Joel Goldberg

Visualize the Ann Arbor Art Center’s WineFest as the Châteauneuf-du-Pape of fundraisers.

The annual wine-and-food extravaganza, on tap May 6 through 8, bears a surprising resemblance to the multi-grape assemblage of the flagship wine from France’s southern Rhone, blending supporters of the century-old arts institution with a panoply of local glitterati out for some innocent merriment, plus a dollop of area wine cognoscenti keen to sample and acquire some hard-to-find bottles.

So it’s a good fit that Honorary Chair Laurence Féraud, the first French winemaker to chair WineFest, comes from first-tier Châteauneuf winery, Domaine du Pegau.

And just as some Châteauneuf producers (but not Pegau) have adapted their wines to changing customer preferences for early-drinking, more fruit-driven styles, so the 28th annual WineFest sports a different look from years past.

“We’ve thrown everything up in the air and had it come down in a new format,” says Art Center president Marsha Chamberlin. “It’s going to be this bright, colorful upbeat format in a very stylish location. We’re trying to make this an event that people can enjoy on lots of different levels.”

The makeover starts with new digs for Saturday evening’s main event: the former Pfizer facility on Plymouth Road, lately demedicalized into the University of Michigan North Campus Research Complex. Kalamazoo-based BIGThink arts collaborative will create a series of supersize installations designed to generate a sense of community throughout the space.

Hardcore bidders can hunker down for the live auction in a new, Vegas-style “bidders’ pit.” This way, explains Chamberlin, “people who aren’t into the auction don’t have to be forced to be quiet and sit and listen. They can enjoy the wine and food and each other, while the bidders can keep focused.”

Focus-worthy auction lots include two sets of Bordeaux out of the cellar of über-collector Ron Weiser, from the outstanding 1961 and 2000 vintages, a ten-bottle assortment of 1998 and 1999 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, donated by Honorary Community Chairs Rich and Karen Brown, and a ten-year collection of the ever-popular Marilyn Merlot.

Also on offer: a half-dozen travel packages, home-prepared meals by local chefs Craig Common and Scott MacInnis, and dinner at The Lark – with a bottle of 1989 Château Margaux thrown in.

On Thursday, May 6, Féraud will pour five of her wines for a Winemaker Dinner at Mediterrano. This will be the only chance during the weekend to taste two vintages of Pegau’s upscale Châteauneuf, Cuvée Laurence.

A sold-out “Wine Crawl” joins the weekend mix for the first time on Friday evening, May 7. Participants will start at the Art Center on Liberty Street to meet the Honorary Chair, then wind their way through a series of downtown drinkeries – Babs Underground Lounge, Café Felix, Gratzi, Mélange and The Chop House – sampling a small food and wine pairing at each.

Ticket pricing also receives a facelift, with the introduction of a second tier for Saturday’s event. The new General Admission ducat ($100) buys entry to the strolling supper, wine sampling and the rare wine bar, along with open seating at the live auction.

Those who spring for the Patron level ($200) receive the traditional WineFest perks, which include a custom wine glass and reserved seats for the live auction. They also get in the door an hour earlier for a reception with Féraud and an early-bird chance to snap up silent auction lots at “Buy It Now” prices.

Chamberlin said that signups were running about 50-50 between the two ticket levels.

Whether or not the new format and prices succeed in boosting interest in WineFest, many observers feel that change is long overdue in the face of a long-term slide in attendance and revenues for what was once the area’s premier charity event.

A decade ago, WineFest’s Saturday event regularly sold out more than 500 tickets and raised upwards of $250,000 for Art Center programs, representing as much as 1/3 of the organization’s annual budget.

This year’s take is projected at a mere $70,000, and the current rate of signups suggests that Saturday’s event may have difficulty reaching its goal of 400 paid attendees.

Chamberlin acknowledges that the Art Center has been forced to “wean itself off” dependence on WineFest for operating funds, and today counts on the event more to fund new projects.

The area’s economic travails account for a large chunk of the decline, especially in the area of corporate support, which Chamberlin says “has dried up.”

But critics also suggest that the event’s organizers failed to adapt to the proliferation of competing charity circuit wine events and a steady decline in the once-generous level of auction donations from left coast wineries and area collectors.

