Anton Art Center facts for kids
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| Established | 1904, 1969 |
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| Location | 125 Macomb Place Mt Clemens, Michigan 48043 United States |
The Anton Art Center is a cool place in Mount Clemens, Michigan, USA, where you can see and make art! It used to be called the Carnegie Library. This beautiful building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. This means it's an important historical spot.
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A Look Back: The History of the Art Center
The building was designed by Theodore VanDamme and built in 1904. It was special because it was the first library in Macomb County. A famous rich person named Andrew Carnegie paid for it. He gave $17,000 to help build it! Andrew Carnegie helped build 1,681 libraries across the United States. Even though it was a good size for Mount Clemens, it became too small. Many tourists visited the town for its mineral baths. The library couldn't hold everyone.
In 1969, the library moved to a new building. The old building then became home to a group called The Art Center. In 1978, the building was added to the State of Michigan Register of Historic Places. This also means it's an important historical site in Michigan. In 2005, a group called The Gebran and Suzanne Anton Foundation gave money. This money helped build a new part onto the old building. Because of this generous gift, the place was renamed the Anton Art Center.
What Happens at the Art Center?
The Anton Art Center is a busy place! It shows amazing art from artists who live nearby, across the country, and even from other parts of the world. You can see many different kinds of art here.
Art Classes and Special Displays
The Art Center also offers art classes for people in the community. You can learn how to draw, paint, or try other art forms. Sometimes, the Anton Art Center works with the Detroit Institute of Arts. This means they get to borrow special artwork from that big museum to show here! For example, a painting by the famous artist Vincent van Gogh was shown here in the 1990s. How cool is that?
The Building Itself: A Closer Look
The Anton Art Center is built in a style called Neoclassical architecture. This means it looks like old Greek and Roman buildings. It's made of red-orange bricks and sits on a raised basement. The front of the building is very balanced. It has a central entrance with tall, round columns called Doric columns. These columns hold up a triangular roof part. A stone staircase leads up to the main door.
Lighter colored bricks are used on the basement level. They also make a cool design at the top and on the corners of the building. There's a heavy ledge with decorative blocks running across the top. On either side of the main entrance, there are large wooden windows. These windows have stone sills and decorative tops. A new part was added to the back of the building in 2006.
