At Pontiac’s Creative Arts Center from May 1 to May 15, 2010
The reception will be held on Saturday, May 1 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Exposed: The Art of Getting Published is a multi-media exhibit hosting the works of John Cohassey and Steven Mitchell. The reception is a “meet and greet” artist event. John and Steven will conduct a question and answer session exposing methods they employed to become published in the world of art.

Since the early 1990s, John Cohassey, has written music CD liner notes, and over fifty entries on blues and jazz for Gale Research Inc.  His articles have appeared in the Detroit News as well as trade jazz and blues magazines. His first book, Toast of the Town: The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson (Wayne State University Press, 1998), which chronicled the glory years of Black Detroit, won an award of merit from the Historical Society of Michigan. John was also a consultant for the History Channel’s 2007 documentary, Hippies. In 2008 John published his second book American Cultural Rebels:  Avant-garde and Bohemian Artists, Writers and Musicians from the 1850s through the 1960s (McFarland Co. Inc.).

Steven Mitchell began his photography career in 2003.  His “Off the Wall” collections are known industry-wide and sold in national-chain department stores as well as through independent retailers.  Steven’s images are the blending of media.  They are “a recipe of flavors and colors found in the world around us.  I blend and knead the various elements of the art world that result in an explosion of the senses,” stated Mitchell.  Steven recently began Mindgasmz, a GREEN greeting card collection sold Michigan-wide. The cards pair Steven’s “Off the Wall” photographer with his “Off the Wall” sense of humor.  They project a delicious slice of life without the calories.

The Creative Art Center is located at 47 Williams Street in Pontiac, one block south of Huron (M59) and one block west of Woodward Avenue southbound.  There is free, lighted parking in the Center’s lot on pike Street, behind the Center.

Benjamin Pardo, Senior Vice President and Director
of Design at Knoll

Each year, Cranbrook Academy of Art presents the annual Knoll Lecture on Design thanks to a generous gift to present prominent designers in a public forum to students and the community of southeast Michigan.



The relationship of Knoll Inc. and Cranbrook Academy of Art dates back to the early 1940s. It was at this time that Florence Schust, who was a student at the Academy, first met her husband, Hans Knoll, who founded Knoll Inc. in 1938. Together they would change the face of modern design in the 20th century.



Since 2005, Benjamin Pardo has led Knoll through a period of record growth and the development of innovative new products. His work at Knoll continues to pave the way in the world of design, much as it has since the innovative days of Florence Knoll.

Cranbrook Academy of Art & Art Museum
39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48303-0801

Robin D. Stone, an independent journalist who has edited for the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Essence Magazine, will speak on her late husband’s book, “My Times In Black and White.” The author, Gerald M. Boyd, shattered the color barrier of the white establishment’s most exclusive media giant, the New York Times, and became its first black managing editor. Presented in partnership with the National Association of Black Journalists.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Brought to you by the generous support of Bank of America, DTE Energy, and Masco Corporation.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1443
(313) 494-5800

http://www.CharlesHWrightMuseum.org

February 27-May 8, 2010

Gil Rinke hands up a poster to Bob Tarnacki as part of the preparation for the
And Still They Prospered: Living Through the Great Depression series.

What did it take to not only survive the greatest economic challenge this country has ever faced but to rise up from that challenge and create a new industrial superpower? What strategies did people learn? What hopes sustained them?

And Still They Prospered: Living Through the Great Depression – a program series at Macomb Community College’s Lorenzo Cultural Center running Feb. 27-May 8 – examines the economic, social and cultural changes that took place during the 1930s and how these shifts laid the foundation for future prosperity in the Motor City and beyond.

The series will feature exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution and the Michigan State University Museum; more than 40 presentations providing a comprehensive look at the people and the times; and a performance of Forgotten, a “jazz-blues opera” that tells the story of a mysterious death at the Ford Rouge Plant during the effort to organize a labor union there.

“Many of the lessons that were first learned in the 1930s are being re-examined and reapplied today,” said Geary Maiuri, dean of Community & Student Enrichment at Macomb. “Through the And Still They Prospered series, we have an opportunity as a community to look back at not only the challenges of the 1930s and the Great Depression, but how those times became a springboard from which great things were launched.”

