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Detroit: the new Wild West for creatives

By Rain Noe - December 18, 2007

in Object Culture

It's a familiar story: pioneering artists and creatives move into an abandoned industrial area, infuse the place with creativity and the life that only the right-brained can bring, and within years you've got a revitalized, hip (and no longer affordable) SoHo, Berlin, Billyburg or DUMBO.

Several years ago, an unexpected snowstorm and a shutdown airport following a Michigan State lecture left us crashing with hippie activists in the depths of darkest Detroit. We were shocked to find a vibrant underground community ekeing it out in bombed-out industrial buildings and recognized it as the model described above, in a very nascent stage.

In the years since, Detroit's creative community has continued to grow, but still has room. There are 1,000-square-foot lofts going for US $550 a month. There are places like the Russell Industrial Center, a 2.2-million-square-foot, World-War-I-era bomber factory containing

...a diverse group [of tenants] with specialties like photography, music, painting, interior design, architecture, metal work, glassblowing, graphic design, cabinetry, clothes manufacturing, candle-making, posters and a company...that makes acrylic material that reconfigures shadows and light.

Nearby CCS is producing a steady crop of industrial designers, last month the Detroit Institute of the Arts reopened after a $158 million renovation, and last year the Detroit MoCA opened "in an abandoned car dealership [and] received praise from the New York Times for its 'guerrilla architecture that accepts decay as fact.'"

"When we talk to artists from out-of-town, we mostly talk about opportunities that don't exist elsewhere," [said Mitch Cope, artist and co-owner of Design 99]. "You can come to the city, take over land, do whatever you want."

Creatives looking for a fresh start, Detroit is the new Wild West. Read the article the above quotes are taken from here.

via detroit free press

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hipstomp

15 years ago

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Thanks for the heads-up, facts corrected.
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UmYeah

15 years ago

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i'll beleive it when detroit free press isn't the one writing this heavily biased article. there really ISN'T much to do in Detroit. the art they talk about is same old and the shows frequently disappoint. sure there's glimmers of hope here and there, but really--the wild west, far from it. advice: stay in brooklyn.
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andy k

15 years ago

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there's at least one designer/woodworker in the russell too ;)
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ModernDoug

15 years ago

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Good summary, but it was the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) had the $158M makeover, not the "new/repurposed" MoCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit).
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