“No one was proposing anything new for years,” one WineFest insider put it succinctly.

“Part of the issue for me is whether there is an audience for WineFest any longer, in the form we currently know it,” Chamberlin said. “One of the things we’ve tried to do this year is create a broader appeal for it.”

Some of that appeal arrives in the person of the charismatic Laurence Féraud. I caught up with her while she multi-tasked at home in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, preparing a Thai green curry dinner for her two children as we chatted on the phone.

Féraud – petite, dark and intense, with a ready laugh and strong entrepreneurial bent – graduated from oenology school in Paris and returned to Châteauneuf as the region’s first female winemaker in 1986. A year later, she and her father, Paul, extracted their 17 vineyard acres from the Féraud family holdings to make their own wine under a new label: Domaine du Pegau.

She was in a celebratory mood when we spoke, saying she’d just signed “a big check” to purchase three additional acres in Châteauneuf, bringing Pegau’s current holdings to just over 50. Better still, the new vineyard comes planted with excellent vines, in the prime “La Crau” section of the appellation.

Our conversation (she’s bilingual) began with her family’s long-term ties to Ann Arbor, thanks to her father’s friendship with retired UM Professor J.C. Mathes and his wife, Rosemary, who began to spend summers in Provence about 35 years ago.

At almost the same time that Féraud and her father struck out with their own winery, Mathes begat J et R Selections to import southern Rhone wines into Michigan.

It was a match made in Provence.

Joel Goldberg: Tell me about your family’s history with J.C. Mathes.

Laurence Féraud: He’s a very close friend to us, like a member of the family. All of his life, he spent two months minimum in the south of France, and he was very close to the people. Then one day, he decided to import the wine.

[Robert] Parker started to speak about Châteauneuf-du-Pape – that was in 1992 – and everything expanded so fast. J.C. was our importer, and his business grew so fast. Like me, he was so happy about this increasing enthusiasm for Provence.

JG: You had your own property before you created Pegau, but you didn’t bottle wine under your name?

LF: I was studying, and my father worked with his parents and his brothers and sister; it was the family domaine. But when I arrived, I worked for one year with all the family, which was not very convenient for me [laughs]. So I proposed we create our own name.

JG: What does Pegau mean?

LF: It’s a clay wine pitcher. The original was found around the Pope’s palace [in Châteauneuf]. They did some excavations and some antique research; this clay pitcher is from the 14th century, from the Pope’s period.

JG: When you started out, you were the only woman running a domaine in Châteauneuf. Even though you had an education as a winemaker, was it hard for you to have people take you seriously?

LF: Yes, in the beginning it was a bit difficult. Sometimes the men clients wanted to visit only with my father. And my father really insisted; he said, “No, my daughter knows more than I do because she studied enology and she speaks English. He always tried to convince people to visit with me.”

Laurence Féraud, dressed for the harvest: Not her sister. (Photo courtesy of Laurence Féraud)

Also, I worked in the vineyard. At the beginning, the people – they didn’t laugh, but they said, “This is work for men.”

But I knew how to work in a vineyard, and dress like the men in the vineyard. But I also knew how to have a shower and how to be dressed like a woman, with high heels. When I come to an auction in Michigan, I know that I am not in a vineyard. So I am dressed different. I know how I have to be.

The people here, they didn’t understand that we can have a different face. When I am working during the harvest, making wine, picking grapes, because I have a scarf around my head, people would think I was Fatima. [roars with laughter].

Or people would say, “Oh, we met your sister at the wine fair.”

And I’d say, “No, I haven’t got any sister. It was me.” They were so shocked; they couldn’t believe it.

JG: So do you have any advice for women who are trying to make it in the wine business?

LF: My advice is to be strong, because we are better than men. [laughs]

No, our palate is quite developed, because for centuries we stay at home, we do the cooking, we have a sense of taste.

JG: There are many different grapes that can go into Châteauneuf-du-Pape. What blend do you use?

LF: It’s a blend of all the vineyards we have. About 45 acres of the vines are more than 45 years old.