Highlights of the series at the Lorenzo Cultural Center include:

* David Kennedy, Stanford University professor emeritus and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression & War, who will offer a vivid account of how Americans coped with the Great Depression. Kennedy’s March 11 presentation will begin at 7 p.m., with a Meet & Greet opportunity at 5:30 p.m. Tickets to the presentation only are $15 or $5 for seniors, students or military; tickets including the Meet & Greet are $30.
* Forgotten at 7:30 p.m. March 26. The musical drama relates the story of the Rev. Lewis Bradford, a Methodist minister and advocate for the homeless and the unemployed who worked at the Rouge Plant. At the plant, he advocated for fair and just treatment of the workers before he died from injuries in an unexplained “accident” at the plant in November 1937.
* Columbia University professor Alan Brinkley, whose latest book, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was published in January 2010, will identify aspects of Roosevelt’s New Deal program that have left a lasting legacy. Brinkley’s presentation will begin at 7 p.m. April 29, with a Meet & Greet option at 5:30 p.m. Tickets to the presentation are $15 or $5 for seniors, students or military; tickets including the Meet & Greet are $30.*
* Presentations highlighting some of the key local personalities of the times, including Henry Ford, Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy and Detroit Tigers great Mickey Cochrane.
* A look at the artistic accomplishments of the decade, including the role of the Works Progress Administration in Detroit, the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, key movies of the decade, the Art Deco movement and the Detroit jazz scene.
* An April 21 presentation on the Henry Ford Trade School, a new approach to high school created by Henry Ford, focused on preparing graduates for technical work and providing admission preference to needy boys. The school graduated more than 8,000 young men during the 33 years it operated, beginning in 1916. Following the presentation, a private reception and reunion will be held for those who were students at the school.

Exhibits will include The Way We Worked**, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution that reveals the effects of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, labor unrest, wars, and economic depression on ordinary working Americans, whether they toiled in a coal mine, on a tractor, at a typewriter or on an assembly line. An exhibit from the Michigan State University Museum will highlight the challenges faced by Michigan’s Jewish population during the 1930s and another offers a look at the legacy of quilt-making from that era.

The Lorenzo Cultural Center is located on Macomb Community College’s Center Campus, Garfield & M-59, Clinton Township. The cultural center is open 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Wednesday – Saturday; and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Additional information on the cultural center and on the And Still They Prospered program series is available at www.lorenzoculturalcenter.com.

Featuring special guest Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League and former Mayor of New Orleans. Priority seating for Urban League of Detroit and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Members.

This event is FREE and open to the public. To RSVP:

Urban League of Detroit Members, please contact Cassandra Nelson Pruitt at (313) 832-4600.

Charles H. Wright Museum Members, please contact Tonette Bryant-Carter at (313) 494-5853.

The mission of the Urban League of Detroit & Southeastern Michigan is to assist African Americans and other people of color to cultivate and exercise their fullest human potential on a par with all other Americans. Since 1916, our programs and services have anticipated and responded to the changing needs of the Metropolitan Detroit community. We nurture, counsel, and empower children, adults and seniors to live healthy and productive lives. The Urban League has a profound impact on the lives of minorities in the Detroit area. We efficiently and effectively serve over 70,000 clients annually with more than 20 specialized programs and services. We continuously review our programs and services to assess current community needs so as to always be in a position to better serve our constituents.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1443
(313) 494-5800

http://www.CharlesHWrightMuseum.org

EcoZoic Detroit, in partnership with Detroit Evolution, Eastern Market Corporation, and Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, will host a free screening of the documentary, Food, Inc on Wednesday, February 17, at 7pm at Eastern Market’s heated Shed 5, on the corner of Russell and Alfred. The event aligns with the ongoing monthly Detroit Abides film series, and hopes to bring Detroit together to educate and mobilize its community on food issues. Detroit, a city of more than 800,000 people, currently offers less than 50 grocery stores, leaving many reliant on convenience stores and fast food. The Michigan Department of Community Health recently reported that 70% of the city’s population is obese or overweight.

The event kicks off Detroit’s participation in the Ingredients for Change Campaign, a nationwide initiative to address America’s alarming rates of obesity and other major health problems directly linked to our country’s food system. “Conscious eating includes processes beyond knowing calorie counts and nutritional information,” said Angela Newsom, of Detroit Evolution. “It includes knowing where food comes from, how it’s made and how it impacts the world around us.”

