A celebration of Polish craft, culture and love
By Veronica Gregory
Sun contributor
Kathleen Bittner wears a garland of amber around her collar like a regal monarch, and her light eyes peer out happily behind delicate black frames as she welcomes customers into her store. She’s the benevolent queen of her domain, the Polish Art Center, and knows her kingdom well. Point to an object, and she’ll tell you the folk history, from which part of Poland it originates, and how it works. As Bittner watches her customers poke around the food section of her store, she doesn’t hesitate to call merrily, “Try one! They’re on my counter! You can try one, they’re delicious. It’s apricot marmalade. It’s really, really good.”
The same could be said of the entire store: the rush of vibrant, royal reds, emerald greens and midnight blues is delicious to behold. “Somebody asked me, what’s one word to describe Poland?” Bittner reflects. “And I said extremely colorful. It shows in everything they do.” The cultural color is evident in all corners of the store, from the airy floral “peasant chandeliers” overhead to the tables of blue, green and brown stoneware scooped from the quarries of southwestern Poland, to the decorated vests, blouses and skirts of the Polish folk costumes hanging from a bureau near the center of the room. Melodic chanting comes from some hidden speaker, and suddenly, you’re in Poland, Cedar.
The Polish Art Center in Hamtramck has been open since 1958, but the Cedar location only just opened its doors in May. Cedar itself has a very healthy (and one might say musical) Polish population, as evidenced by the presence of the annual Polka Festival. This year it runs from June 30 to July 3, and one can bet that many Poland fans will be stopping by Bittner’s branch of the Polish Art Center to peruse its shelves. Bittner is the daughter of Joan and Ray Bittner, the owners of the first Polish Art Center in southern Michigan. She relocated north to Cedar with her husband and bought a storefront on South Kasson Street, converting it into a veritable Noah’s Ark of Polish culture. While not running the store, the Cedar branch of the Bittner-Koch family also maintains a farm, which will give the store fresh produce such as eggs and vegetables grown from Polish seeds.
Bittner has brought her Polish expertise to the Polka Fest this year, helping with the actual Polka Fest Committee and also setting up a Polish Art Center booth at the event. She says that the Bittner family will be running the stand, which will sell an assortment of merchandise such as Polish candy and clothing articles. Expect also a selection of shot glasses, coffee mugs, lapel pins, and even umbrellas, if needed. The store will also have later hours during the duration of the festival. To visitors, Bittner says, “the Polka Fest is great. There’s great food, Polish food, music, and good beer.” She will also be teaching classes in some of the native crafts of Poland: wycinanki, or paper cutting, will be taught July 2-3 at the shop, and pisanki, egg decorating, the weekend after, on July 9-10.
The Polish Art Center has played supplier not only for the everyday shopper but also for the great Martha Stewart. What did they sell the home cooking guru? Mushrooms. “Polish people have a special mushroom,” Bittner explains. “They’re traditionally hung on strings, and they’re called borowiki. Yes, they [the Polish population] love their mushrooms. Pickled, fresh, raw, anything.” Another Poland export, amber, is available for purchase at the Polish Art Center, and offers health benefits to wearers. “Succinic acid [found in amber] is a natural anti-inflammatory, so women would come from Poland wearing these strings around their neck, and it was to relieve any inflammation in their thyroid.” Using this same practice, baby necklaces are sold at the store to help alleviate teething pain. White clay stoneware, tougher than pottery and prettier than porcelain, is set out in rows and rows near the front windows of the shop, illuminated by the natural light which shows off their unique designs. “Now you’ll notice each piece has a different pattern, but they’re all blue, and they all have greens and browns, and the inspiration for that began with the eye of the peacock feather.” Bittner also adds, “they’re all microwave-oven/dishwasher safe. Very useable.”
Despite the existence of the Polka Fest, it was the lack of a Polish nucleus in Cedar that drove Bittner to open her own “little Polish emporium” on South Kasson Street. She herself is a second-generation Polish descendant. She tells the story of how her Polish grandfather married her Scottish grandmother in Scotland. “I always said to her, ‘Grandma, you didn’t speak Polish,’ and she says, ‘I didn’t even know where Poland was!’ And I said, ‘but he didn’t speak any English!’ and she goes, ‘honey, love is only one language.’” Bittner’s shop shares her love of Polish culture with Cedar and visitors from all over the state and country, some hailing from as far away as England and Germany. Her mission now is to pass on this tradition of love to the next generation. “[In the craft classes] I like to get [students] the younger the better, because then these traditions that some people think are long lost will be resurrected in this community.” The involvement of the Polish Art Center in the Polka Fest this year will add a spark of this Polish love to the celebration of culture and music, and no doubt direct a new group of intrigued visitors, Polish and non-Polish, back to the shop when the festival is over.
