For a last-minute fall escape, Michigan’s Harbor Country allures with its stunning ‘art coast’ and quirky fun

Affectionally called “Harbor Country” by Chicagoans, Michigan’s western shoreline also has long been known as the state’s “art coast,” a place where small towns and artist residencies flourish alongside sandy beaches and lakefront cottages.

The fourth and final chapter of the WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times visual-art driven road trip series traces this stretch from Sawyer and Saugatuck to Grand Rapids, where the legacy of “Furniture City” meets a thriving contemporary art scene. (Take other visually inspiring trips with our guides to Milwaukee, the Madison/Driftless region and Detroit.)

Along the way, creativity reveals itself in intimate shoreline venues, light-filled museum galleries, and across the 150-acre grounds of one of the country’s most stunning sculpture parks. A plentiful array of Airbnbs, highway hotels and vacation rental groups make it easy to book last-minute travel, particularly in early fall.

MICHIGAN ART COAST: Pizza, oysters and a century-old artist community

Start your trip not in Michigan, but Michigan City in Northwest Indiana, where the Lubeznik Center for the Arts has built a reputation for ambitious contemporary programming, including the current show “Women to the Front.” On view through Oct. 26, the exhibition features more than 70 works by artists ranging from Louise Bourgeois to Cindy Sherman, all drawn from the socially conscious collection of Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell.

Further up the shore in Michigan’s Three Oaks, Jan Parr — who runs the website Dunes Diva, a guide to hidden gems along the lake — points to Goods and Heroes, a former Chevy dealership that blends edgy apparel with work by local artists. Its current show highlights paintings by Joni Maloney, whose stylized figures in bold, flat color have a striking, theatrical presence.

Parr also suggests grabbing a bite at Postboy in New Buffalo, which pairs lakeshore charm with playful New American dishes in a space marked by coastal-retro details and a lively outdoor patio. Favorites among diners include loaded potato gnocchi in citrus-cream and cheddar sauce, bright hamachi crudo, and nam chim olives tossed with sweet chili, peanuts and ginger.

Heading further north along the Lake Michigan western shoreline, consider detouring through the Sawyer and Union Pier. Charlie Vinz, an architect and founder of Adaptive Operations, which has designed projects across the region, says Stop 50, a seasonal pizzeria with a massive wood-fired oven, is “one of the best” in the region.

Just up the road in Sawyer, Out There, a wine shop and oyster bar designed by Vinz, sits in a former Shell gas station just off the highway. “The atmosphere is very light and open and airy,” Vinz explained. The bar also doubles as an intimate music venue, hosting musicians like Chicago’s Jeff Parker, Sun Ra Arkestra and Bonnie Prince Billie. The site hosts a DJ set by Helado Negro on Saturday.

Further north, Saugatuck and its sister town Douglas anchor Michigan’s “art coast.” The latter is home to Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency. Founded more than a century ago, the school itself isn’t generally open to visitors, but downtown Douglas is home to Ox-Bow House, a renovated 19th-century church that provides a public window into the community. The space hosts rotating exhibitions, including a current show — on view through Oct. 12 — that traces the architectural history of Ox-Bow alongside Vinz’s designs for its forthcoming renovation.

Ox-Bow House also includes a retail shop where you can purchase works by local artists. That list includes Dove Hornbuckle, whose tactile ceramics, Vinz said, “feel like they grow out of the earth.”

GRAND RAPIDS: A city with deep design roots and fresh creative energy

Ninety minutes northwest, downtown Grand Rapids puts its creative history on full, brilliant display. Alexander Calder’s “La Grande Vitesse” — a towering, bright red stabile installed in 1969 — was the first public art commission funded by the National Endowment for the Arts Art Public Places program. Positioned in the broad expanse of Calder Plaza, its curving planes frame the space like a theatrical backdrop.

