​Miller Manor's artist in residence keeps Ann Arbor public housing building colorful for 20 years

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By Ryan Stanton ryanstanton@mlive.com

​Dozens of colorful murals and framed paintings adorn the walls inside Ann Arbor's Miller Manor public housing building overlooking West Park.

The artworks created by 68-year-old Jane French, who has been Miller Manor's unofficial artist in residence for the past 20 years, have become part of the aesthetic and charm of the building, giving each of the seven floors its own unique character.

For instance, each floor's lobby features a different theme and color. And on the fifth floor, where French lived for many years, murals line the hallways -- a mix of abstract and realism, including everything from a beach scene to a replica of a Picasso, and even paintings of elegant furniture that appear ready to pop out of the wall.

"I started painting furniture because people didn't have furniture," French explained. "And if you had a chair sitting out in the hallway, it wouldn't be there very long. Somebody would put it in their apartment. So I thought, 'Well, I'll just paint furniture on the walls,' and that's what I did. And then I started painting plants on the walls. "And then I started thinking, 'Well, you know, just because we live in public housing doesn't mean we're not rich,' so I started painting elegant things on the walls."

The Ann Arbor Housing Commission is in the process of giving the entire building a complete makeover as part of tens of millions of dollars worth of public housing renovations being done throughout the city. And while many pieces of Miller Manor are being ripped out or painted over, the artworks are being preserved.
"It's lovely that they would keep them," said an appreciative French, who recently relocated to a newly renovated apartment on the seventh floor.

Jennifer Hall, the Housing Commission's executive director, said construction crews have been instructed not to disturb the artworks -- they're working and painting around them. The Housing Commission also is creating a new art studio on the first floor of Miller Manor, replacing French's makeshift studio on the fifth floor.

Rediscovering the artist within

French has lived in Miller Manor, 727 Miller Ave., since the mid-1990s. She has served as president of the residents' council and is described by others, including the building manager, as a pillar of the Miller Manor community.

Most of the artworks inside the building are the work of French, but some of them, including paintings hung in the first-floor lobby, are the work of other tenants who learned to paint under French's tutelage over the years.
"We made an art studio for tenants and she has done art lessons and operated the art studio for years," Hall said. "She rotates the tenants' framed art on the walls."

French, a self-taught artist, said she painted all the time in her youth, but at some point life got in the way.
"When I came here, I hadn't painted in 35 years," she said. "I had the time and opportunity to do it, so I just started painting and remembered who I was."
French's apartment quickly filled up with paintings, and she asked if she could store some of them in a vacant apartment across the hall. Next, French asked, "Can I paint over here?"
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Before long, the space was transformed into an art studio, and French began giving lessons.
"It was really a beautiful thing, because people who had never painted before would catch fire to the joy of painting and that was exciting," she said. "And then they would have paintings to show their friends and family or to put in a gallery."She added, "I have students from here who have moved other places and still paint and have all their paintings from here in their new apartments."

Reggie Dalton, Miller Manor's property manager, said French has helped many tenants express themselves through art."A lot of the tenants use it as therapy," he said. "They go into the art space and they just start painting and laughing and just enjoying quiet time and escaping all of the other things going on in the world, problems with paying bills or stuff like that."

French agreed, saying painting is sometimes revelatory, sometimes cathartic, and sometimes just fun, and the artworks help create a sense of place."Public housing and affordable housing is necessary, but people want to be more than just housed," she said. "And so when you have the murals, you have the color, you have the resident artwork, it makes it feel more like home."

Paintings with stories behind them

French started painting in her apartment before getting permission to spill out into the hallway several years ago."The whole building was just white and in disrepair, so anything you did made it better," she said.
The artwork has changed repeatedly over the years, and French jokes that the walls are thicker now because of the many layers of paint."When I started painting, I was painting all the time," she said. "People would come watch me, and the stories they would tell and the painting itself would just kind of evolve together. I even had one man who would come and read poetry while I was painting and that would dictate some of the colors and things."
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Many of the murals, including those outside other tenants' doors that were painted upon special request, have stories behind them. For instance, one of the tenants had been in the Navy and liked to deep sea fish, but he couldn't visit Florida anymore due to health conditions, French said. "I said, 'That's OK, we'll just paint Florida by your door.' And so that's what we did. I painted a scene with the beach and palm trees and shells and tropical flowers."

French said she's excited about the new art studio on the first floor, where she plans to continue giving regular lessons."I'm really pleased about that," she said. "That will be even better because it was a little daunting for people to come up to the fifth floor and kind of knock on the door. Down on the first floor, it can be open and people can come and go, and then there's a lot of public traffic, too, so people will be able to see what we're doing."

She said they'll probably use the hallway as a gallery space, but she's also hoping to have more of the artwork created by tenants displayed throughout the community.
To some extent, that's already happened. Paintings by Miller Manor tenants can be found in different county facilities and the federal building downtown. They've also had shows where they've sold their work, and some tenants have sold artworks online.

At this point, Miller Manor is unique among public housing sites in Ann Arbor for having a dedicated art studio, Hall said, but the Housing Commission is trying to do more community building through art and design at other properties."We also have been trying to get feedback from residents on decisions like flooring and paint colors," she said, noting residents at Baker Commons and Miller Manor got to vote for their favorite color combinations as part of the renovations.
"Colors are important for setting the tone of the building, and so getting feedback from tenants can help make it feel more like a home and not an institution."

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com or 734-623-2529 or follow him on Twitter.

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