“We hope to leverage the impact of this eye-opening film by offering viewers the opportunity to connect with ongoing local initiatives which are working to address critical issues highlighted by the documentary,” said Ryan Hertz, of EcoZoic Detroit. EcoZoic Detroit was selected as one of 30 organizations around the country to participate in the Ingredients for Change Campaign, and will convene a range of related local projects to join a nationwide network of local, agricultural and public health groups working to increase the availability of nutritious food and improve their communities’ overall health.

The Campaign is a collaboration of Active Voice and Participant Media.
In addition to the film screening, this event will feature healthy vegan food, catered by Detroit Evolution. Following the film, attendees will have the opportunity to converse with representatives from a variety of community initiatives currently working to address food-related issues in the city, and will find out how to get more involved.

The event’s organizers are encouraging neighborhood organizations and religious congregations to help spread the word amongst their communities, and to also consider organizing transportation for their constituents to the screening. Organizations working on food-related initiatives are invited to get in touch to arrange for on-site education and outreach opportunities.

Food, Inc., the critically acclaimed 2009 hit documentary from Participant Media, Magnolia Pictures and River Road Entertainment, gives audiences a vivid view of industrial food production, a system that in the last 50 years has drastically changed the American diet. Scrutinizing our national agriculture and food policies, the film examines why soda and fast food are now significantly cheaper and more accessible then fresh fruits and vegetables, and how this change has directly contributed to soaring rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other health problems. For more information, visit www.foodincmovie.com.

Detroit Waldorf School (DWS) will host a film screening of The Future of Food on Friday, January 29, 2009, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Future of Food, a groundbreaking documentary released in 2004, distills the complex technology and key regulatory, legal, ethical, environmental and consumer issues surrounding the troubling changes happening in the food system today—genetically engineered foods, patenting, and the corporatization of food—into terms the average person can easily understand. It empowers consumers to understand the consequences of their food choices on our future.

The evening will conclude with a panel of experts to speak on sustainable food, with an opportunity for questions and answers with the panelists. The panelists include…

Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an educator, business owner and activist who is committed to freedom and justice for humanity in general, and African people in particular. He serves as Executive Director of Nsoroma Institute Public School Academy, one of the Detroit’s leading African-centered schools. He is C.E.O. of Black Star Educational Management which owns and operates Black Star Community Bookstore and Black Star Press. In 2006 he was honored as “Administrator of the Year” by the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. He is the Chairman of the Organization of African Centered Educators and Schools. Yakini is a founder and Chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which operates a two acre farm in Detroit and spearheaded efforts to establish the Detroit Food Policy Council. He is a member of the Detroit Food Policy Council and the Michigan Food Policy Council. He has presented at numerous conferences and community meetings on food justice and implementing community food security practices. He was recently featured in the book “Blacks Living Green.” He is a vegan and an avid organic gardener/farmer. He views the food justice/food security movement as part of the larger struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

Gregg Newsom is a Yoga Teacher, Bodyworker, and Reiki Master who walked away from a Corporate career to share his talents and raise awareness and inspire action on the issues of Food Security, Health, and Social and Environmental Justice. Informed & inspired by Permaculture, the Transition Movement & Eastern, Western, & Indigenous explorations of Consciousness, Gregg is in active pursuit of resilient and relocalized neighborhoods where diverse, sustainable and soulful communities will thrive. In 2007, Gregg and his wife Angela co-created Detroit Evolution (http://detroitevolution.com) and are pleased to offer community-based yoga classes, bodywork, vegan and raw food preparation classes, catering, and community building events in and around Detroit.

Dr. Heather Annatoyn Dickson is a physician at The Center for Healthy Living and Longevity in Grosse Pointe. She practices functional and health promoting medicine for people of all ages. At The Center for Healthy Living and Longevity, Dr. Dickson’s areas of interest include bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, individualized counseling in healthy aging and issues related to core wellness. She graduated in 1979 from The University in Michigan. She completed her residency in Family Medicine in 1982 at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan and remained there as a faculty physician in their Family Medicine Residency Program until 2000. Dr. Dickson is Board Certified in Family Medicine and has completed a fellowship in Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the Institute for Functional Medicine. Dr. Dickson is excited to offer her patients different ways to evaluate and treat common and uncommon medical conditions as well as counseling for nutritional and lifestyle changes to maintain health and function.

