(From left) Cluster Museum cofounders Kim DeBord, Chien-An Yuan, and Thea A. Eck aim to use their new gallery to provide opportunities for Washtenaw County’s emerging and established artists and writers. | J. Adrian Wylie
A former ballet studio on N. Main is ready for a star turn in a new artistic direction. Cluster Museum, a new collaborative of local artists, hosts a small commercial gallery with art supplies for sale in the front section. Behind the wide viewing window is an ample floor for contemporary thematic exhibits, workshops, and author readings.
Cofounder and director Thea A. Eck says this center of cultural gravity “grew from years of conversations about having just more art spaces in Ann Arbor that are led by artists, that are showing artists. Because there’s just not enough.”
Along with fellow artists and cofounders Kim DeBord and Chien-An Yuan, Eck aims to feature both emerging and established artists and writers, whether as a direct sales channel for smaller works (in the $100 to $2,000 range), an art placement service for pricier pieces, or through conceptual programming in the exhibit gallery.
For professional artists based in Washtenaw County, “if they lived in Chicago or one of these bigger cities, of course there’s galleries for them to show at, but they choose to live here,” she says. “How can we provide services or opportunities for these artists to show where they live?”
Fiscally sponsored by NEW (Nonprofit Enterprise at Work) at the outset, they’re in the “weird, nebulous stage” of heading toward nonprofit establishment and eligibility for grant-funding programs.
“We got lucky” in finding a suitable space to lease for just a year or two, since most landlords seek longer commitments, Eck explains, adding that Wickfield Properties proved amenable given its longer-term redevelopment ambitions for its holdings on that block between Miller and Kingsley.
The free exhibits in the back gallery feature “both national and local artists, mid-career and professional,” Eck says, curated with unifying concepts that rotate monthly. Their first—The Dam Broke: A Portrait on Tyranny—featured works that delve into fascism and authoritarianism.
“We’re coming out swinging with an opinion,” she says with a punctuating laugh. “I mean, we’re artists. We couldn’t shy away from what’s happening.”
Cluster Museum, 307 N. Main. Wed.–Fri. 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Closed Sun.–Tues. clustermuseum.org
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