Ann Arbor artist hosts annual outdoor sale to benefit public art program

The Ann Arbor-based glass artist and philanthropist Larry Nisson hosts his annual garden show and sale from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, at his home, 1227 Lutz Ave. in Ann Arbor.

As in previous years, proceeds from the sale, which is free to attend and open to all, will go directly toward the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Art in Public program, an initiative intended to develop and support works of public art.

Larry and his wife, Lucie Nisson, a mosaicist, are well known in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti arts community both for their own artwork and for their support of numerous public art projects, including murals and other installations.

Nisson has also turned their home garden into an installation of sorts: Their backyard has been transformed into a brightly colored cornucopia, a brilliant mixture of botanical life and blown-glass sculptures.

Nisson says he’d like visitors to his garden to “see what’s possible. You can take a regular backyard and turn it into something special.”

It’s an important point for Nisson, who wants readers to know that in settings open for all to appreciate, any kind of gesture toward beauty — no matter how small — becomes a form of public art.

Much of Nisson’s glasswork will be for sale, including a variety of what he refers to as “gratitude glasses,” encouraging people to “drink out of and think about what they’re grateful for.”

Alongside Nisson, Wendy Bauer-Braun, a painter and woodworker, will be selling her art, as will Nisson’s young neighbor, Mira Brugeman, a middle schooler at Slauson.

“I’m just trying to throw out positives to counter the negative,” says Nisson, adding, “In today’s world, there’s a lot of negativity, a lot of things to be unhappy about,” Nisson says.

He sees art as one of the remaining spheres where people of varying political beliefs can come together.

“You can have two people on different sides of the equation look at a piece of art and both enjoy it,” he says.

For Nisson, who also helped found the annual Westside Art Hop in Ann Arbor, public art is especially valuable because it is accessible to all.

“People who are unhoused can enjoy it as much as the people who live in a million-dollar house,” he says. “It’s for everybody.”

“We all have souls,” he adds. “We all have some part of us that we need to nurture.”

“Lucie and I are always thinking, how do we make Ann Arbor a better place for the people who live here?” Nisson says.

“Art is a way for us to give back to the community.”