Nicole Zahn is the Farmer’s Market coordinator for The Greening of Detroit and she works with the Garden Resource Program in the maintenance and development of community gardens, literature, educational workshops and outreach. She participates in the harvesting of local produce and selling at farmers’ markets. She also conducts policy research regarding agriculture in urban areas.

The film screening is a free event, open to the public, for ages 18 and over. Light refreshments will be served before the film, the panelists will speak after the film. Prospective attendees may contact Detroit Waldorf School Outreach Director Melanie Reiser at 313-822-0300 to RSVP.

Celebrating its 43rd year, the Detroit Waldorf School is part of the international Waldorf School movement, which comprises over 900 schools in 83 countries. Located in Historic Indian Village, just three miles east of downtown Detroit, DWS is housed in a stately historic structure designed by Albert Kahn. Situated on four acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, the school provides a warm and inviting environment that nurtures growth, learning, and creativity by focusing on each student’s developmental needs. DWS offers enrollment in nursery school through eighth grade. Its interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes analytical, creative, and critical thinking, as well as self-discipline, initiative, and reverence for the natural world.
The Detroit Waldorf School is located in Historic Indian Village at 2555 Burns Ave., Detroit, MI 48214. For more information, call 313-822-0300 or visit www.detroitwaldorf.org.

Co-founder of Imaginary Forces and founder of Prologue Films
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Wendell W. Anderson Auditorium

Kyle Cooper

Emmy Award-winner Kyle Cooper has directed and produced over 150 main title sequences and founded two internationally recognized film design and production companies: Prologue Films, founded in 2003, was a finalist in the 2008 National Design Awards, and Imaginary Forces, co-founded in 1996.

Details magazine credited Cooper with “Almost single-handedly revitalizing the main title sequence as an art form.” Fast Company magazine named Cooper one of the “100 most creative people in business.” Creativity magazine named him one of the “Top 50 biggest and best thinkers and doers from the last 20 years of advertising and consumer culture.” The New York Times Magazine called Cooper’s title sequence for SE7EN “One of the most important design innovations of the 1990’s.”

Cooper holds the title of Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London, and earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art, where he studied independently with legendary American designer, Paul Rand.

ALSO COMING UP:

Wednesday, February 10
Ezio Manzini
Leading expert on social innovation and sustainable design

Thursday, March 25
Artist and urban designer Damon Rich

Wednesday, April 28
Industrial designer Niels Diffrient

**Toyota Lectures, funded by a generous endowment gift from Toyota Motor Corporation, are free to the public and occur throughout the year covering all major areas of design. RSVP online at www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/toyota or call 313.664.7464.

Wendell W. Anderson Auditorium, inside the Walter B. Ford II Building on the Ford Campus (behind the DIA)
College for Creative Studies
Detroit, MI

All lectures begin at 6pm in Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium and are free, unless otherwise noted.  Parking is available in the parking deck south of the entrance.




Tuesday, January 26

Stuart Candy

Futurist at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies and Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation.

“Fragments of Future Worlds: The Art and Design of Experiential Scenarios”
Sponsored by the Humanities Program.



Stuart Candy is a unique thinker and writer, a pioneer in both the practice and theory of experiential scenarios. Holding degrees in the history and philosophy of science, law, and political science, he brings this multidisciplinary background to the creation of experiences that embody compelling and provocative stories about how the world could change. With Jake Dunagan (Institute for the Future) he founded an ongoing, collaborative strand of public art projects called FoundFutures, which aims to make alternative futures vividly available to people in the midst of their everyday lives. He has presented at institutions including London’s Royal College of Art and Yale University, currently works at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies in Honolulu, and is the first research fellow of The Long Now Foundation in San Francisco. In 02009 he was elected to the Executive Board of the World Futures Studies Federation. His widely read blog, the sceptical futurist, (http://futuryst.com) investigates forward thinking, media, activism, and design.