There is already what we call co-planting. So the blend is already in the vineyard. Because 45 years ago, they planted blended. In fact, they still do.

The blend of Pegau is 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 4% Mourvedre and 1% mixed types of grapes.

JG: The newer properties you’ve bought in recent years, were those already planted?

LF: They were already planted, and in good condition, and in La Crau, in the best place. I can tell you that I paid more, but the result is the more I pay in the beginning, the less I have to work after. Because when you want good quality, a good vineyard will give you good grapes without too much working.

1990 Domaine du Pegau: Robert Parker started to speak. (Photo by the author)

JG: How many bottles of Châteauneuf do you make?

LF: I produce 80,000 bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Cuvée Reservée, and 6,000 to 8,000 bottles of Cuvée Laurence.

JG: And Cuvée da Capo? [The estate’s top wine, made in small amounts in better vintages. The 2007 got a pre-release score of 98-100 points from Robert Parker.]

LF: When I do the Da Capo, I’m not doing the Cuvée Laurence. The Cuvée Laurence is easy to do every year; it’s an extra aging of the Cuvée Reservée. When it’s a perfect harvest and a perfect vintage, then I am doing the Cuvée da Capo, not the Cuvée Laurence. So the production is exactly the same.

JG: You also have a second line of wines under your own name.

LF: Starting in 2001 and 2002, I created another company called “Selection Laurence Féraud.” I’m not buying or producing wine, but I do the selection. I go to different cellars, different producers, I taste the different wines and I blend.

I created a Vin du Pays d’Oc [from the Languedoc] called “Pegau Vino,” and I have a Séguret [a less-known Rhone village].

“Plan Pegau” [a non-appellation table wine] existed under Domaine du Pegau, but the quality was not consistent. So I decided to have more consistent quality, and to blend in a big volume in another place. We could not do that at Domaine du Pegau.

I blend 50% of the Plan Pegau from the Domaine, with some other wine – enough to have the quantity for 60,000 bottles in one bottling. We sell that wine for export, with a screw cap.

JG: So you’re becoming a negociant? [merchants who buy wine produced by others and sell them under their own brand]

LF: If I look at my job name, it’s blender [laughs]. In French, we say assembleur, which is nicer.

JG: How many countries does Pegau distribute in today?

LF: Thirty countries, 80 wine importers around the world.

JG: What wines will you be pouring in Ann Arbor for WineFest?

LF: On the 8th, all the people will have a cocktail of Pegau Vino. Then we’ll have the Séguret, then the Plan Pegau, and then the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Domaine du Pegau red.

JG: Are you serving either the Cuvée Laurence or Cuvée da Capo?

LF: Cuvée da Capo? For over 100 people? No, it’s impossible. [Roars with laughter] But what I’m giving for the auction is Cuvée da Capo in a magnum, three Cuvée Laurence, a weekend at a B&B I have in Châteauneuf, a day with me in the vineyards, and lunch or dinner at my place.

WineFest tickets are available at the website, or by phoning the Ann Arbor Art Center at 734-994-8004, x101.

About the author: Joel Goldberg, an Ann Arbor area resident, edits the MichWine website and tweets @MichWine. His Arbor Vinous column for The Chronicle is published on the first Saturday of the month.

Former participants in the Ann Arbor Art Center's Artmakers Teens summer outreach program mug for the camera at an awards ceremony in the Ann Arbor City Council chambers on June 1. Ducking down by the table are Jan Onder, Ann Arbor Public Art Commission vice chair, left, and AAPAC chair Margaret Parker. The teens had just been presented with a 2009 Golden Paintbrush Award for a mural the Artmakers created last summer.

In the hallway outside the city council meeting room last month, a group of teenagers leaned into each other and grinned as multiple cameras flashed. People passing by paused to say “Congratulations!” The teens – former participants in the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Artmakers Teens summer outreach program – had just received a 2009 Golden Paintbrush Award from the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission for a mural they created last summer.

Standing and smiling with them was Sarah Winter, an Ann Arbor Public Schools art teacher and project coordinator for the teens who created the mural. Winter said she was happy about the award, and called working with the Artmakers a “truly amazing experience.”

However, it was also bittersweet, she said.

