2 new creative hubs joining Detroit’s growing east side arts scene 

For more than 100 years, the Church of the Annunciation served the Catholic community on Detroit’s east side. 

The massive, Romanesque-style building on Parkview and Agnes streets was a beautiful sanctuary for thousands of families over the years to congregate, soak up the holy words of the Bible and form a spiritual home. 

In 2016, the church, then called Good Shepherd Catholic Church, closed its doors, merging with Our Lady Queen of Heaven near Van Dyke and Eight Mile. Eight years later, Good Shepherd has risen again, but it’s no longer a place of worship.

Now known simply as Good Shepherd is now simply known as The Shepherd, the space has and has been transformed into an arts and culture center with exhibitions, public projects and a performance space. The repurposing of the church is led by husband and wife duo Anthony and JJ Curis, the owners of downtown art gallery Library Street Collective. 

The former church houses two new gallery spaces open for programming opportunities on the mezzanine while the church altar has been turned into a massive space for performance and musical programming. And then there’s the Little Village Library, a public archive dedicated to artists of color who have contributedmade contributions to the arts in Michigan and beyond.

Next door in the former church rectory is ALEO (Angel, Lion, Eagle and Ox), a boutique bed and breakfast dedicated to providing a refuge for artists. And outside, the grounds of the Shepherd offer more than three acres of green space, including a sculpture garden and a skatepark that was co-designed by Tony Hawk. 

The Shepherd is part of the Library Street Collective’s Little Village, a recently opened arts hub in Detroit’s East Village neighborhood that also includes The Lantern, a building located a few blocks from The Shepherd on Kercheval. The former bakery is the new headquarters for arts nonprofits Signal-Return and Progressive Arts Studio Collective (PASC). 

About 15 minutes away on the border of Detroit and Hamtramck sits an average-sized brick building with a big backyard. The space is the home of the new nonprofit Buffalo Prescott. Named for its cross streets, the incubator, which opens later this summer, will offer artist residences as well as programming for the community, said founder and director Samara Furlong. 

While downtown and Midtown are known for being Detoit’s cultural districts, The Shepherd and Buffalo Prescott are the newest destinations in a growing arts and culture scene on the east side, which also include gems like Pewabic Pottery, The Heidelberg Project, Playground Detroit and Canfield Art Park. 

Anthony Curis told BridgeDetroit that he and JJ wanted to create a space that was more than just an art gallery, saying traditional galleries have a stigma on what’s accepted and who is included. 

“We really wanted to do something much bigger than that, much more important in our minds,” he said. “We wanted it to be more like a cultural arts space that had everything from exhibition spaces to a public library to space for performance and music and theater and other workshop space as well. The church had an ideal setup for that.” 

A ‘growing and evolving’ cultural district 

Renovating a church more than a century oldmore than 100 years old was not easy, Anthony Curis said. While the structure of Good Shepherd was solid, the general condition had deteriorated after years of inactivity. He and JJ bought the church in 2019 and were just starting plans for construction when the pandemic hit. The Shepherd is privately funded, Curis said, but didn’t disclose how much it cost to build it out. 

Once things began opening up again, Curis and his team still faced some challenges, like supply chain shortages and waiting for the city to approve the project and its multiple uses. After almost four years of construction and labor, The Shepherd and the Lantern held their grand openings May 18. 

Additionally, the Curises made sure the community has been involved in The Shepherd’s development from the beginning. They have met with groups like the East Village Association to gather their input on what they wanted to see in the space, Anthony Curis said. 

“The East Village Association, which is the main community group in the neighborhood, now hosts their monthly meetings at The Shepherd in the library. So, we’re really lucky to have those relationships and friendships, but also the support,” he said. 

The Curises have also partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) for The Shepherd’s inaugural exhibition, “Charles McGee: Time is Now.” The show honors the late Detroit artist, who died in 2021 at the age of 96, and the diversity of his work, which includes paintings, assemblages and sculptures. The exhibit is on display until July 20. 

The sculpture garden outside The Shepherd is also a tribute to McGee – the Charles McGee Legacy Park. Three large-scale sculptures make up the green space, which McGee conceptualized plans for before his passing, according to the Library Street Collective website. 

CurisAnthony said opening Little Village is a full circle moment due to his background in real estate development and his love for arts and culture. 

“Creating an opportunity like right here in the neighborhood that can be a landing spot for artists on an individual level, or different arts organizations is really unique,” he said. “We’re really thrilled with how it’s all coming together.” 