Tuesday, February 2

Charlie White

Associate Professor and Director, MFA Program, Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California

“The Discomfort of Looking”
Sponsored by the Photography Department



Charlie White is a photographer and filmmaker whose work has been exhibited internationally since 1999. White holds the position of Associate Professor, and is the Director of the MFA program, at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Arts. White was a fellow at the Yale Norfolk Summer Program in 1994, received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1995, and his MFA in 1998 from Art Center College of Design. White has had solo gallery exhibitions at the Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York; FA Projects, London; Loock Gallery, Berlin; Brandstrom Gallery, Stockholm; as well as solo institutional exhibitions at The Santa Barabara Contemporary Arts Forum; Domus Artium in Salamanca, Spain; Oslo Kunstforening in Oslo, Norway; and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, in Ridgefield, CT. White’s first film, American Minor, 2008, was selected to screen at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. White’s work has been discussed and reviewed in periodicals and journals such as The New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, Modern Painters, The New Yorker, Wired, lacanian ink, and EXIT Image and Culture. In addition, his works have been included in two Thames and Hudson surveys, The Photograph As Contemporary Art, by Charlotte Cotton, and The Body in Contemporary Art, by Sally O’Reilly. White’s most recent monograph, American Minor, was published by JRP|Ringier in Spring of 2009.




Sunday, February 7, 3:00 pm

Ezra Shales

Assistant Professor of Art History, Alfred University

“Craft’s Social Life” 
Sponsored by the Ceramics Department



Ezra Shales teaches design, decorative arts, and material culture at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He has a Ph.D. from the Bard Graduate Center and has a forthcoming book titled “Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Municipal Identity in the Progressive Era” (Rutgers University Press, Spring 2010). The project recuperates the experimental exhibitions of arts and crafts in the public library, museum, schools, and department stores between 1900 and 1916, and argues that craft demonstrations were performative spectacles where women, immigrants, and industrialists both collaborated and competed to represent their identity in relation to civic enrichment.




Sunday, February 14, 3:00 pm

Industrial Facility
London-based design office of Designer Sam Hecht and Architect Kim Colin

“Product as Landscape”
Sponsored by the 3D Design Department



Industrial Facility has developed projects for companies such as Herman Miller, Established & Sons, Epson, Issey Miyake, LaCie and Muji. With Muji, they hold the position of creative advisers for World Muji, since 2002. They also act as creative advisors to Herman Miller.  Industrial Facility’s belief is in the importance of design as a means of simplifying our lives in an inspirational way. It achieves this by following a rigorous path of investigation and analysis that has been well documented, with over 40 international awards, including the IF Gold Award on three occasions. Industrial Facility’s work forms part of the permanent collections of the MoMA, New York; The Centre Pompidou, Paris; the State Museum of Applied Arts, Munich; the Museum Fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Sam Hecht was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 2008.

 


Thursday, March 11

Shannon Stratton

Director and Chief Curator of Threewalls, Chicago

“Gestures of Resistance”
 Sponsored by the Fiber Department



Stratton will lecture on her current work, the exhibition ‘Gestures of Resistance’ on exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland from Jan 26-June 19th, 2010. The exhibition ‘Gestures of Resistance focuses on contemporary craft actions: work that deploys craft to agitate for change through direct political statements, public interventions, or dialogical, community-specific projects. The curators, artists and museum delineate and invite engagement with a new arena of action in which context-savvy crafting, hierarchical mischief-making, and cultural re-scripting play themselves out.



Tuesday, April 6

David Buckland

Artist and Director of Cape Farewell

“Burning Ice: Art and Climate Change ”
Sponsored by Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science as a part of “Artology: The Fusion of Art and Science at Cranbrook”



David Buckland is a designer, artist and film-maker whose lens-based works have been exhibited in numerous galleries in London, Paris and New York and collected by numerous museums including the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Getty Collection, Los Angeles.  Since 2001 David Buckland has created and now directs the Cape Farewell project, bringing artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address and raise awareness about climate change.  As part of the project, more than fifty artists, musicians, architects and writers have sailed with Buckland into the High Arctic to witness the frontline of climate change. The expeditions have been the subject of a BBC documentary and the art resulting from these expeditions has been shown internationally including at the Natural History Museum, London, the Liverpool Biennial, the Royal Academy, London and, most recently, at Cranbrook Institute of Science (January 31 – June 13, 2010).



 
Tuesday, April 22

Mickalene Thomas
Painter

“An Evening with Mickalene Thomas”
Sponsored by the Painting Department



New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her elaborate paintings composed of rhinestones, enamel and acrylic. Thomas introduces a complex vision of what it means to be a woman and expands common definitions of beauty.  Thomas earned her MFA from Yale University in 2002 and has exhibited extensively, including the recent and critically acclaimed exhibitions Landscape Revisited at the Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY; Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY; 30 Americans at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, FL; Black Is, Black Ain’t at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, IL; 21: Selections of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; and Greater New York 2005 at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, NY.  Her work may also be seen in prestigious public collections such as the Guggenheim Museum, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago, IL among others.

