#57SummerHotSpots: Fire Arts

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-“Take out all of the art in the city you’ve got a dull city,” said Tuck Langland, a sculptor.

“I don’t want to live in a place that has nothing happening so we made something happen,” Langland said.

A vacant building in the city of South Bend was prepared to be torn down and turned into a parking lot in 2004.

But thanks to a group of local artists that building located on Colfax Avenue and Sycamore was purchased for just 10 dollars.

Turning a blighted property into a space where artists could not only create, but give back to a once considered “dying city.”

“This is the kind of thing that makes a city a good city,” Langland said.

Fire Arts, a non-profit, offers a space for artists to create.

“You can paint water colors in your bedroom and make drawings in your house but you can’t cast metal or fire pots or do a lot of jewelry and so on, it’s hard to do that with just a home so we gave them a place an industrial building.”

It also offers free classes to the community and works with area colleges and universities to help up and coming artists get their work on display.

“That includes providing classes, answering questions from people giving tours of the building and it also helps to inform people about the arts,” said Jackie Carlson, a sculptor.

For a building that was once forgotten, new life has now emerged with every spin of the pottery wheel, to the grinding of the metal.

And the familiar faces that welcome you through these doors.

“We’re just having a ball,” said Langland. “It’s really fun being a sculptor, I just love it.”

Fire Arts is always hosting events and even participates in First Fridays.

For more information on classes and hours of operation, click HERE.