When a meeting was held in the basement of the Petoskey Library one cold winter evening for people “interested in the arts,” attendance was thin. Exactly seven local residents and one member of the Michigan Council for the Arts showed up. But the seeds took root. More than 40 years later, executive director Liz Ahrens describes the resulting Crooked Tree Arts Center as a true community art center with multilayered financial and volunteer support, more than 2,000 members and twelve full-time staff.