A few blocks away, Maya Lin’s outdoor sculpture “Ecliptic” plays with water in three states: an ice rink in winter, a fountain in summer and steam vents that send warm mist curling into the air.

The Grand Rapids Art Museum sits just beyond the plaza. Start with the David Hockney retrospective — on view through Nov. 2 — which features more than 170 works by the British artist celebrated for his bold use of color and inventive compositions.

Among the works, which include drawings, iPad sketches, photocopier prints and large-format photography, curator Jennifer Wcisel especially loves “The Dog Wall,” a series of intimate portraits of Hockney’s dachshunds created during the AIDS crisis. The series is affectionate and tender, but it also reflects the artist’s desire to find joy during a time marked by grief. “It speaks to that intimate relationship that we form with our pets,” said Wcisel, who is the Dean and Helga Toriello Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, “and also grief at the same time.”

The museum’s Kulapat Yantrasast-designed building also holds an eclectic collection ranging from mid-century figures like Frank Stella and Grace Hartigan to contemporary voices from Michigan. Wcisel herself frequently visits a newer acquisition by painter and Northwestern University emeritus professor Judy Ledgerwood. The abstract work, “draws people in with the repetitive pattern,” said Wcisel, “but as you observe it, you see it’s fractured and weird and tumbling around the canvas.”

After an afternoon at the museum, stroll over to Little Bird, a cozy bistro with an inventive menu. Wcisel swears by what she calls “probably the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had” — a brioche bun stacked with double smashburger patties, plenty of cheese, and a generous layer of pickles. Or, for a different kind of flavor, try MeXo, where chef Oscar Moreno crafts pre-Columbian–inspired Mexican dishes, including house-nixtamalized tortillas layered with specialities like salt crusted pork belly or guajillo chicken and chayote.

FREDERIK MEIJER GARDENS & SCULPTURE PARK: Where art and landscape converge

A short jaunt from downtown Grand Rapids, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park treats sculpture and horticulture as equal partners. “That is where the magic in the gardens really happens,” said Suzanne Ramljak, vice president of collections and curatorial affairs, “the way each enhances and excites the other.”

Across its 158 acres, plantings and artworks shift in character with each season and change of light. Roxy Paine’s “Neuron,” for example, flares to brilliance in full sun. Ai Weiwei’s “Iron Tree,” built from cast segments of real trees, takes on a deeper color when rain darkens its rusted surface, and in winter, snow outlines its branching form. “You’ll get a different experience depending on the day you visit,” says Ramljak. “That’s part of the fun, seeing how ephemeral elements like light, wind, or even your own mood can affect the solidity and overall feel of the sculpture. It’s a dynamic experience rather than something static and controlled.”

Among the most unusual works on the garden grounds is David Nash’s “Sabre Larch,” a living sculpture created from larch trees trained into the sweeping curve of a blade. Installed in 2013, it is the only living work Nash has entrusted to a U.S. public collection — a testament to the gardens’ horticultural expertise. The piece requires constant care to survive; if the trees fail, the artwork ceases to exist.

In early October, the gardens will debut Nick Cave’s “Amalgam (Origin),” a 26-foot-tall figure completely covered in sculpted floral relief, its branches providing roosts for birds. Cast from Cave’s own body, the artist has described the sculpture, his first built for the outdoors, as a “migration hub” and positions it as both protective and rooted, a symbol of strength found in nature. “It’s going to be a pilgrimage site,” said Ramljak. “The sculpture just has a magnetic force.

BONUS: Where to stay — Lakeside Inn

To break up the drive, architect Vinz recommends an overnight stay at the Lakeside Inn, an old hotel near Union Pier with an arts-and-crafts spirit and deep ties to creative communities. “It’s just a little bit frozen in time,” said Vinz. “It feels like you’re in an old seasonal lodge,” with quirks that include a ceramic studio and a small artist residency. Artists and preservationists have long gravitated here; the Sun Ra Arkestra even performed at the hotel.