Out & in

Yow! Spaces on the high-profile Woodward strip in Ferndale are changing hands and getting used more and more creatively as we speak. Lemberg Gallery, long one of the gotta-see destinations of the Birmingham art scene, will be taking over the space currently occupied by weekly mag Real Detroit on August 1. Gallery director Darlene Carroll couldn’t contain her excitement as she informed MT of the impending move: "All of us (at Lemberg) just love getting up every morning, now that we’ve got this project under way." Carroll described in detail Lemberg’s two-year attempt to relocate to Ferndale, and its culmination in what promises to be one of the Metro’s hip new art sectors. "With Revolution (another gallery) just next door, we can coordinate openings and late-night schedules," says Carroll. The old space needs to be built out and transformed from business offices into brightly lit, airy walls for contemporary exhibitions, so art fans shouldn’t expect to see the work of Detroit sculptors Wendy MacGaw and Ted Hadfield and Cranbrook painter Beverley Fishman right away. Carroll says an inaugural show should be in place by October, featuring a selection of the gallery’s artists – Jane Hammond, Suzanne McClelland, Suzanne Caporael and William Wood, among them. And what about the renowned billboard at Revolution’s end of the building? Revolution’s pioneering work in getting artists to install creative visions on the outside north wall facing Woodward had recently been replaced by adlike displays. But Lemberg’s new lease allows the return of billboard control to both galleries. Persistence and inspiration prevail in a win-win outcome.