“There’s no funding for the program this summer,” Winter explained. “It was great for the teenagers in a lot of ways this past summer, and now it’s over. I’m very sad it’s not happening this year.”

Funding Challenges

Marsha Chamberlin, the art center’s president and CEO who also serves on the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission, explained that they hadn’t been able to raise the $20,000 needed to run the program, which offers teens the experience of working in an art studio, including monetary compensation. The center only managed to raise $6,000 by late May. This year, corporate donations – which contribute a large portion of the funding for Artmakers – have been down, Chamberlin explained.

Although the center applied for grants from some foundations, they hadn’t heard back by the end of May. By that time of the year, the center usually has all the money it needs for the program, Chamberlin said. Without that funding in place, Artmakers wasn’t possible this summer.

The center usually receives donations from 8 to 10 corporate entities for Artmakers, Chamberlin said. This year, they’ve only gotten money from two or three. One difference this year is that people and corporations have changed their “nature of giving.”

“Some people are supporting us, but they chose to direct their gifts somewhere else,” she said. “In at least one case, they saw a more important need in supporting the art center in general.”

Chamberlin declined to name the foundations that the center applied to for grants, and said she didn’t know why their grant application wasn’t funded. The money the center already collected came from gifts, donations from TCF Bank and a University of Michigan student group that fundraised for the center this past spring. That $6,000 would simply “sit in the bank” until it can be used for a subsequent program, Chamberlin said.

“It’s kind of unfortunate, because it’s at a time when the kids have even less opportunity,” Chamberlin said, noting the lack of options for work elsewhere.

How Artmakers Got Its Start

It all started with a drive-by shooting in Ann Arbor.

At least, that incident was part of the inspiration for the 1996 genesis of the summer outreach program, according to Chamberlin.

The shooting made her and others think about what they could do to help the larger community. Ingrid Sheldon, the mayor of Ann Arbor at the time, saw a presentation at a national conference concerning a program designed to help at-risk youth. The mayor spoke to Chamberlin about it and sent her to a training session in Chicago, and the result was the center’s outreach program for teens in Ann Arbor. Chamberlin said former city council member Jane Lumm also proved helpful in the program’s development.

Artmakers is essentially a job training program using the arts, Chamberlin said. “Kids apply like you would for a job.” To be admitted to the program – which accepts kids ages 14 to 18 – teens fill out an application that gives the center staff an idea of their social and financial status, using measures such as family income. In addition to the application, teachers and guidance counselors may write letters of referral for Artmakers applicants. Finally, teens write an essay explaining why they think working in the art studio will benefit them.

The center staff then reviews the applications, letters and essays and selects a group of youths to call in for an interview. About a dozen kids from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have participated in the program each year, although that number varies depending on the funding available. Chamberlin recalled that the center used to admit up to 30 kids to the program per session, years ago.

It costs about $1,600 per youth to run Artmakers each summer. Part of that money goes into paying the participants. The program provides a workplace atmosphere – teens have to fill out timesheets, work in the art studio from 1 to 4 p.m. five days per week and have a limited number of allowed absences. As compensation, they get a $75 stipend each week.

“Like any job, we want to recognize and reward them,” Chamberlin said. She added that since most Artmakers kids come from impoverished backgrounds, they use the money to support their families. “One boy two years ago had a 16-year-old sister who was pregnant,” Chamberlin said. “He gave everything he earned for the summer to her to buy stuff for the baby.”

Over the course of six weeks, participants work with three different kinds of media, spending approximately two weeks with each. For the past couple of years, a project coordinator/master teacher has determined the curriculum, Chamberlin said.

But it’s more than art alone – the program teaches teens how art skills can translate into the workplace. The program also teaches workplace etiquette like how to dress appropriately, Chamberlin said, as well as how to work well with other people. “That helps form bonds and communication patterns so they can learn from each other,” she said.

Artmakers also helps build a sense of self-esteem, Chamberlin said. This year, a girl who’d attended Artmakers called Chamberlin and asked her to come to her high school graduation and talent show. “Three years ago, she could hardly make eye contact,” Chamberlin said. “And now she’s onstage performing. Something we did in the program gave her that courage.”

