I caught this article in the GR Press the other day. It looks like the Manchester Bidwell Corporation (a non-profit) will be entering into a triangular partnership with GRCC and the GRPS. They have formed the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, which as the website says:

Expose people to an inspirational atmosphere and they will be inspired.

It almost sounds too simplistic, but it works. And it all started back in Pittsburgh with a man named Bill Strickland and the idea that environment can change people, their attitudes and their lives.

I saw Bill Strickland speak a few years ago about the Bidwell Training Center and wondered how something like the could come to Michigan. Well, here it is in Grand Rapids!

Grand Rapids poised to develop ‘triangular’ partnership to help impoverished students | Grand Rapids News – – MLive.com.