Back to TAG attendees stand in front of the new windows and admire the new HVAC equipment. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

PORT CLINTON – For several weeks this winter, the normally vibrant hum of creativity inside The Arts Garage (TAG) was silenced. The resident artists, who gently manipulate paint and clay and cloth into beauty, stayed home, and the art ceased.

But TAG, which is home to the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council (GPCAAC), wasn’t sitting stagnant. Artists of another sort – the ones who use hammers and caulk in place of brushes and pastels – were breathing a different kind of change into the building. They were installing new window panes, heating, air conditioning and electricity into TAG, creating a better environment for the creatives and their visitors.

Barb Steele of Marblehead and her granddaughter, Lauren Steele, 12, were among the large crowd of attendees at Back to TAG. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

On May 3, over 200 people packed the building for the Back to TAG Open House to celebrate TAG’s reopening and the renovations that bring the historic building into a new era of impact. The building, which was once the Port Clinton city garage, was transformed by GPCAAC members into an art center through a collaboration between the arts council and the City of Port Clinton, with invaluable help from Oak Harbor Mayor Quinton Babcock and Port Clinton Mayor Mike Snider.

From left, Oak Harbor Mayor Quinton Babcock, Jonnie Myers Debbink, Jeff Morgan and Barbara Radebaugh have been instrumental in the success of TAG. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

Longtime GPCAAC member and current Exhibit Chair, Jonnie Myers Debbink, and Carol Morgan were talking with Snider about five years ago when Debbink told him that the arts council didn’t have a home.

“The mayor got a twinkle in his eye,” Debbink said during the Back to Tag event. “Two weeks later, he brought us here.”

The art of Carol Luscombe and Kathryn Kain is featured in the first post-renovation exhibit at TAG. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

The building still looked like an old city garage.

Its floors and walls were dirty, and the windows

were covered with grime. But that’s not what Debbink saw.

“All it needs,” she told the mayor, “is a chandelier.’’

Beacon columnist Richard Morgan provided entertainment for Back to TAG. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

Countless people pitched in with soap, mops, and open wallets and transformed the garage into TAG, where Ottawa County school children can take free art classes in the shadow of world-renowned artists like sculptor, Andy Sacksteder. At TAG, creativity is encouraged and praised at all levels of skill and experience.

Back to TAG featured live music, art demonstrations, prizes, raffles, a silent auction, interactive art, and the first post-renovation exhibit, “A Garden of Impressions,” featuring the art of mother-daughter creative team Carol Luscombe and Kathryn Kain. The event also highlighted TAG’s new retail area featuring art and art supplies.

“We’re a fully volunteer 501(c)3. Volunteers put in dozens of hours of work fulfilling our mission to bring art to Ottawa County,” Radebaugh said. “We are very grateful.”

Resident artist Valerie Crow demonstrates the art of pottery at Back to TAG. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)