say her Lake Michigan depiction really speaks to me.”
This is the fifth straight ArtPrize that Sider has participated in, and she’s always thrilled to be a part of it. She also loves seeing the people who come out to the festival and hearing about their interest in the art.
“I feel very honored and grateful to be in the show,” she said. “I love being amongst other very fine artists whose work I greatly admire. It’s really nice to be in their company and it’s also just a very exciting event. I love to see families come. It’s an event and they’re off their phones, they’re off their electronics, they’re actually walking down in the city and they’re having conversations about art. I sat next to a family who was having lunch, and they’re asking their kids what was their favorite art piece. And the kids just started chattering on about the art that they enjoyed and what they liked the best. And where do you see that? I mean, it’s just too cool. So I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.”
ArtPrize will continue through Oct. 4. For more information, visit artprize.org.