By Glenda Winders

You know you're in a place where art and imagination are priorities when one of the first things you see after you get into town is a scattered collection of doors just big enough for fairies to walk through, and that place would be Ann Arbor, Mich.

The first fairy doors appeared in the home of children's author Jonathan Wright in 1993. Subsequent installations that have popped up around town in gift shops, art galleries, a school and the public library are thought to be his creations, although no one knows for sure. The doors, which are just a few inches tall and decorated to look like the entrance to homes or stores, are usually found along the base of a building and thus are easily overlooked. Some are simply done, others so elaborate that it's possible to look through their windows and see the tiny furniture inside.

And that's just a small first sampling of the creativity in this lively Midwestern city.

Ann Arbor is most widely known as the home of the University of Michigan, with its legendary sports teams and the biggest football stadium in the country. The city has taken on a new role as a center for the visual and performing arts, but the best place to begin exploring both is still on the campus.

The University of Michigan Museum of Art contains one of the oldest collections in the United States. It was begun in the mid-19th century, and for many years rotated through various buildings on the campus. In 2009 it was returned to a renovated Alumni Memorial Hall — a building constructed a century earlier to honor UM graduates who had died in the Civil War, the Mexican-American War and the Spanish-American War.

A new minimalist wing provides additional space for the museum's more than 18,000 works of art, about 10 percent of which are on display at a given time. Among those pieces are 60 to 70 by Pablo Picasso, including "Young Woman With Mandolin," "Two Girls Reading" and "The Bullfight." Also remarkable are "The Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii" by Randolph Rogers (the first piece acquired for the collection in 1862) and the moving "Apsara Dancer" by Cambodian sculptor Ouk Chim Vichet, which is made of broken guns. There's also Tiffany stained glass and a mobile by Alexander Calder. The museum has a strong collection of Asian paintings and ceramics, and its conservation laboratory concentrates on East Asian pieces on paper.

Another stop to make on campus is at the School of Music, Theater and Dance, which houses the Stearnes Collection of Musical Instruments, the largest in North America. The 2,500 pieces range from a trombone made in France by saxophone inventor Adolph Sax to the machete, a bird-shaped guitarlike instrument once played by Portuguese sailors, from a Burmese harp called a saung-gauk to a damaru drum from Tibet. Visitors are invited to try the Javanese gamelan bells, gongs, drums and xylophones for themselves or listen to a pipe organ in the Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall, which was specially built to provide the best acoustics for the instrument.

Nearby is the Burton Tower, which houses the Baird Carillon. Made up of 55 bells that weigh a total of 43 tons, it was one of the first to be built in the United States. It's worth the trip just to hear the music that rings out over the campus, and anyone who happens to be there while the musician is playing might be lucky enough to get a brief tour.

For an unusual and most enjoyable theater experience, the university's Residential College Drama program teams up with the Nichols Arboretum to produce Shakespeare in the Arb. The actors perform outside each weekend during June, with the audience moving their lawn chairs and coolers as the scenes shift locations throughout the forest. This year's play will be "Much Ado About Nothing." Early arrivals will also be able to explore the adjoining Matthei Botanical Garden.

Live theater continues downtown at the Performance Network Theater, where the mostly local company specializes in staging the work of new playwrights. The Ark is a non-profit gathering place for acoustic music.

Downtown is also where you'll find contemporary art galleries such as the Clay Gallery, an artist's cooperative manned by its members that sells mostly pottery. Nearby is the Washington Street Gallery. The space, formerly a corset factory, features fine art — paintings, ceramics, sculpture, drawings and glass — by regional artists. Another not-to-be-missed experience is Metal, a design and fabrication studio that produces sculptural, utilitarian and mechanical forms, often repurposing discarded objects.

Ann Arbor is also the home of Motawi Tileworks, a colorful, captivating studio and gallery where owner and principal designer Nawal Motawi creates decorative tiles that can be installed in homes or displayed as art pieces.

"I have a passion for the arts and crafts style," Motawi said when I visited. "I look at visuals and adapt them to our process. If I'm not enchanted, I'm not going to make it."

The studio opens for tours every Thursday at 11 a.m., and on special Saturdays in June and December guests can even create their own tiles.

"Ann Arbor is such a town for the arts," Motawi said.

And so it its smaller neighbor, Chelsea. Just 16 miles away, this arts community is home to several galleries that include the River Gallery. This space that showcases regional artists was formerly a motorcycle repair shop. Now it is an open, spacious area with hardwood floors and white walls that has room for musicians to play and visitors to dance — "Room to breathe," says owner Deb Greer.

Nearby is the Purple Rose Theatre established by actor Jeff Daniels and named for the Woody Allen movie in which he starred. In a YouTube video, Daniels tells viewers lots more about his timeless hometown.

WHEN YOU GO

For general information: www.visitannarbor.org

University of Michigan Museum of Art: www.umma.umich.edu

Stearnes Collection of Musical Instruments: www.music.umich.edu/research/stearns_collection

Shakespeare in the Arb: www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg

Performance Network Theater: www.performancenetwork.org

The Ark: www.a2ark.org

Clay Gallery: www.claygallery.org

Washington Street Gallery: www.wsg-art.com

Metal: www.metaloffmain.com

Motawi Tileworks: www.motawi.com

River Gallery: www.chelsearivergallery.com

Purple Rose Theatre: www.purplerosetheatre.org

To see Jeff Daniels' video about Chelsea: www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RcQYeZS3E

Some great places to eat in Ann Arbor are Ayse's Turkish Cafe (authentic, delicious Turkish food): www.aysescafe.com; Frita Batidos (fresh food with a Cuban twist — try the ginger limeade): www.fritabatidos.com; and Vinology (pairs contemporary food with a huge wine inventory): www.vinowinebars.net. Zingerman's Deli is legendary in Ann Arbor (www.zingermansdeli.com) and to wrap up the evening, definitely have a cocktail at The Last Word, a mixology bar that recalls speakeasy days. My favorite was "You're My Boy Blue," which contained blueberries and elderflowers: www.thelastwordbar.com.

A child finds one of the mysterious fairy doors in Ann Arbor, Mich. Photo courtesy of www.visitannarbor.org.

Burton Memorial Tower is home to the Baird Carillon, whose music rings out across the campus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Photo courtesy of www.visitannarbor.org.

"The Birthday Party" by Marcia Polenberg was recently on display at the Clay Gallery in Ann Arbor, Mich. Photo courtesy of Glenda Winders.

Glenda Winders is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.