Meadow Brook Hall is well-known for it’s artistic involvement. This month, a group of Oakland University professors and a local artist converted this historic location into a venue for modern art in the exhibit “Brick & Mortar”.

The exhibit, which is located in Meadow Brook’s carriage house, opened Aug. 15 and will run through Sept. 15. It features original works of art from six local artists, five of which are OU professors.

The exhibit opens to visitors daily at 11:30 a.m. and can also be viewed as a part of the Meadow Brook Hall tours.

According to Meadow Brook Hall curator Meredith Long, she had been trying to use the hall as a venue for original art exhibits for some time, but the opportunity had never quite presented itself.

“We were really looking for innovative ways to use this historic museum house,” she said.

The idea for “Brick & Mortar” came from Richard Haley, artist and OU art professor, and Cody Vanderkaay, assistant professor of art and director of the studio art program at OU. Both professors co-curate the exhibit and are displaying original pieces.

When Vanderkaay approached him with the idea to do an exhibit, Haley said they immediately began organizing artists.

“The people in the exhibit are people we happen to teach with, but we also all get together as a group once a month and critique each other’s work,” Haley said.

According to Haley, the exhibit is architecturally-based to follow the theme of Meadow Brook’s 100th Anniversary Exhibition and features pieces such as  Vanderkaay’s over 10-foot-tall cinder block pillar and Haley’s “transported dirt hole.”

“I guess I was experimenting with the idea of being able to move a hole,” Haley said.

Originally, Haley and Vanderkaay wanted to make this exhibit an ongoing project.

“We had this big lofty idea to pair Detroit artists with national artists and do eight shows a year,” he said. “We wanted to export Detroit and import the rest of the nation.”

According to Haley, that is still “the ultimate goal.”

Long said she would like to see the space at Meadow Brook utilized in different ways and hopes to do more exhibits like “Brick & Mortar” in the future.

“There’s not one way to tell a story,” she said. “There are a hundred different ways.”

There will be a closing event for the exhibit in the Meadow Brook Hall carriage house Sept. 15.

“We’re having a closing instead of an opening,” Long said. “All of the artists will be here, and it’ll be a great time for them to discuss their work.”

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Contact Staff Reporter Jennifer Holychuk via email [email protected] or follow her on Twitter 

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