Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Leclaire.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Sure, first I will tell you a bit about Buckham’s history and then how I came to be part of it!
The Buckham Fine Arts Project (Buckham) was established in 1984 by a core group of highly motivated working artists, artist-professors, and arts advocates from the Flint area. The founders of this then new nonprofit organization built their passion directly into its mission: to enrich the cultural life of its surrounding communities by presenting a broad range of innovative contemporary art, both visual and non-visual, of the highest quality and standard.
After the inception of its cooperative membership, under the leadership of prominent Flint artists, Tom Nuzum and Sam Morello, Buckham Fine Arts Project mounted its first exhibition, Enclaves I, in May of 1984. Quickly gaining a reputation for presenting edgy, ambitious works, many of Buckham’s early exhibitions featured unique, large-scale installations that transformed the gallery into an immersive experience. The original gallery space (1984-2019), was a large open loft space with a barrel ceiling. The venue was located on the second floor of a beautiful vintage building in downtown Flint, which required artists and visitors to climb up a steep, narrow staircase.
The gallery became the hub of Flint’s creative community, providing both visual and performing artists with a place not only to exhibit and perform but to discuss and explore innovative, creative ideas and processes. Artists from all backgrounds and disciplines created a vibrant community. In the ensuing years, Buckham Gallery has presented more than four-hundred visual art exhibitions and a substantial number of other events including poetry readings, performance art pieces, plays, concerts, film presentations, and open mic events. For Buckham’s artist members, many who have exhibited nationally and internationally, the gallery has provided a home base and an appreciative audience who has followed their artistic development for decades. Artists from across the country have enabled Buckham to fulfill its mission by presenting art that is new to the community, and often cutting-edge. Prominent guest artists, both visual and performance, have included Dennis Oppenheim, Allen Ginsberg, Charles McGee, George N’Namdi, Ed Fraga, and Anne Harris.
In January 2019 Buckham opened its new location across the street in a newly renovated street-level storefront thanks to the support of the CS Mott Foundation and Uptown Reinvestment Corporation. The new gallery is not only easily accessible to mobility impaired guests, it no longer feels like a secret club. Pedestrians and window shoppers first glimpse the exhibitions through windows and are drawn inside for closer engagement. Since the move, the gallery’s daily visitor count has quadrupled and now includes audiences from well outside the Genesee County area establishing Buckham as a destination arts venue.
Forty-one years later, though now better known as Buckham Gallery, our artist-led collective of literary and visual artists still holds true to its vision of supporting and nurturing artists, building community and inclusivity, while challenging our audience to engage with and look at art in new ways.
Committed to our vision of supporting artists we acknowledged the need to help artists transport their work to Flint, especially as a non-profit that cannot guarantee sale of their work. So we developed a plan in 2021 that first changed the show prize structure that is used to entice artists to submit for open calls of art into a more democratic sharing of support for all artists selected for the themed juried shows and then also the solo show presentations. Hence the birth of the partial shipping stipends to aid the financial strains of transporting artwork to Michigan. This season, 2024-2025, Buckham has provided over $6,000 to artists in transportation stipends. That feels great!
Programming that supplements Buckham’s exhibition programming include the Writer In Residence which supports Genesee County writers from historically underrepresented or marginalized communities, Artist Talks, Cider & Slides an evening of presentations on creative practices, annual BAC Anthology publication, and Flint’s ARTWALK – a monthly community favorite event.
Now, a bit about myself and how I became a part of Buckham. I met my spouse (who is originally from Flint) while attending art school in Philadelphia. We graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts after attending both the Studio Arts Certificate program and Masters of Fine Arts graduate program. We both have studio practices in painting, drawing and printmaking. Fast forward a number of years, we moved to Flint for a career opportunity and family in 2015. We became involved with Buckham the following year as artist members, as it was (and still is) important for us to be active in an arts community! Nothing replaces having a group of peers you can share ideas with and keep motivated to create art in an increasingly distracted world.
In late 2018, I was hired by Lynn Penning, then Executive Director, as a part-time Exhibition Director, providing thoughtfully laid out exhibitions that present visual art in the most exciting and stimulating way, opportunities to engage artists through in-person and virtual artist talks, topical lectures, and visiting artist collaborations. We engaged outside artists and curators (such as Tyanna Buie, Ed Fraga, John Seed, and Alison Wong) to produce themed juried shows or invitationals and with the support of Buckham’s collective of artists we jury proposals for our season calls to select solo artist presentations by those making significant statements in their chosen materials and genre, which have helped Buckham gain a midwest regional reputation, if not one on national level.
In the fall of 2020 Lynn retired and the Board of Directors hired me as the Executive Director. As ED, I have created programs to reach new audiences such as the Writer In Residence, which has helped us to grow our collective to welcome writers, deepening the pool of creative energy at Buckham! The Writer In Residence project, launched in early 2021 to engage contemporary literary arts and Flint’s historically underrepresented or marginalized communities including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The Resident Writer produces written components responding to each exhibition. This collaboration provides an opportunity for the writer to engage with their interest in visual art and gain exposure for their literary arts, and engage Flint’s community in a meaningful way. The residency culminates with book compiling the written compositions and images from the gallery exhibitions. We have produced four publications, with the fifth volume expected for release in early 2026.
