Michigan's major center of arts and cultural activities is the Detroit area. The city's refurbished Orchestra Hall is the home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as chamber music concerts and other musical events. The Music Hall and the Masonic Auditorium present a variety of musical productions; the Fisher Theater is the major home for Broadway productions; and the Detroit Cultural Center supports a number of cultural programs. The new Detroit Opera House is sponsored by the Michigan Opera Theatre. Nearby Meadow Brook, in Rochester, has a summer music program. At the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, the Power Center for the Performing Arts and Hill Auditorium host major musical, theatrical, and dance presentations.
Programs relating to the visual arts tend to be academically centered; the University of Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State, and Eastern Michigan University have notable art schools. The Cranbrook Academy of Arts, which was created by the architect Eliel Saarinen, is a significant art center, and the Oxbow School at Saugatuck is also outstanding. The Ann Arbor Art Fair, begun in 1959, is the largest and most prestigious summer outdoor art show in the state, and one of the best-known events of its type in the country. The Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck and the touring Ann Arbor Film Festival promote the art of independent filmmaking.
The Meadow Brook Theater at Rochester is perhaps the largest professional theater company; Detroit has a number of little theater groups. Successful summer theaters include the Cherry County Playhouse at Traverse City and the Star Theater in Flint.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1914, is nationally known. Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo have regional orchestras that perform on a part-time, seasonal basis. The National Music Camp at Interlochen is a mecca for young musicians in the summer, and a prestigious private high school for the arts year round.
There are local ballet and opera groups in Detroit and in a few other communities. Michigan's best-known contribution to popular music was that of Berry Gordy, Jr., whose Motown recording company in the 1960s popularized the "Detroit sound" and featured such artists as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Aretha Franklin, the Four Tops, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder, among many others. In the 1970s however, Gordy moved his operations to California.
The state of Michigan generates federal and state funds for its arts programs. In 2003, the Michigan Council for the Arts and other Michigan arts organizations received grants totaling $1,601,500 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Private sources also provided funding for the activities of the Council. There are more than 1,000 state and over 100 local arts associations in Michigan. The Michigan Humanities Council was founded in 1974. One of its ongoing programs is the Great Outdoors Culture Tour, which includes performing artists and cultural interpreters/educators. In 2000, the National Endowment for the Humanities contributed $1,985,658 to state programs.