The program has other success stories. Chamberlin described one boy, a “tremendous artist,” who started working with Toyota (one of the program’s sponsors) designing cars. He later attended the College for Creative Studies and got an internship with GM. “He’s just done tremendously well for himself,” Chamberlin said.

For other kids, the program simply introduces them to a wider world. Chamberlin recalled one 16-year-old boy from southeast Ann Arbor who told her he’d never been to the city’s downtown before. “It was just dumbfounding,” she said.

She explained that the program benefits teens such as that boy by allowing them to “get out in the big world.”

This mural by students in the Artmakers Teens program – featuring three teens posing as classical muses – won a Golden Paintbrush Award from the city in June. It's located on the wall of a building facing south, overlooking the city parking lot on Ashley between Liberty and William.

Making the Mural

The mural on the wooden wall behind the art center features three figures posing against a sky filled with dark, flowing clouds. They’re dressed in modern clothes (jeans, tank tops), but their pedestals and postures speak to ancient art. The landscape behind them is flat and barren, with mountains rising up along the horizon.

Eleven teens contributed to the award-winning mural: Kai’Lyn Wilson, Mareka Armstrong, Muhammed Abdul Basir, Terrance Blakely, Sam Fenner, Holly Granger, Vanessa Marenco, Amber Miller, Cody Pan, Maja Robakiewicz and Dennis Scherdt.

Winter, who worked for Artmakers for three years, including last summer, called the summer 2008 cohort a “really special group of kids.” She said the teens got to know each other and shared their ideas, displaying “such a collaborative vision.”

As for the mural, Winter called it “one of the coolest art-making processes I’ve ever been a part of.” Artmakers had done a mural as the program’s final project twice before, but “a lot of us were not happy about the ones we’d created before,” she said.

They had two weeks to finish the mural. The teens spent the first week planning: sitting in the classroom brainstorming, sketching, and “just having a really vibrant discussion,” Winter explained.

With previous murals, Artmakers groups had only formulated “loose plans” before following through with the project, Winter said. This time, they put in more thought beforehand. They also got tips from set designer Monika Essen on how to plan and execute their vision, Winter added. Other artists who spoke to the teens during that summer’s program included art historian Lisa Schramm and mural artist Mary Thiefels, among many others.

The final painting ended up being a combination of a variety of ideas. Winter recalled that one student liked the idea of Greek muses, while another liked Salvador Dali’s style. The art history they’d learned earlier in the program also influenced the mural, Winter said.

Along with those influences, the teens found an overall theme to tie together their work. “Somewhere along the way, we got into the topic of them – the teenagers – and their generation,” Winter said.

The teens discussed how they fit into the “vast history” of art. In accordance with this idea, three of them posed as models, imitating the stances of well-known, historic sculptures like Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, Winter said. They also represented the muses of music, tragic poetry, and astronomy.

“They actually went outside and stood on pedestals,” Winter said. “We took multiple pictures of them.”

Once they had all their ideas together, the group created a small-scale sketch of the painting. They then drew a grid over it and drew a similar grid on the wall where they planned to paint the mural. Groups of students worked on transferring individual squares of the grid from the sketch to the wall.

In the past, teens have had a “this is my section” attitude about working on murals, Winter said. But this time was different and more collaborative. “This was really neat because everybody felt like they had a voice in the plan,” she said.

Kai’Lyn Wilson, who took part in Artmakers for three summers from 2006-2008, described working on the mural as both fun and educational. “It was learning, but it was fun and interesting,” she told The Chronicle after the awards ceremony on June 1. “We took our time.”

Wilson, who said her love of art motivated her to participate in the program, worked on painting the background: the sky and clouds. Like Winter, Wilson described the funding situation for this year’s program as “very sad.”

“It was a good program,” she said. “I wish we could’ve done it without being paid.”

Artmakers in 2009 and Beyond

While Artmakers isn’t happening this summer, Chamberlin said it isn’t over for good. She said the center has received enough contributions to run the program in September as four hours of studio time every Saturday. Calty Design (Toyota’s design center in Michigan, located in Ann Arbor), TCF Bank and the UM Ross School of Business students (who auction off their art annually to raise money for the program) provided the necessary funding.

