Creative Mornings launches free monthly community-building event in Ann Arbor

Creative Mornings Ann Arbor, a new free monthly breakfast lecture series for Ann Arbor's creative community, kicks off this week. The event is an offshoot of the global Creative Mornings community, which also has a chapter in Detroit. The inaugural event will take place from 8:30-9:45 a.m. April 25 at Venue by 4M, 1919 S. Industrial Hwy in Ann Arbor. Centered on the theme "Crossroads," the event will feature a talk by Hien Lam, cofounder of the Ann Arbor-based design studio Huck Finch.

After returning to Ann Arbor from Hawaii, creative strategist and Creative Mornings Ann Arbor host Liz Barney wanted to craft more opportunities for creative minds to come together in meaningful and sustainable ways. This kick-off event and the associated new Creative Mornings chapter grew out of a series of successful pop-up events Barney organized in collaboration with Creative Mornings Detroit host Taylor Mae Kanigowski. 

"When I first moved back home to Michigan, I went to a lot of networking things that felt transactional, that didn’t really work for me," Barney says. "After I attended a Creative Mornings event in Detroit, a lot of people came to me wanting to make it happen in Ann Arbor."

To help bring the vision to life, Barney gathered a group of local professionals to form a planning committee focused on fostering genuine community connections. In addition to sparking inspiration and networking, the team aims to create mentorship opportunities by involving students as event volunteers. At the heart of the effort is a desire to support collaboration in an organic, community-driven way.

"I’m more interested in bringing people together with similar ideas and goals, and then providing structure and support for their projects," Barney says. "I like facilitating things that people actually want. I don’t want to dictate or tell people prescriptively what we should do."

Lam is "no stranger" to this month’s "Crossroads" theme, Barney says. She mentions that Lam’s prior work in health care ultimately led him down a different, creative professional path. Barney says she hopes to continue the pattern of bringing in local creative voices to lead the monthly events. May’s Creative Mornings gathering will be led by Detroit Street Filling Station and North Star Lounge owner Phillis Engelbert, focusing on the theme "Revival."

"It’s fun to have this innocuous event, where no one is making money, with the broader idea of bringing different minds together to spark new ideas," Barney says. "It’s an excuse to come together with the purpose of facilitating deeper connections with the community and the people that live in it."

Creative Mornings Ann Arbor will host free events every fourth Friday from 8:30-9:45 a.m. For more information on April’s event or to register, visit the Creative Mornings website. For those interested in volunteering, contact Barney through her website.

"There are already a lot of great people in the community who have stepped forward and shared what they want to see," says Barney. "I’m excited to see what people in this community come up with."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Photo courtesy of Creative Mornings Ann Arbor.