Michigan Theater Spotlight: Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Michigan Theater opened on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor in 1928, a full-scale movie palace built during the era when going to the movies meant going somewhere spectacular. The lobby with its ornate plasterwork, the arched ceiling, the balcony, and the pipe organ that still plays before certain performances have all survived the decades intact. What was built to impress in 1928 still impresses today.

Located at 603 E Liberty St in downtown Ann Arbor, the Michigan Theater operates as a non-profit arts organization dedicated to presenting cinema and live performance in a venue that honors both the films and the audiences who come to see them. Art house films, classic movie series, documentaries, live concerts, and special events fill a calendar that reflects the intellectual and cultural character of the city around it.

The restoration work that has been done over the years to preserve the theater’s original architecture is a community achievement, the result of Ann Arbor residents deciding that a building like this was worth protecting and funding the effort to do so. Walking in for any film, from a new independent release to a silent movie with live organ accompaniment, produces the particular pleasure of an experience that could not happen anywhere else.

The smaller Cinema Vault space within the building hosts additional programming and gives the theater flexibility to serve audiences whose interests go beyond what fits a single main screen.

Visit at michtheater.org on E Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor.

Michigan Small Business Spotlight is proud to feature the Michigan Theater as one of Southeast Michigan’s most treasured and culturally vital small business institutions.