In Buckham’s 41st Season we have hosted 15 solo artist feature shows, 10 artists through two small group shows, and 84 artists in six large group shows. Plus 94 artists participated in Buckham’s two day “B.Y.O.C.” fundraising exhibition. Past exhibitors frequently share that they were able to use the experience with Buckham to help leverage tenure positions with their universities and colleges. In addition to the nationally juried exhibitions that Buckham hosts each year, 2025 launched our inaugural nationally juried anthology for writers! Buckham frequently collaborates with area arts organizations to partner on new projects.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
With a 41 year history there has to be challenges! Buckham Gallery started out entirely volunteer run- the members’ were responsible for gallery sitting, installations, marketing, projects and performances, and they split the rent and expenses as their membership dues. As a non-profit organization there were fat years where they were able to hire two full-time employees, followed by lean years when the funding dried up and they had to layoff those employees and return to a member-run enterprise. There were even a number of years where Gary Gebhardt, co-founder and the owner of the building with the original gallery, forgave their unpaid rent debt and enabling the continuation of Buckham Fine Arts Project.
Other challenges are common among member or volunteer groups. Even with a roster of thirty or more members it is generally a small core group that pulls most of the weight. That can lead to burnout, frustrations, and turnover in a group.
Eventually funding stabilized with grants from the Mott Foundation and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council and National Endowment for the Arts, where a single employee was retained. In recent history, it wasn’t until late 2018 with the Genesee County Arts and Education Millage Funds that I was added as a part-time employee and did not become full-time until my promotion to ED two years later. Even since then, I hired a part-time gallery assistant who grew into a full-time Projects and Communications Coordinator position. It was completely disheartening when the funding landscape changed again in late 2024, leaving me as a solo employee. We strive to diversify our funding sources and succeeded to 40% of our budget from non-grant funds. That’s earned income, fundraiser events, and donated contributions from supporters in our community! The Buckham Arts Collective membership is 37 strong, with visual artists, writers, and sustaining (or advocating) members. It is with volunteerism of the members that we continue to thrive during occasionally unstable or challenging times. I am extremely grateful for their support!
Buckham Fine Art Project and Gallery is more than a place where we exhibit or perform creative artistic outputs, it’s where we share our passion & ideas, build relationships, and learn from artists new ways of seeing and engaging with the world. Through this passion we are fulfilling our mission to enrich the lives of our surrounding community, and just maybe ours too.
We have much work ahead of us to ensure another 40 years, but our future is bright. We know our community stands with us as we commit to our role as a community anchor and good neighbor, as we think about our space, programming and their role in the community, as well as the ability to provide support to the artists engaged with our programming and community.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My paintings explore memory, the effects of time, and family relationships. Although my work starts from a personal perspective, I hope by closely examining thoughts of family, erosion of memory, the shape a person leaves behind, and even the imagination of childhood, that I am creating something universal.
Through the process of painting, I build up surfaces only to sand them down again. The images erode and shift as the process is repeated, building texture and history. Through the use of color and oil paint, I am able to achieve an experience with the image that the photograph was unable to capture. I create new memories to continue the conversation with the past.
While my painting and studio work is what I am personally most proud of, a lot of my creative energy goes into Buckham’s programming and exhibitions. I enjoy working with artists, learning about their creative practices, and curating the exhibitions to see how the works of different artists can be in conversation with each other in the gallery. Showcasing a vast range of styles, content, subject matter, and media, Buckham Gallery offers Flint area residents artistic experiences and concepts that are not already being provided by other organizations in the area and typically available only in larger urban areas. So in many ways my professional creative practice is largely in the support of other artists and in the creation of programs for my community. And that’s more than okay. I’m super proud of what I have accomplished through Buckham and with this incredible community of artists.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
There is one really cool project I was able to help into fruition. A few years ago when Buckham’s annual fundraising event (a multi-partner community art auction) was canceled, we pivoted to create a new event called Build Your Own Collection (B.Y.O.C.). The inaugural event hosted a one evening exhibition of 199 works of art- filling the gallery from floor to ceiling and all the pedestals – with works of art for sale and nothing is priced over $500. The event is ticketed and the proceeds from the sales are split 50/50 between the artists and Buckham. While this is higher than our normal commission on sold works, the former auction was dependent on the artists donating their work without compensation. The evening is a big party atmosphere with food, drinks, and live music. And the best part, the collectors are able to take their new artworks home with them that night!
Last March was Buckham’s third B.Y.O.C. event with over 256 works of art by 96 artists! We sold over $14,000 in artwork that evening and were able to share $7,000+ with the exhibiting artists. We have artists from Detroit, Ann Arbor and Traverse City participating with our regional artists. It’s a lot of work, but so much fun!
Pricing:
- Admission to Buckham Gallery is FREE!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buckhamgallery.org
- Instagram: @buckhamgallery , @micheleleclaire
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuckhamGallery
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buckham-gallery/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@buckhamgallery4059
- Other: https://www.micheleleclaire.com
Image Credits
Person photo credit to Anthony Summers and Flintside
1. 1984 BFAP founders: Jim Anthony, Syd Atkinson, John Bender, Robin Bucab, Bob Caskey, Gary Gebhardt, Jan Hartrauft, Ken Kinyon, Pat Mishina, Nancy Moran, Sam Morello, and Tom Nuzum.
2. May 1984- first exhibition in the original gallery.
3. 2025 Buckham Arts Collective, photo credit: Cliff Hughes
4. Images from Buckham’s early years and fliers.
5. October 2023 kicked off Buckham Gallery’s 40th Anniversary Season with solo shows by Tom Nuzum (co-founder), Tai Lipan, and Kiara Machado.
6. Buckham’s Writer In Residence project. Image with Jenifer Fernandes Veloso (4th writer) in front of a painting by Teresa Dunn. Second image with the first three publications.
7. Images of Flint’s ARTWALK events at Buckham Gallery. We receive over 2,700 guests annually during the monthly event.
8. Buckham’s 5th Resident Writer, Vivian Kao, with artworks by Guy Adamec and Yvonne Petkus in May 2025.
9. Michele Leclaire, “Sistr Wiskr II”, oil on panel, 18″ x 24″, 2024