“It’s a program we have run for 11 years, and we’ve seen the value of this program.” Chamberlin said, adding: “This is a really unique experience for those kids. For $1,600 a kid, it’s a really positive impact on their lives.”

About the author: Helen Nevius, a student at Eastern Michigan University, is an intern with The Ann Arbor Chronicle.   

These sculpted heads are among the many items free for the taking at the Ann Arbor Art Center's studios on Felch.

By the time The Chronicle arrived at the Ann Arbor Art Center’s studios at 220 Felch St. on Wednesday afternoon, it was less than 24 hours after the center had made its “free stuff” posting on Freecycle and Craiglist – but much of the initial batch of furniture set outside the building had already been picked over.

Inside, quite a bit remains, including ceramic molds, low-fire glazes, unclaimed finished pottery and other items. And over the next few days, they’ll be setting out more furniture for the taking, too.

The center sold its 11,000-square-foot building to ICON Creative Technologies earlier this year, and is consolidating at its 117 W. Liberty location. Taking a break from packing, ceramics studio manager Suzanne Poulton told us the new studio space at the Liberty Street building is about half the size of the Felch Street property, so they need to unload quite a bit. For anyone interested in picking up some deals, the Felch studios will be open from 1-8 p.m. every day this week.

Ceramics for sale at the Ann Arbor Art Center's Felch studios.

A Chronicle reader alerted us to the center’s posting on Freecycle, but while we were there the three people who showed up had all seen the notice on Craigslist.

A volunteer for the Ann Arbor Animal Hospital stopped by looking for tables. They usually rent tables for their fundraisers, he told Poulton, and were hoping to get some for free to avoid that expense.

Poulton told him they’d be putting out more tables later this week, including some that were currently loaded with ceramic pots, picture frames, bowls and other items.

Those things are free, too, or sold for a pittance. They’re asking for donations, and raised about $100 yesterday alone, Poulton said.

Whatever they don’t get rid of by June 30 – the day they have to officially vacate the building – goes into the dumpsters.

A few pieces of furniture hadn't yet been taken on Wednesday afternoon. More will be set out later this week.

Suzanne Poulton, ceramics studio manager for the Ann Arbor Art Center.

At an open house hosted by the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission, people were asked to mark the locations in town where they'd like to see public art. Sophie Grillet drew in a bike bridge she'd like to see over the railroad tracks on the south part of town, connecting South State and South Industrial.

A trio of women stood staring at the piece of paper on the wall, pencils and shiny star stickers poised in their hands. One of them announces she wants to mark somewhere with a bench. Somewhere she can sit and look.

The paper they’re looking at is a map of Ann Arbor. The stickers and pencils are tools to highlight places they think could use some artwork. On a bench below the map, there’s also a suggestion box, with squares of paper scrawled with the public’s suggestions for the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission’s next project.

The map was part of AAPAC’s open house, which the commission held Thursday evening at the Ann Arbor Art Center. The event, where commissioners entertained about 30 supporters and community members, featured a slideshow of public art – from the Arch in Kerrytown’s Sculpture Park to various pieces by Herbert Dreiseitl, the German artist AAPAC commissioned to work on the public art installment at the municipal center.

There were also sheets of paper with information about the commission attached to the wall, answering questions like “Why a public art commission?” and “Creating a public art plan: How do we get there?” While perusing the center’s Jewelry + Objects exhibition and enjoying wine, fruit and brownies, attendees told The Chronicle why they came and what they think of public art.

Diane Bennett, Distinct Designs, Inc. design and art consultant

Why she came: Bennett explained she was there to meet AAPAC Administrator Katherine Talcott and find out more about the public art planned for Ann Arbor. “We’d love to work with the commission,” Bennett said of her company. “We represent a lot of Michigan artists.”

What she thinks of public art: “I’m a strong advocate for art. We all need to have a say in what goes up. I think it’s definitely something that enhances the community.”

Els Nieuwenhuijsen, postdoctoral fellow with University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Why she came: Nieuwenhuijsen said she wants to make art-related events more inclusive and open to people who are impaired in some respect. She hoped to gain support from AAPAC. “I’m very interested in making arts and culture more accessible for people with disabilites.”

