Downtown Traverse City will play host to the Art & Culture Summit this weekend, an annual event hosted by the Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network. Though the summit is designed by and large for arts professionals – including administrators and fundraisers at arts-centric nonprofits – Executive Director Troy DesShano says it has been “completely redesigned this year, with a more inspirational, inclusive intention.”

A press release for the 2025 conference calls it “a summit that feels like a festival,” with keynote talks and learning sessions interspersed between performances from the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, Traverse City Philharmonic, the Crooked Tree Arts Center School of Ballet, Mashup Rock and Roll Musical, and more. The keynote addresses will be delivered by Nafeesah Symonette, executive director of Detroit Excellence in Youth Arts; and Brad Montague, a New York Times bestselling author known for books like Becoming Better Grownups and Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome.

The Art & Culture Summit will take place mostly at the Park Place and the City Opera House. A full schedule and registration information can be found here.

Beyond the conference components of this year’s summit, the drive to make the event more inclusive has led to several more community-minded programming opportunities, including a free admission day at the Dennos Museum, a pottery wheel demo at ClaySpace TC, pop-up exhibits at various local galleries and community spaces, and hand poke tattoos by artist Pokey Robinson at the City Opera House.