Creative Washtenaw awarded six individuals who have made outstanding contributions to arts, sciences and humanities in Washtenaw County.
Creative Washtenaw is a professional association for artists or a chamber of commerce that serves artists across Washtenaw County. Anyone can become a member, with new member and student member prices being $35 a year, and renewing membership prices being $55 a year.
“We have those individual memberships, we have the organizational memberships, and then we have ally business memberships. Each ... serves a different function. At the core, it's all about being part of a cohesive creative community. And then membership also means access to the resources that we host online for members,” said Chloe Crowther, executive director of Creative Washtenaw.
Membership comes with opportunities such as access to calls for art, auditions, workshops, events and more, Crowther said.
Each year, Creative Washtenaw recognizes individuals to win one of three different awards. The awards are Lifetime Achievement, Outstanding Service and Ignitor. This year, Creative Washtenaw accepted community nominations for medalists, then their committee members chose from those nominations.
Committee members consist of arts leaders in the community and community members who are very knowledgeable about the arts, Crowther said.
"It means that we, as a representative of the creative community in Washtenaw County, are celebrating you. We want to say you have done significant work to further, basically, what is our mission, which is to have a more connected arts ecosystem," Crowther said.
The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement medal are Susanne Stephenson and Nancy Margolis. David Fair and Michael Jewett were awarded the Outstanding Service medal. Judy Dow Rumelhart and Don Rumelhart jointly won the Ignitor award for philanthropy.
Stephenson is a ceramic artist. Her work has been displayed at various exhibits across the country, including in permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other major institutions, a biography published by Creative Washtenaw said. She was a professor of ceramics at Eastern Michigan University from 1963-91.
Margolis has spent her career building community by organizing people of different races, religions and classes, her biography said. She co-founded Jewish Family Services and the Corner Health Center. More recently, she founded Embracing Our Differences Michigan, a juried, outdoor art exhibit featuring billboard-sized images that explore themes of diversity.
Fair has a long history of working on the radio. He has worked for WEMU, Washtenaw County's NPR station that features jazz, blues and local news, for 32 years. He served as the local host of NPR's "Morning Edition", the station's news director since 2012, developed "Washtenaw United", "Issues of the Environment", "Cinema Chat", "First Friday Focus on the Environment" and co-hosted "creative:impact" with Creative Washtenaw's Deb Polich, his biography said.
Jewett has been a host on WEMU for 42 years. His work is primarily with the jazz and blues program. He created "Sunday Best", the station's classic jazz program, highlighted local musicians and releases through his "Bluestime" hour and "New at Two" shows, and is regularly on stage at the Detroit Jazz Festival and Blue Llama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor, his biography said.
Both Fair and Jewett plan to retire June 30, 2026, closing out WEMU's 60th anniversary.
Judy and Don Rumelhart are philanthropists. Judy Rumelhart's work is mostly in performing arts. She was the chairperson of the Michigan Theater Foundation, a founding member of Concerned Citizens for the Arts in Michigan and chair emeritus of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. She was an associate producer of the Broadway production of "Sweeney Todd," a Tony award-winning musical, her biography said. Don Rumelhart is a member of The Ark, Ann Arbor's folk and roots music venue.
Creative Washtenaw hosts a fundraising event to honor medalists called THE pARTy. The theme for THE pARTy this year is A Garden of Expression Cultivating Community. This year, the event coincides with World Art Day on April 15, 2026.
THE pARTy will be 6-8:30 p.m., with the private reception from 5-6 p.m. at the Morris Lawrence Building at Washtenaw Community College, 4800 East Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor.
"I'm so glad [THE pARTy] lined up [with World Art Day], because we are taking a focus on, you know, although this celebrates specifically arts and culture in Washtenaw County, it affects all parts of the world, and all parts of the world's culture affect how we make art here," Crowther said. “We're really excited about this event. It's a legacy event that's been around since 2015; we don't want it to go anywhere, and we're excited to honor these medalists, specifically."