What she thinks of public art: “Art plays a major part in life. I think it would be great if the artists would keep in mind that the public is not only people who can see, walk and hear.”

EMU physics professor and photographer Bonnie Wylo watches as Christy Kelly-Bentgen marks where she wants to see public art on AAPAC's map of Ann Arbor.

Christy Kelly-Bentgen, community member who has served on art commissions in other cities

Why she came: “I came to support [AAPAC Chair] Margaret [Parker] and the public art commission, because I think they’re doing marvelous things.” She also said she was there to support projects others had protested, which were going to be “great for the community.” (One such project is the proposed Dreiseitl installation, which is expected to cost $700,000 and will be paid for from the city’s Percent for Art program administered by AAPAC.) “Some people have been misinformed, and they jump on as naysayers. I’m here to say, ‘Yes.’”

What she thinks of public art: Kelly-Bentgen said it should be something people experience every day, particularly something kids will encounter regularly to expose them to the arts. “I really see the importance of it. I think when times are hard, people need food for the soul more than ever. I applaud what this committee is doing with the work at city hall, where so many people are going to see it.”

Sophie Grillet, Cambridge, England native, cartoonist and aspiring painter

Why she came: “I’m very interested in art in the city.”

What she thinks of public art: “I think there’s not a great deal of it, but when it happens, people enjoy it. I’m sure everyone will love the city hall waterworks [by Dreiseitl] when it happens. I suggest we need a fountain, because every city should have one, really.” Grillet also suggested that the city construct bridges over train tracks for bicycles, and build climbable sculptures for schools. “Climb-on-able sculptures are such fun. It kind of attracts kids to art as well.”

Phil D’ Anieri, Ann Arbor Community Foundation program director

Why he came: He explained he dropped by because the foundation has a working relationship with AAPAC, in that it holds a fund for the endowment of public art in Ann Arbor.

What he thinks of public art: “I think it’s one of the many things that makes Ann Arbor a cool place. This is an artistic and creative community, and it’s entirely appropriate that gets expressed in a public way.”

Ken Clein, Quinn Evans Architects principal

Why he came: Quinn Evans is involved with the ongoing work on the municipal center.

What he thinks of public art: “I think investment in public art is going to be a benefit to the community in the long run. It will draw more people to Ann Arbor.” As for specific projects, Clein said he’d like to see a wind sculpture downtown. He described the potential artwork as discs applied to a surface that move with air currents. “There’s this artist who does these wind sculptures. I’d love to see them cover the wall of the AT&T building with a wind sculpture.”

About the author: Helen Nevius, a student at Eastern Michigan University, is an intern with The Ann Arbor Chronicle. 

A Bluestone Realty sign is still on the former Ann Arbor Art Center building at 220 Felch St., but the building was sold last week to ICON Technologies.

When Rob Cleveland of ICON Technologies sent us a press release about his firm’s purchase of the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Felch Street property, we took the opportunity to get an update on the center’s plans for its main Liberty Street site.

We reported last year that the art center, like virtually all nonprofits, was struggling financially and faced a budget shortfall. Last August, with two weeks left in their fiscal year, they’d launched a “Close the Books in the Black Campaign” to raise $20,000. So how was the center faring financially now?

The sale of the Felch property – also known as the Art Factory – helps their financial outlook, said Marsha Chamberlin, the center’s CEO. (She spoke to us by phone from New York City, where she’s visiting her daughter this week.) Proceeds will be used to pay down debt and “put a little in the bank,” she said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Chamberlin said they got “a very good price.” When the building went on the market in September, it was listed for $1.1 million.

ICON Technologies, an Ann Arbor-based online marketing agency with offices on South State Street, made an offer within a week of the listing. Environmental studies, working through requirements for an SBA loan and dealing with the due diligence of its lenders – especially in the wake of last fall’s nationwide financial meltdown – pushed back the closing. The final papers were signed on Feb. 20 just before 6 p.m., Chamberlin said.

The Ann Arbor Art Center building at 117 W. Liberty.

