Murals & Beyond

Murals have been popping up like wildflowers on downtown buildings. Since 2019, fifteen have been completed and more are planned.

The A2AC Murals program is curated by the Ann Arbor Art Center. But the couple who have sown the seeds, cultivated them, and helped bring them into bloom are Larry and Lucie Nisson.

Married forty-five years, the Nissons emerged from difficult childhoods to prosper as family therapists and landlords. They’re also artists who believe that investing in the arts fuels economic development.

A decade ago, they helped launch the Ann Arbor Westside Art Hop, where artists display their work in homes, studios, and front porches and invite people in. “The goal is to spread beauty,” says Larry, “and help artists have a place to show and sell their work.” The biannual event returns October 1 and 2 with eighty-seven artists in thirty-seven sites (see Events).

When it comes to supporting art in public, the couple put their money where their heart is. In 2015, the Nissons were among the founding sponsors of POP-X, a ten-day, pop-up visual arts festival. Lucie wrote in the brochure that it was “part of a long-term vision to encourage visual arts in Washtenaw County.” Now they’re helping transform downtown Ann Arbor with enormous, compelling murals. While the art center has secured support from crowdfunding and state grants to help pay artists and other expenses, the program is made possible by the Lucie & Larry Nisson Art in Public Program.

“Larry and Lucie are passionate about art,” says former art center executive director Marie Klopf, “and their support led to an epic growth at the center.” 

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Sitting in the Nissons’ living room in the Eberwhite neighborhood is like being inside a faceted gemstone. All around are stained glass windows, glass sculptures, and mosaics, one more colorful and breathtaking than the next. It’s a kaleidoscope come to life.

Their backyard is a continuation of the beauty. The yard slopes from the back towards the house with dozens of Larry’s large glass sculptures embedded between streams that cascade into ponds. The serenity of the yard is palpable when you walk through the wooden gate.

“We like surrounding ourselves with art,” says Larry. “It makes us feel good.

“I grew up in a house where I was ashamed to have anyone over,” he says, then motions around. “Now, we’re proud of our house.” 

He was raised in a series of homes in the poorest section of Dayton, Ohio. “My father struggled,” he says. “He grew up in an orphanage and lost job after job after job and was never able to provide for the family.” The effect of that childhood instilled the need to be self-sufficient and assume personal responsibility.

He excelled in school—it was something he could control—and went on to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Every summer, he went back to Dayton and sold laundry supplies door-to-door to pay for his tuition. He graduated in four years, Phi Beta Kappa, with no student-loan debt.

Lucie also had family issues at home as a child but prefers not to revisit those memories. “I grew up in a negative environment,” she says. “Now, I try to make things positive.” The great joys of their lives are their son, Michael, his wife Chrissy, and their two grandchildren. Lucie and Larry babysit regularly. All of which explains the mosaic Lucie created and had mounted over their front door: it says “GRATITUDE.” 

Yet when she was an undergrad at Wellesley College, an art history teacher told Lucie bluntly she had no talent. “I thought I had no artistic ability. None.” It was only years later, on one of their walks downtown, that she peered into the window of a mosaic studio on Ashley and felt the artwork calling to her. “When I started making mosaics, a whole new world opened up for me.” 

The couple, who met at a party in Ann Arbor, spent their professional careers as psychotherapists (Nisson & Nisson) and conducted marriage workshops. In 1979, with a gentle nudge from Lucie’s father, they also began investing in residential real estate.

The first real estate deal, though, was a disaster. They lost money, and it was a blow to Larry’s confidence. “Looking back, I realize it was the best thing that could happen to me,” he says. “I learned you can lose money in real estate very quickly.” They retreated from real estate for a couple of years, learned from their mistakes, and got back into it. “I don’t give up,” he says.

Their company, Rental Homes of Ann Arbor, now owns and manages dozens of single-family homes all over town. Chrissy’s mother, Ann Carino, is the property manager. “Relationships are important to us,” Larry says. “We treat our rental properties as if we lived in them ourselves.” 

In 2014, Lucie inherited a community foundation fund from her mother, with the stipulation that all the money must go to 501(c)3 nonprofits. She and Larry combined the bequest with their own resources, and the A2AC’s Art in Public project was up and running.

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The Nissons’ love of art is personal. In addition to mosaics, Lucie paints and works with fabrics. Her most recent painting captures the tragedy of the fires that have ravaged California’s redwood forests, a beloved destination where she and Larry have been hiking for decades.

Larry is a glass artist, glass blower, and sculptor—work that involves a lot of sweat. In his Plymouth studio, the furnace is 2,000 degrees, and when he slides the heavy metal door open, heat pours out like a physical force. To protect himself in the summer, he wears a vest with ice packs. He still sweats.

He prefers to work in the studio alone. The process, he says, is meditative. The day I visited, he was making “gratitude glasses.” 

During the pandemic, he designed a series of colorful glasses, then assembled a team of glass blowers to make more than 1,000 of them. He handed them out to staff and board members at nonprofits where he does pro bono work as an executive coach. “Then I asked my friends, ‘is there a good organization you’re affiliated with where people are exhausted and overwhelmed?’” he says. He ended up giving glasses to people at dozens of nonprofits, including Girls Group, the Shelter Association, and Food Gatherers. A note was placed in each glass thanking them for their work.

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Art in public can be more than beautiful; it can also be a catalyst for social change. Enter Nancy Margolis, executive director of Embracing Our Differences SE Michigan, a nonprofit that uses the power of art and education to celebrate the diversity of the human family.

When Lucie heard about the program, she was the first person to donate. In May, the group installed sixty billboard-sized vinyl banners featuring artwork from local, national, and international artists in parks in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. All were aimed at sparking discussions about our differences and the diversity of our individual and shared experiences. Though they were scheduled to come down on September 30, Larry and Lucie are working on ideas for repurposing them throughout the county.

The Nissons’ next project is promoting “yard art” in residential neighborhoods. Once the program launches—tentatively in 2023—homeowners will be able to apply for a mini-grant to buy materials for a yard project. “Yard art can add beauty to a neighborhood,” Lucie says, adding a thought from her therapy days: “Looking at art elicits emotions that are usually positive and powerful.” 

They are also involved in painting planter boxes on downtown streets. There are twenty-three concrete planters on Fourth, Washington, Huron, and Liberty, and their friend and fellow public arts advocate, Ed Shaffran, is spearheading the work. The planters in front of Shaffran’s office on Fourth Ave. are scheduled to be painted this month.

“We love adding beauty into the world,” Larry says, “and we want art in public to continue to grow in Ann Arbor.”