Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 50

SECTION inside: Theater The 1995 Shaw Festival opens with "You Never Can Tell," reviewed on Page 3G. Sunday, May 28, 1995 Crossword, Page 3 Horoscope, Page 6 Movie Guide, Page 8 Call Entertainment: 1-313-222-6828 Detroit 4frcc Stress A LERj JOHN COLUERDetrott Free Press Pam and Tim Hill designed their new gallery on Brown Street in Birmingham. "Finding this building was very fortunate," says Tim Hill. "We were able to make the kind of changes here that make it a real art gallery." Galleries Play Musical Chairs The Birmingham art scene is changing OWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM is main line the prime location, the city of choice for most of the art galleries in metropolitan Detroit. This suburban town boasts 16 major galleries selling the best of contemporary and modern art, crafts, antiquities and children's book illustrations.

But over the next few months, turmoil will strike this cozy enclave's heart. One gallery is closing. One is moving into a larger space, leaving room for another to tliiitSb 1 take over. Rumors of other gallery moves, in and out of Birmingham, are floating around. It's a natural evolution from the 70s when Birmingham became.

a mecca for art sellers and buyers. The scene matured in the '80s, but now finds itself with competition cheaper rents in Ferndale and Pontiac, a restaurant scene in Royal Oak 1 1 in 1 iii. attracting potential art buyers and maybe even a renewed Detroit where there already is a JOHN COUJERDetroft Free Press Steven Morris is preparing to move the Morris Gallery to a smaller space. concentration of artist-run, galleries, is changing for better and worse in Birmingham. art scene of a joyous sort.

The Hill Gallery, which specializes in contemporary sculpture, painting and folk art, moves Wednesday. After more than 15 years in business, seven in their handsome but smallish Marsha I Miro Art INSIDE A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO BIRMINGHAM GALLERIES And representational art? It appeals to Klein, he says, because it is narrative. It is also a lot easier to seU. A sense of place Birmingham's infamous high rents certainly are a cause for these changes. Steven Morris says he could get a space at 57th and Madison in New York for what he is paying on Townsend.

Klein is cutting his overhead by two-thirds with his move. The Hills have built a superb space, obviously sinking in a lot of money. If Birmingham seems in a bit of a flutter, so is the art market. Jan van der Marck, curator of 20th-century art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, says See MIRO, Page 7G career, the couple say they now can show the major, large-scale art they love and they can sell it from Birmingham. Finally, on June 1st, David Klein will move his gallery from Woodward to the Hill's smaller vacated Townsend location.

For Klein, who has been an art dealer for just five years, the change is a way to make his business more manageable. He was 23 when he opened in the summer of 1990. "I've been trying to find a niche here," says Klein. "We're cleaning house. I'm going to eliminate a number of artists and focus on artists using new technologies and artists who do representational work." Klein already has a show planned on the Internet with a New York gallery.

This is art's newest stuff. The big red-lettered "For Lease" sign in the window of the Donald Morris Gallery at 105 Town-send is harbinger of the saddest news. For a gallery that prided itself on selling the best and selling it in Detroit, New York and internationally, such a crude announcement of change is a bit of a shocker. But the Morris Gallery, paterfamilias of the scene after 37 years in business, is rethinking itself. Donald and Florence Morris and their son Steven Morris aren't closing, but relocating.

They will likely move to a smaller space, maybe only an office space, where they can have occasional shows until they decide their next move. There is little doubt their presence in Michigan will wane, as business takes them more often to New York, Chicago and Europe. Down the block at 163 Townsend, the change is space, lim and Pam Hill have built their dream of a gallery a few blocks away on Brown Street. "This is a big thing for us," says Tim Hill. "We've bought a building.

We've put down some serious, committed roots in this town." At mid- Big cheese of the big top Battling the news-at-11 habit Bonds struggles to find a niche Ringmaster comes some si to town with Vanessa What, exactly, do we call the Big Apple Circus' Vanessa Thomas: ringmaster, ringmistress, ringlead I 1 Big Apple Circus By L.A. Johnson Free Press TV-Radio Writer Bill Bonds still has the touch whether he's battling fitness ma-ven Susan Powter in a war of words, getting archery lessons from hunter-rocker Ted Nugent, or quizzing Gennifer Flowers about Bill Clinton's sexual prowess. On "Bonds Tonight," week-nights at 11 on WJBK-TV (Channel ratings period this month with a fourth-place finish in its time slot, behind newscasts on Channel 4, Channel 7, and "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Channel 62. Bonds earned a 4 rating and a 7 share, tying the reruns of "MASH" on Channel 50. Each ratings point equals about 17,000 households.

A share is the percentage of all TV-viewing households that are watching a specific pro-; Thomas shares 'ringmaster chores at the Big Marty KOHN Family times t. Apple Circus. er? "Actually," she says, "when I announce the show I tell them that I'm the host, so that gets around it. The proper term is ringmaster," Thomas adds. Not that she insists on formality.

Hey, this is a woman whose job history includes performing the can-can with a bullwhip. That was the year the Big Apple Circus had a Wild West theme. This year's circus which pitches its big top tent at Meadow Brook June 16-27 is called "Grandma Meets Mummenschanz." The thread connecting the acts involves the clown character Grandma and the surrealistically costumed Swiss dance troupe, See CIRCUS, fage6G 2), Bonds asks the questions view- Bill Bonds ers want answered. He can be tough with the arrogant and tender with the sincere, but not many people have been watching Detroit's former No. 1 news an gram.

Ratings aren't everything, Bonds har-( See BONDS, Page 4G chor in his new show. Channel 2 wins at 10 p.m., Page 4G. The program survived its first Nielsen 1 .,) i.