The Hannan Center Director of Arts and Culture Richard Reeves recently sat down and did a Zoom interview with artist Ira Russell. Have a look!
The Hannan Center Director of Arts and Culture Richard Reeves recently sat down and did a Zoom interview with artist Carol Cook Reid. Have a look!
During the recent Diego Rivera/Frida Kahlo exhibit at the DIA, Hannan artists not only had an opportunity to tour the exhibit but also to create their own retablos as seen in the gallery. Using clay, workshop artists designed, fashioned and painted their individual retablos, telling stories they shared with each other. For five weeks in May and June, they worked at the DIA studio with instruction and guidance from Byron Nemela and Vito Valdez.
Through this community art program, the DIA continues to partner with local agencies providing unique art experiences for groups touring the galleries and creating in the studio. Reflecting on what they see and learn about in the galleries, each participant is able to express their own thoughts and emotion in the work they create. These pieces are now on exhibit in the Kayrod Gallery Summer Open. As the pictures show….this group included a preschooler!
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Bob Sestok conducted a series of workshops with older artists (see below) in 2010 to share mutual experience and ideas from which he drew inspiration for the “Sunbeam” sculpture now installed as the center piece in a newly created pocket park in front of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation.
Sestok describes his piece as a functional sculpture constructed of welded bronze, interpreting nature in both abstract and representational imagery. Using squares and spheres protruding from a central core representing the energy of the sun and the movement of water, the piece is designed to engage community and highlight the Hannan Foundation as a center of growth and creativity.
The Hannan Foundation is deeply grateful to the Erb Family Foundation for its grant making this project possible. Additional thanks and appreciation for contributions from Edith Sestok, Gilbert and Lila Silverman, Steve and Kelly Pappas, Myron and Joyce Labau, Jim and Lynn Harper, Dennis Nawrocki, Vern and Evie Wheat and Skip Davis.
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Artists: Matt Lachowski, and Deanne Rogers, with in-kind support from the Ceramic Department at Wayne State University. Senior artists from at Hannan reviewed the work visiting the design studio at WSU and meeting with the artists throughout the project.
Commissioned by the Foundation in 2010, this installation was conceived and designed to provide a link between the surrounding urban landscape and the diverse daily activity within the Hannan Non-Profit Service Center, exemplifying the creative energy inside and out!
The Community Group Program at the DIA is a unique opportunity for the museum to partner with local agencies to provide one-of-a-kind art experiences in the galleries and studio with DIA teaching artists. This program is based on studio teaching philosophy which engages students, encouraging personal expression and reflection through art.
Projects are tailored to the needs of individual groups including a variety of art making materials. The highlight of the program is the annual group art exhibit in the DIA’s Gibbs Gallery, for the enjoyment of the entire museum community and public. Thanks to Byron Nemela and Soh Suzuki for facilitating and teaching this workshop for Hannan artists and to Scott Lane for the photographs.
Four master artists/ educators were engaged to bring their talents and experience to the community in multi-generational tours and drop-in workshops free and open to the public. Families and people of all ages were recruited to attend.
Eric Mesko, Small Wooden Sculptures
Participants created small wooden animals, people and structures. Participants were focused on creating a sculpture, several were completed and some took theirs home for additional work and painting. Eric is a sculptor and painter, teaching many years in elementary schools and Macomb Community College. He has exhibited in the Kayrod Gallery with a solo show in 2003 and in most group shows annually.
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Beginning with a tour of galleries at the DIA, participants learned from Vito about the physical making of a variety of work, the maker/artist and the story they left behind. They toured several galleries at the DIA and returned to Hannan for lunch and artist’s talk followed by discovery of self exercises and drawing of sketches to be used the following week. On November 16 participants returned for printmaking and milk painting. Vito has been living and working in Southwest Detroit for 30 years. In addition to his own work as painter and muralist, he works in the education department at the DIA. He has exhibited in the Kayrod Gallery, recently in a three artist exhibit in 2013 and in group shows.
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