Politely curious about why I have been redefining my base in Detroit, my son asked, “what are things like in Detroit?” After he has been living and working for ten years on a bucolic campus in Alexandria Virginia and now living on a boat in Seattle for three years I knew his question really meant, “why the hell are you still there dad?” “It’s an interesting experiment”, I said simply and proceeded to describe my attempts to comprehend and report on the myriad and disparate creative changes occurring in the midst of uncertainty and desperation.

For two years I have been describing our city as a blank canvass. It’s more like a continuously morphing pile of parts, objects, structures and spaces that any Cass Corridor artist would love to get their hands on. Many of them have along with curious transplants from other cities and countries. There are galleries, studios and performance spaces squirming out of crannies everywhere and striving for recognition. From store fronts, to warehouses and factories to bars and coffee shops to banks and bakeries. Any thing or space can look like, sound like or become something else.

Many people tend small farms and gardens, ride bicycles and recycle everything from junk to clothing to benefit the ecology or just as a means of survival. They make things to eat, wear, sell, trade, look at, listen to and talk about while pondering it’s existence.

In this environment a house that’s falling down, a pile of old tires or reclaimed lumber can become sculpture. Abandoned railroad tracks can become a greenway and path to the river front or an outdoor museum. A demolished building reveals a view with new potential. Each problem or obstruction becomes and opportunity. Each ever changing avenue and undefined neighborhood, the very atmosphere itself is a breeding ground.

Scott Hocking, “Tire Pyramid with Man and Dog”, 2006

The companion publication for Detroit: Breeding Ground Exhibition states: “The open-ended nature of sculpture dovetails perfectly with the free energy of artists working in Detroit and their relentless exploration of identity, location, and metamorphosis. Artists in the Detroit area have an unusual latitude of freedom to make art when, where, and with whatever materials or means the artist wishes, without censorship, guardianship or market-driven trends.”

Abigail Newbold, “Making Home”, 2007 linen quilt, reclaimed cedar,
electricity, 14’ x 12 ‘ x 3’

“Detroit is at a turning point where the arts community is growing despite all other economic and environmental conditions forecasting that there is more to come for Detroit.”

The sixty four page illustrated booklet “Detroit: Breeding Ground” serves as a primer for outdoor art in Detroit, a discussion of its directions and merits and as art itself. It is a companion resource to the exhibition, consisting of multiple texts and images from various writers, critics, artists, and patrons of the Detroit arts community. It exemplifies the
diverse viewpoints on the state of sculpture and art-making within the Detroit social landscape. Many of the issues discussed in the panel are included in addition to others. Contributing writers include Vince Carducci, Patrick Gantert, Michael E. Smith, Dennis Nawrocki and Michael Stone-Richards. This is a book that every Detroiter and art lover should have. It can be found online here.

Curated by Kevin Beasley and Christopher Samuels the Breeding Ground exhibit compelled Detroiters and visitors alike to reconsider and appreciate space, structure, materials and beauty. It reminds us that “Sculpture is a limitless mode of art-making that assumes neither a specific material nor medium, rather it remains in perpetual dialogue with form be it a physical or conceptual representation.” The Exhibition was hosted by the Museum of New Art and Gallery Director Jef Bourgeau. Exhibiting artists include Kevin Beasley, Steve Coy, Nathan Morgan, Abigail Newbold, Christopher Samuels, Andrew Thompson and Brandon Walley.

If you missed the exhibit you can still benefit from its presence in Detroit by viewing the discussions it evoked. The panel discussed the impact of the artists and their artwork while asking the critical questions of how is it effective? Why sculpture in Detroit and what does that mean? What exactly is public art to this community? And, most importantly, what does sculpture as the medium do for socialization, and cultural awareness? Panel participants include Vince Carducci, Chido Johnson, Rebecca Mazzei, Michael E. Smithan and Benjamin Teague Moderated by Dick Goody. The discussion was video recorded and presented in sixteen parts on YouTube.

More information about Detroit: Breeding Ground and its participants can be found here and here.