Art Exhibitions
Hidden Lake Gardens has partnered with the Adrian Center for the Arts (ACA) to feature a rotation of indoor art exhibits in 2026. Pieces on display Tuesdays through Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the gallery level of the Visitors Center.
Adrian Center for the Arts (ACA) provides arts education and resources to help facilitate creative endeavors for people of all ages. The ACA provides a large fellowship of passionate artists and volunteers who enrich and cultivate an environment that has become a catalyst of creativity. Classes are offered to people of all ages and skill levels.
Rooting Around at Lindisfane
Open February 23 through April 6
Tuesdays - Sundays | 10 AM - 4 PM | Visitors Center Gallery
Step into a world where creativity grows from the ground up. Rooting Around at Lindisfane invites visitors to explore how ACA member artists connect with the land in both spirit and practice. Much like early cultures who foraged to sustain life, these contemporary makers gathered natural materials—not for survival, but for artistic nourishment.
In the fall of 2025, artists gathered at Lindisfarne Bridge, an 80‑acre woodland in Tipton, where they searched the forest floor, riverbanks, and understory for materials to inspire and transform their work. Twigs, seeds, stones, bark, fibers, and other natural finds became essential components—not just accents—in their final pieces. The resulting works honor the diversity of the natural world and celebrate the intimate exchange between people and place.
As you journey through the exhibit, discover how these handcrafted artworks reveal stories of resourcefulness, reverence, and renewal—rooting us more deeply in the landscapes that inspire us.
Light and Form: VanBenschoten Retrospective
A Tribute Exhibition at Hidden Lake Gardens
Open June 1 through July 19
Tuesdays - Sundays | 10 AM - 4 PM | Visitors Center Gallery
Shirley and Bryan VanBenschoten played an essential role in shaping the artistic landscape of Lenawee County and were instrumental in the early development of the Adrian Center for the Arts (ACA). Their shared vision, dedication, and hands‑on work helped transform Studio One from an ordinary office building into a thriving creative hub that would become the heart of the ACA.
As President of the ACA’s parent organization, the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts (LCVA), Shirley guided the bold transition from a group without a physical home to a vibrant arts community rooted in 55 acres and six buildings. Her leadership, passion, and belief in the power of the arts made this evolution possible and laid the foundation for the ACA as it exists today.
With Shirley’s passing this past year, the LCVA honors her legacy through this special retrospective exhibition. Light and Form, showcasing a selection of Shirley’s expressive paintings alongside Bryan’s masterful ceramic works—two artistic voices whose influence continues to inspire those who create, teach, and gather within the ACA community.
This exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the enduring impact the VanBenschotens have had on regional arts and to celebrate the light, form, and spirit they brought into being through both their artwork and their leadership.
CompARTments
Open July 21 through September 27
Tuesdays - Sundays | 10 AM - 4 PM | Visitors Center Gallery
CompARTments celebrates the imaginative world of assemblage art — a three‑dimensional practice built from found objects and materials not traditionally associated with fine art. Inspired by the innovative work of artists such as Joseph Cornell, Louise Nevelson, and Betye Saar, assemblage invites us to see creativity in the discarded, the forgotten, and the everyday.
For this exhibition, ACA artists explore the expressive possibilities of the box. Cast‑off containers of all kinds — metal tins, wooden crates, plastic cases, clay vessels, and more — become stages, structures, and conceptual “compartments” in which new narratives take shape. Artists constructed works in, on, and around these forms, revealing how simple objects can be transformed through vision, intention, and play.
CompARTments offers a new perspective to viewers, encouraging them to look closer, notice details, and discover unexpected relationships between material, form, and meaning. Each piece is an intimate world of its own, offering a glimpse into how found objects can gain new life through the hands of an artist.
