Guests peruse the 2024 edition of the Anton Art Center’s Holiday Art Market. The 2025 market starts on Nov. 18 and runs through Dec. 21 during the Art Center’s operating hours.
By: Dean Vaglia | Mount Clemens-Clinton-Harrison Journal | Published November 8, 2025
MOUNT CLEMENS — Throwbacks and tributes are aplenty at 125 Macomb Place as the Anton Art Center finishes up 2025 by highlighting a long-time collaborator, continuing its traditional art market and touching up old friends around the city.
Starting on Tuesday, Nov. 18 and running until Sunday, Dec. 21 on the second-floor gallery is Mary’s Garden, a solo exhibition of floral watercolors painted by Anton Art Center friend and collaborator Mary Hartman.
“(Hartman) taught in the Detroit and L’Anse Creuse public school districts and was instrumental in establishing the elementary art department in the L’Anse Creuse district,” Exhibition Manager Stephanie Hazzard said. “She has been an artist that’s been involved in our classes and our exhibitions over the years. She has worked mainly in watercolor for years and this show celebrates her floral watercolor (paintings).”
More than 40 of Hartman’s watercolor paintings will hang on the second floor’s walls, her floral-focused solo show debut adding to Hartman’s prior contributions to the Anton Art Center’s juried exhibitions.
“I think (“Mary’s Garden”) will be a nice reprieve when we’ve got colder weather rumbling toward us here in the winter months,” Hazzard said. “(Hartman) has been a gardener for much of her life, so these works are particularly special to her in celebrating her hobby as an avid gardener. I think it will be a nice show with lots of color on the wall.”
The opening reception for “Mary’s Garden” will take place on the second floor on Sunday, Nov. 23 from 1-3 p.m., where there will be a chance to meet with Hartman herself.
Just below “Mary’s Garden” on the first floor returns the Holiday Art Market, an Anton Art Center tradition that has been around for 47 years. Artists from around the region supply the show with works for sale and while that list includes acclaimed artists featured in the Anton Art Center’s exhibitions such as Cari Smith-Gammicchia, Executive Director Matt Mathews made note of several interesting contributors to the market.
“We have over 100 artists (and) about 25 new artists this year, so we’re excited to have some new pieces in the market that we haven’t had here before,” Matthews said. “One of the things we are really excited about this year are items for kids and youths. We intentionally sought out some young entrepreneurs to enter some of their items in the market, so we’ll have some youths selling some pieces that they’ve created and then we’ve got some other pieces that should be some great gifts for youths.”
Dutton Farm, the Rochester Hills-based adult education organization, has two pieces in the market for sale through a partnership between its “Art Without Limits” program and the Anton Art Center.
“Dutton Farm is an Oakland-Macomb organization that provides opportunities for adults with disabilities with job readiness, community involvement (and) some adult education pieces,” Matthews said. “They have a program called ‘Art Without Limits’ and … they have created two collaborative pieces that will be for sale in our market to help support their program and ours.”
Like “Mary’s Garden,” the art market runs from Tuesday, Nov. 18 until Sunday, Dec. 21 and will have an opening reception on the first floor on Sunday, Nov. 23 from 1-3 p.m. with opportunities to meet with participating artists.
While the Art Center’s staff and volunteers find themselves focused on “Mary’s Garden” and the market, the Art Center’s attention is being brought outside its walls for a project to restore three pieces of public art in Mount Clemens.
The three works — “Cecil,” the whimsical sea serpent-shaped bike rack located the Art Center’s Macomb Place entrance, “Galileo’s Night Vision,” the circular work located at the corner of Main and Market streets and “Conceptual Seats,” Lois Teicher’s interactive giant chairs located around Macomb Place — are currently being restored as part of a $47,300 project.
“Two of them need some metalwork to be done, so we found a fabricator who can do some of the metalwork and restore them to their original pieces,” Matthews said. “(For) one of the pieces, ‘Conceptual Seats,’ we’ve actually been in touch with the artist, and she’s connected us to the fabricator who can help restore that piece with some painting and get that brought back to its original intention.”
Funding for the project comes primarily from a $36,000 grant from the America250MI Committee as part of its efforts to engage Michiganders ahead of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary in 2026. The Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority is also providing $6,000 to the project, leaving a $5,300 funding gap to complete the restorations. The Art Center is seeking donations to fill the gap, which can be made online at theartcenter.org/restoration.