The building sale was part of a three-year plan to bring all of the center’s activities under one roof, and is unrelated to the center’s involvement in a proposal to redevelop the city-owned 415 W. Washington site. More on that later.

The center owns the downtown Ann Arbor building at 117 W. Liberty, which houses its offices, retail shop and galleries, as well as its drawing and painting studios. They’d bought the Felch Street building in the mid-1990s because they’d been renting studio space elsewhere and figured “if we’re going to put money into it, let’s at least own it,” Chamberlin said.

Over the years, their space needs changed. At 11,000 square feet, the Felch building was too large for the center’s needs, and they’d been renting out extra square footage to other tenants. In the past they’d also rented space at the Liberty Street location, though there aren’t any tenants there now. That gives them room to bring the ceramic and jewelry studios now at the Art Factory back to the main downtown site, Chamberlin said. The center’s staff is working with Rizzolo Brown & Novak Architects to do space planning and remodeling – they plan to vacate Felch by June 1.

The economy is affecting the Ann Arbor Art Center just as it’s affecting other arts and cultural groups, Chamberlin said. Membership is down 25% over the past two years. They now have about about 1,000 members – at their high point five years ago, that number was close to 2,700.

In other cases, there are some mixed signs. December sales for the gift shop were down, but this January sales exceeded the previous year. Fall registration for art center classes exceeded their expectations by 20%, she said, but dropped for the winter term. Community giving is down, but they’re about to announce the sponsorship of the center’s 100th anniversary this year with a “generous donation,” Chamberlin said.

Even so, at the end of December Chamberlin had to retool the budget based on a less optimistic forecast. They’ve been meeting those new numbers, she said, but “by the skin of our teeth.”

Despite those challenges, she described the sale of Felch and consolidation into 117 W. Liberty as a strategic reorganization, not a retrenchment. The changes will make the art center more of a hub for all their activities. “Everything we do will be a lot more visible,” she said.

As for the status of the 415 W. Washington project, “we wish we knew,” she said. The art center is the lead partner in a proposal to redevelop that site, and was one of three finalists selected by an advisory committee to city council. However, as previously reported in The Chronicle, the committee did not make a single recommendation, saying they liked elements from all three final proposals and asking the city to “refine” its RFP (request for proposal) and have the three finalists reapply under the new RFP. To date, the refined RFP has not yet been released, so the art center and others vying for this project are on hold.

Though they’ve worked on this project for more than three years, it’s just as well that there’s been a delay, said Chamberlin, because the Felch sale and the response to the economic climate have occupied the art center’s focus.

Downtown Ann Arbor outside the Ann Arbor Art Center.

The juried exhibition “Displaced Spirit” ended Nov. 11 at the Ann Arbor Art Center, but the following day, a small selection of pieces from the show lingered briefly for a few minutes outside the center on Liberty Street. As Cathy Jacobs loaded up a van for transport of her work back home, The Chronicle happened by and had a chance to view her contributions to the show.

The exhibit was meant to celebrate the creative spirit that survives war and genocide. Works for the show were selected from 14 Michigan-based artists who endured forced displacement from their home countries whether directly through their own experience or that of their parents or grandparents.

Two of Jacobs’ works were painted in traditional oil about four years ago. She has since switched over to egg yolk tempera painting, which was popular back to the 1300s. The switch to tempera painting isn’t due to any kind of resurgence of popularity on the local Ann Arbor painting scene, but rather to a desire to avoid the fumes of oil paints. Jacobs has not availed herself of one of the new city of Ann Arbor chicken-keeping permits in order to obtain eggs for her art, but said that it is important to use fresh eggs. She gets hers from the farmers market or Whole Foods.

Cathy Jacobs with her painting (lying horizontal), "Caught in Adolescence."

Helping his friend Jacobs load the van was a gentleman many Ann Arborites would recognize more easily in front of a big pot of lobster bisque than holding a playing-card-themed tempera painting: Jules Van Dyck-Dobos, who with his wife is chef and owner of of Le Dog. Jules’ sense of taste isn’t limited to soup – he gets at least some of the credit for eliminating the clutter of an empty plastic crate from the photograph we’ve included in this piece.