FINE ARTS

THE CONVERSION

ADRIEN CHANDLER

Special to The Jewish News

T

here is nothing paro-
chial about the resur-
rection of St. Freder-
ick's. The old red brick school
building, tucked inconspicu-
ously behind St. Vincent de
Paul's Catholic Church in
downtown Pontiac, sat dor-
mant for at least 20 years. Its
hallways used to echo with
voices, students bustling from
class to class dressed in oxford
shirts and neckties, plaid
skirts and black patent-
leather Mary Janes. Its rooms
used to be filled with squirm-
ing children in neat rows of
wooden desks, learning math,
grammar, civics and
catechism.
Now a renaissance is occur-
ring within its peeling, dusty
and austere interior. St.
Fred's has found salvation at
the hands of some local ar-
tists. The old school has
become a haven — a sanc-
tuary in the shadow of the
church spires — for the ar-
tists, about half of whom are
Jewish. Almost the entire se-
cond floor of the building
houses Jewish artists who
create in clay, fabric, metal,
paper and paint.
The irony of free-flowing
creativity in a place that was
once a bastion of structured
Catholic instruction isn't lost
on them. "I just pull into the
parking lot and I feel in-
spired," says fiber and con-
struction artist Ronni Feuer.
Painter Dale Sparage jok-
ingly wonders if the
building's former use is the
cause of an occasional artistic
block. "I'm in the old Latin
room. I think some of the
energy is left over. And with
some of the frustration I feel,
maybe there's some spooks
hanging around."
Setting up studios in an old
parochial school building
wasn't as much inspiration as

58

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1990

Above:
Textile sculptor Ronni
Feuer weaves her
magic.
At right:
Dale Sparage, while
painting, has to ignore
the view from her
studio.

it was mundane. St.
Frederick's has existed in its
new incarnation as artists'
studios for only a year. Dale
Sparage, painter Bertha
Cohen and handmade paper
artist Linda Golden were
already working in another
building in Pontiac, but liked
the prospects for better space,
light and cost at the old
school. Ronni Feuer moved in
after returning from Florida.
In spite of ongoing renova-
tions, the artists feel St.
Fred's is a divine place to
create. "It's a beautiful
space," says ceramicist Tessa
Stein. "High ceilings,
wonderful windows and at-
tractive rents."
While converting the old
building exclusively into ar-
tists' studios wasn't the
original intent of St. Fred's
owner, he apparently took to
the idea. "I think he found
that you don't have to do
much fixing up for artists,"
says sculptor Sylvia Perle.
In fact, Pontiac is a drawing
card for artists, a kind of
SoHo for metro Detroit. Other
areas, like Royal Oak, once
considered a reasonably pric-
ed location, now suffer from
spiraling rental rates. Ann
Treadwell, executive director
of the Creative Arts Center
says there has been a stable
arts community in Pontiac for
at least 20 years. Recently,
though, the city has ex-
perienced an increase in the
number of professional artists
using studio and housing
space there.
Approximately 75. artists
maintain studios in the
downtown Pontiac area.
Nearly twice that live there.
They affectionately call their
slightly-less-than-gentrified
but flourishing community
"PoHo." (SoHo — south of
Houston Street —in an ar-
tists' area in New York.)
Breathing new life into old,
unwanted buildings is not
unusual for arts corn-