Next door to the sculpture garden is ALEO, the bed and breakfast. On a recent morning, director Lillian Elliot types away in her office, an oasis of quiet from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. Elliot hopes the hotel is a calming place for artists as well. While ALEO is open to everyone, the hotel is the home for the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation. Created by artist McArthur Binion, the foundation supports artists and writers of color through its visiting fellowship, artist residency and collection of international BIPOC art with a resident curator.

“Our fellowship is headquartered in ALEO. It has four fellows a year and they live on the third floor for four- to- six weeks at a time,” Elliot said. “It’s usually writers, poets and curators.”

ALEO has four suites available for booking, along with common areas, a sunroomsun room, dining room and kitchen. In the foundation’s headquarters, there’s an office, bedroom, two bathrooms and a kitchenette, Elliot said. 

“I’m super grateful to be a part of it and the revitalization of this side of town and not just the downtown area,” she said about the east side’s growing arts and culture scene. “It’s really cool to see where we are now and just all the plans for the future.”

Cosmically falling into place 

Furlong, 35, also envisionedwas also envisioning a creative hub where artists are immersed in the community when developing the idea for Buffalo Prescott. The artist has several years of experience researching and curating and in the art world at places like the Detroit Institute of Arts, MOCAD and the Dia Art Foundation in New York. Furlong said she was interested in creating something different. 

“I really want to help artists and support the community and then I’ve always been very into the institutional museum aspects of programming and research and a certain caliber of academia and art history,” she said.

Furlong drew inspiration for Buffalo Prescott when she curated the exhibit  “Divine Wisdom: Femme Alchemy Through Contemporary Art and Performance” at The Jam Handy in February. The show featured five female artists and the exploration of feminine strength and occult practices.

Furlong said she received messages from the artists for weeks, saying that they made friends and that they never felt so empowered. Some of those artists, like Olivia Guterson, Shaina Kasztelan and Sara Nickleson were set to graduate from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and wanted to find a new space to create their art. 

Shortly after the exhibit wrapped, fellow artist Chris Schanck came by Furling’s house to talk about the event. He then mentioned that he was leaving his studio space at the end of the summer. 

“I had already been looking at other buildings but…this place has so much soul and positive energy and this beautiful, big backyard. I knew it was right,” Furlong said. “When you take a step back and count the months, it’s wild, but like living it, it’s just very…it all just feels very meant to bme.” 

The building will have six studio spaces for artists and an open space for artists’artists talks, critiques and exhibits. Furlong formed partnerships with New York nonprofit Independent Curators International (ICI) to bring curators to the studio for guest critiques as well as the website Artsy to help facilitate sales and create digital exhibits. She plans to begin offering programming to the public later this month. 

Fostering a new community 

In addition, Furlong has already brought in five artists for Buffalo Prescott’s inaugural artist residency, including Guterson, Kasztelan and Nickleson. The artists will have opportunities to utilize the studio space for a year, as well as teaching and critique opportunities with industry leaders. This year’s cohort are all recent Cranbrook graduates, but Furlong plans to diversify the artist pool for next year’s residency. 

Guterson, 33, said she’s grateful to be going to have made a soft landing at Buffalo Prescott after graduating from Cranbrook with ana MFA in painting earlier this year. The Detroit artist mostly paints round canvases in blues, reds and blacks and creates intricate designs on top of the painted canvas using materials like beads, bones and shells. 

Guterson said it felt odd going from being in class with 15 other students to painting at her kitchen table. 

“It’s amazing to have landed softly here,” she said. “Yes, this is Samara’s vision, but there’s been the intention of co-creating it with us. And I think we all want to offer and witness what each other has to offer.”

Guterson is focused on finishing work for her first solo exhibit, opening July 27 at Louis Buhl & Co. downtown. But she also wants to make sure Buffalo Prescott highlights parent artists like herself. Gutertson has a three-year-old son and Furlong has a one-year-old daughter. 

I just want to have a crazy cohort of badass artists moms,” she said, laughing. “I wouldn’t have been able to go to school or any of these things without them cheering me on. I want to break down these barriers; literally arts for everybody. I think we need to create way more pathways for it to just be there.” 

Guterson’s other goals for the residency include making her best work yet, spending as much time as possible with her son and learning from elders in the community. She’s also thinking about sustainability and creating connections. Guterson’s long-term goal is to have a decades-long career where she’s still pushing paint at 90. 

“I want to adopt like five grandparents,” she said. “I want to mentor but I also want to be mentored because I am so grateful that I’ve gotten to where I’m at and I have no idea what’s possible next. I just want to live fully and make sure that everyone around me is as well.”