When Anthony Marcellini first started going to art school, he thought, ‘Oh my God, this is MY place!”
As he moved into teaching and as his administrative duties grew – “Any teacher will tell you those aren’t fun,” he said with a smile – it began to feel less that way.
Now Marcellini, the program manager for STEP’s third Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC), has gotten that old feeling of excitement back again.
The new studio on Kercheval in Detroit – it joins a studio in Westland and a studio/gallery in Southgate – is home to a variety of artists dealing with various disabilities, all clamoring for a place to find their artistic selves.
And Marcellini says it’s working.
“I think the artwork coming out of this studio is amazing,” said Marcellini, himself an artist and a former teacher and gallery curator. “I think the environment of this kind of studio … you feel how much positive energy there is. Walking into these studios, you’re like, ‘THIS is what it’s supposed to feel like’ again.”
That’s kind of how Hannah Lilley feels about it. An artist herself, working for PASC lets her “be around art all day.”
“It helps inspire me,” said Lilley, the gallery’s lead art advisor who has been there since August 2021. “I worked in a studio like this before, so for me it’s comfortable.
“I feel like I identify with many of the things here,” she added. “I feel like I understand the emotions that go into this.”
Surrounded by a café, a beer bar, a clothing boutique, a music company called Assemble Sound that helps showcase emerging musicians, and Signal Return, a Detroit nonprofit dedicated to preserving and teaching traditional letterpress printing.
The new studio moved to the Kercheval location from a facility owned by its parent organization, STEP, and opened in May. The 4,300-square-foot gallery is located in a neighborhood quickly being redeveloped into a sort of artists’ colony that will include a café, a beer bar, a clothing boutique and a music studio, Assemble Sound, dedicated to emerging musicians. There are also a couple of more traditional art galleries in the neighborhood.
PASC’s next-door neighbor, Signal Return, is a Detroit nonprofit dedicated to preserving and teaching traditional letterpress printing.
“This space is the first of its kind in Detroit, and the first one of our programs in Detroit that is public, has its own gallery, and will end up being the hub of all of our programs,” Marcellini said. “The art world in southeast Michigan is really kind of located in Detroit. When we do exhibitions in Detroit, that tends to be our area of highest engagement and sales.”
Marcellini knows about the art community in metro Detroit. He came to STEP and PASC from the Soul Studio program at Friendship Circle in West Bloomfield.
Marcellini, who grew up with dyslexia and whose mother survived polio, said disabilities have “always been part” of his life.
“I was always aware of this world, there are 60-some-odd of these kinds of places across the U.S., so I was always aware of this,” he said. “I’d always wanted to start a program” like PASC in Detroit.
He approached STEP about starting this kind of program “because I knew there was a very high population of people with disabilities here.”
PASC is an open program for artists with disabilities to “do whatever they want.” It is unencumbered by classroom teaching and instead provides one-on-one support as wanted and needed.
“It’s a professional development model … the best way to do that is to create your own unique style, so that’s what we do,” he said. “We take a hands-off approach, step back and sometimes provide some (advice).”
Art advisor Renee Willoughby has worked with the artists at PASC since 2022, and moved to the Kercheval location when it opened in March.
She said having a “more public face” for the studio has been a big help.
“I enjoy helping build people’s creative practices and seeing their confidence bloom,” Willoughby said. “I like to think they learn from me, but I know I learn from them, too.”
Last fall, PASC benefitted from a fundraising campaign that raised more than $50,000 and came with a matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The studio also benefits from some of the federal funding received under Medicaid by STEP, got a grant from the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan – “That was great,” Marcellini said – and smaller grants from the NEA and Michigan Arts and Cultural Council.
It’s an open studio that offers no classes, but that doesn’t mean there’s not any teaching going on. It’s just more one-on-one, rather than one person standing in front of a classroom.
“Everyone is totally different in here … We really want people to feel confident in their own way of working, and we let them do that,” Marcellini said. “We observe how they’re working and then provide support if it’s wanted or needed.
“That’s really important for each of our artists to have their own style, and the best way to do that is to let them do their own thing,” he added. “It’s also extremely important for them to be in an environment where they can pretty much do what they want. Often, if you have a disability, you’re in situations where people are telling you what to do, how to do it, when to do it … it’s very controlled. Here, it’s pretty much their space, and they tell us what they want and what they need. That’s extremely empowering for this population.”
PASC is now embarking on a second fundraising campaign, aimed at raising another $50,000 to help cover moving expenses and move-in costs, plus the cost of actually running the gallery.
Anyone wishing to donate can find the PASC donation page here.
“We’ll probably do fundraisers every year,” Marcellini said. “This program is great, it definitely brings in revenue, but it costs a lot, as well.”
The gallery, which has sold some $3,900 worth of art since the June 1, hosts shows every 6-8 weeks. The next one, “People Are People, opens June 20 from 5-7 p.m.
It’s an exhibition of 53 portraits of known and unknown persons that seeks to portray the diverse and complex task of representing the human form. The exhibition features artworks by nine PASC artists, showcasing the distinctiveness of their styles of representation.
Participating artists include Jerri Burks, Sereal Crawford, Ashley Hawkins, Ronald Griggs, Keisha Miller, Alsendoe Owens, John Peterson, Thomas Saunders and Marear Smith, and Aaron Taylor.
The PASC gallery, located at 9301 Kercheval Ave, Suite 2, in Detroit, is open Thursday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment. There’s also an online gallery.
For more information, call 313-267-9797.
“I hope people are really interested in the work and they think it’s a cool project,” Mancellini said. “The artwork is great.”
