Blue Dart Art

For Blue Dart Art, Opportunity is the name of the game.

By Ralph Heibutzki

The clearest vision is the one that finds the demand, then fills in the blanks. That's how Sharron Ott describes the process of founding Blue Dart Art, a Cassopolis-based group that offers classes – and new opportunities for working artists.

It's a philosophy born out of experience, honed over decades.

“I am a career artist and I have found there are trades that an artist can pursue. I created theater sets. I worked costumes in the theater, props, and then, I worked as an interior designer for many years – I started in 1982,” she said.

Ott founded the group as a 501(c)3 entity, in 2021. She serves as director, while Cathy Gentry, Janice Harpole, and Becky Powell are the assistant directors.

Meetings happen monthly by e-mail or in person, with all members having an equal say in how the group runs. Anyone can initiate an event, as long as it has the group's backing.

Reaching that point took some time, however, as Ott explains.

“I've always exhibited as a fine artist, worked as a trade artist,” Ott said. “I began teaching in 2007, and found that to be something I liked. I started at the Oak Park Art League in Oak Park, Illinois, and developed a following. Moving to Cass County, in 2014, I found there was a need for art training and events that approached art as a business, a job, a serious profession.”

Bird Painting Images provided by Blue Dart ARt.

Pushing The Art Forward

Blue Dart Art holds the distinction of being Cass County's longest-running art-centered nonprofit group, one responsible for roughly 80 percent of the events happening there, an overview on its Facebook page states.

In just four years, Blue Dart Art has rapidly expanded into many different areas. They started with visual art classes and workshops, to teach the fundamentals of art.

“As a teacher and a director, I like to stress that the principles of art and design are4 the same as in painting, sculpture, hairdressing, fashion design, interior design, architecture,” Ott said. “Just to gain that understanding of those fundamental principles can then lead you into any direction.”

Exhibit opportunities are available through the Engage Program which allows participants to showcase their wares at the Dowagiac Library, 211 Commercial Street, and Front Street Crossing, 227 S. Front Street, Dowagiac.

The program has run for seven years, resulting in six shows per year at each venue, Ott said. “What we offer is a free exhibition. We assist in the hanging, we make flyers, and we do publicity. All that is provided for the artists, in the hopes that it will push them forward in their professional careers,” she said.

Participants can also hone their skills informally, through the “Story Sketching Sessions” at the Dowagiac Library, which offers a low-key setting to draw or paint images based on classic fairy tales and stories, Ott said.

Past subjects have included A Christmas Carol, Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Hobbit, and The Wizard of Oz, which she develops into a collaborative video and posts – with narration and a musical background – on the group's YouTube channel, Blue Dart Art, and her personal channel, Sharron Ott Art.

“A Real Grassroots Thing”

The opportunities don't end there.

For four years, Blue Dart Art has sponsored a group live painting event at the Fall Festival of the Newton House, in Decatur – which is followed by a traveling exhibition for the completed works, Ott said.

Last year, the group partnered with the Cass County Historic Society and Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce to put on a train-inspired exhibition, at Dowagiac's train depot, featuring 14 artists' works – which led to two large events, featuring music and poetry.

“We get a great deal of feedback from these exhibits, and people enjoy them very much,” Ott said. “They look forward to seeing the new art. I think it has an entertainment value in the community. Just looking at the shows, they learn so much about different genres.”

The group's activities will ramp up yet another notch in January 2026, when it moves into a new space at the Vandalia Michigan Village Hall.

“The village has generously offered their beautiful youth recreation space free of charge, and we will begin running a youth program once a week, an adult program once a week, and an adult wine-and-paint event, once a month,” she said.

No matter what kind of project the group takes on, however, Ott is sure that it'll have three common threads running through it: fundamentals, self-expression, and personal development. “It's all been a very real grassroots kind of thing,” she said.

For more information about Blue Dart Art, visit facebook.com/pppppp63, or its YouTube channel, .youtube.com/channel/UCPokU8GATtMiK6W4Zjgsw5w.

For further questions or information, email sharronottart@gmail.com.