The seeds of our group were sewn back in 1996 when three of us met while taking a sculpture class from artist Jane Bunge Noffke We and a number of others took classes from Jane in her studio housed within a wonderful grassroots cultural community that no longer exists. The building was called the Ann Arbor Technology Center located on West Washington and Third. It was a funky, fun, atmosphere oozing inspiration. Housing; painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, actors and singers it was perpetually buzzing with activity. At that time just entering building you could inhale the creativity, or maybe that was something else? One of the surviving organizations formerly housed there, the 555 Gallery, eventually had to move to Detroit to find affordable space to rent
The building was bought by the Ann Arbor YMCA and was torn down in the summer of 2003. The loss of the Tech Center and the preceding maternity leave by Jane force us to move out on our own. We decided to search for our own space to rent so we could continue our sculpture addiction. Our first space was upstairs of the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Factory on Felch St. Hiring a model we met once a week to figuratively sculpt in clay. The Art Centers decision to use the space for drawing classes forced us to move again.
Today, Jeri Rosenberg, Bob Ongaro and I are still together. A range of other sculptors have come and gone over the years. Our current group has been sharing space for about 5 years. We have been joined by Kate Mendeloff, T.K. Liang , Susan Robinson Heaslip, and Doug White
This was our second year doing Art Walk in our studio at 416 W. Huron St in Ann Arbor. We had about 32 people visit the studio this past weekend and are discussing how we might work more collaboratively exhibiting in the future.
Barbara Melnik Carson 