Blog
-
Notes from the Field | Detroit’s Secret Weapon: Its People Monday, November 09, 2009
Today’s been a full day, and there’s plenty to report on. We spent the morning at Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center, a 2 million square foot business incubation space with an “anything goes” mentality. Industrial warehouse spaces with plenty of natural light play host to writers, photographers, painters, illustrators, rock gurus, recording studios, architects, galleries, and countless other creatives.
Formerly a factory, distribution center, and finally a junk mail print house, the “campus” consists of four gently renovated buildings, and operations manger Eric Novack describes the spaces as “horse stalls.” The minimal builds leave a lot of room for embellishment, and one group in particular has taken advantage of this to build out a gallery, workshop and seven private studios. The collective of artists, all local, call themselves Cave, and their multi-use gallery space provides room for the artists to connect, experiment, and collaborate.
In the afternoon, we drove to the Heildelberg Project, a two-square block experiment in repurposed residential space. Started in 1986 by Tyree Guyton, the Heidelberg Project takes its name from the street from which it started, in a neighborhood deeply impacted by the Detroit race riots. Guyton began transforming vacant lots in the neighborhood into “lots of art,” and abandoned houses became “gigantic art sculptures.” One building may be brightly painted in polka dots, another covered in plush stuffed animals. In the lots, installation pieces including a sculpture made from old doors, an outdoor doctor’s office and waiting room, and piles of reclaimed appliances, brightly decorated. In this huge project, Guyton has been joined by his neighbors and friends, and the project has been as much a display as it has been a tool for community development.
We finished the afternoon at Design 99 in Hamtramck, a diverse, independent municipality within Detroit. Design 99 does many things, including $0.99 a minute design consultations and $99 an hour architectural planning and design. Recognizing that design has the power to unite, founder Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope opened an idea storefront to make design more accessible. We spoke with Nina Bianchi, a consistent collaborator who recently finished curating Design 99’s exhibition, “Work and Tumble: Photocopier as Illuminator.” The invitational show asked contributing artists to create works using a photocopier, a ubiquitous media tool, and originals have been reprinted (on a photocopier, of course) and made available for $0.99 a piece. You can take the whole show home for $40, too.
There is an underlying thread in all of these organizations, and it’s the thing that makes their work so very impressive. These are resourceful people, y’all. Using available tools because they have to (30% unemployment in Detroit proper means most are strapped for cash), but also because their neighbors and friends have to. Communication, production, creativity: they haven’t been stifled by the single worst economic downturn this city has experienced. In fact, folks have recognized: you can’t depend on industry, you can’t depend on jobs, but you can depend on people. The result is an organic community of creatives, not forced into silos by commercial markets, but happy to wear many hats, to build and to mend. Together.
Tomorrow we’re headed to Windsor, Ontario to visit Broken City Labs for a micro-residency. Again, it’s going to be a huge day, and we’re looking forward to some important lessons, and many new friends.
Posted by
