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All About
the
Arts
OAKLAND COUNTY IS A LAUNCHING
PAD FOR CREATIVE CAREERS
By Dorothy Hernandez
Photos: James Haefner
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Affleck
House in Bloomfield Hills.
WITH TOP-NOTCH SCHOOLS, WORLD-CLASS EXHIBIT
and viewing spaces and award-winning artists, Oakland County
is an artist’s playground. Resources here have helped artists like
Birmingham-based oil painter Weatherly Stroh, who specializes in
capturing animals’ expressive nature in her works. Her education
at Cranbrook-Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills primed her for an
arts career.
“Being surrounded by the beautiful architecture, sculpture and
artistic details was very inspirational,” Stroh says of her time at
Cranbrook-Kingswood. She was recognized as one of the Oakland
County Executive’s Elite 40 under 40 in 2013. She also won the 2014
MI Great Artist program, founded by Oakland County Executive L.
Brooks Patterson to promote the county.
CRYSTAL CLEAR
Another artist who has made a name for herself in Oakland County
is April Wagner of Epiphany Studios in Pontiac. Once featured
on PBS’ A Craftsman’s Legacy, Wagner opened her state-of-the-art
glassblowing studio in 1997. Twice a year, she invites visitors to
check out the process in action.
When deciding where to locate, Wagner liked Pontiac for its
central location.
“We had such a great client base here that it just made sense,”
she says. “The people in this area are generally very supportive of
things that are handmade and artistic … there’s a mentality here of
appreciating things that are created by hand.”
CRADLE OF ART
Many other artists have gotten started in Oakland County,
specifically at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Some of the world’s most
renowned designers and artists — Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames and
Nick Cave among them — have taught or studied there.
Other famous artists have left their mark on Oakland County,
including architect Frank Lloyd Wright. An extension of the principles
he first developed in his early 1900s Prairie-style residences, Wright’s
Usonian homes were designed to exist harmoniously with nature and
meet housing needs of middle-class Americans.
Two prime examples of the Usonian philosophy are the Affleck
House and the Melvyn Maxwell and Sara Stein Smith House in
Bloomfield Hills, both on the National Register of Historic Places.
ART FOR EVERYONE
More public art has made its way into communities. Royal Oak
recently established the East 11 Mile Road Public Art Program, a
permanent display of art along 11 Mile Road. In Pontiac, Canvas
Pontiac also aims to promote art and culture downtown.
Oakland County also hosts world-renowned art fairs. Founded
in 1957, the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center’s mission is to
connect people of all ages and abilities with visual arts education,
exhibition and other creative experiences.
It has been the site of the Michigan Fine Arts Competition
annually since 1982, when the Detroit Institute of Arts turned the
statewide competition over to the BBAC. Every year, more than 500
artists around the Midwest enter the competition. Many winners
have gone on to national prominence as a result of participating.
Dorothy Hernandez is managing editor of Hour Detroit magazine.
ADVANTAGEOAKLAND.COM 2016 21