The New York Times has a constant stream of articles about Detroit (mostly positive), and (at least lately) the national press in general seems to gravitate more towards the “City on the rebound fueled by the young and hip” narrative, rather than the “post-City of abandoned buildings” narrative.  These publications seem to recognize that creatives are living in or coming to Detroit to “start something,” and these creatives are fed by an energy to “start something” that started before the Great Recession, and this energy continues to build on itself.  Zap … did you feel that.

            Here are some of my favorite examples of people that are encouraging Detroit’s new narrative:

*     Detroit Lives!  Philip Lauri presents multimedia products and projects that push Detroit’s new, hip image

*    Lemonade Detroit – Erik Proulx and Peter Nelson are shooting a positive documentary about the real Detroit, and everyone can be a producer

*    The People of Detroit – Noah Stephens continues to take beautiful pictures of the beautiful people of Detroit

And in case you do not want to take my word for it, Chrysler spent bags of gold coins to run a commercial for its Chrysler 200 during last year’s Super Bowl.  You know the commercial.  Chrysler was cool, because it was imported from Detroit.  I thought the commercial was brilliant.  And so did some other people: It just won an Emmy: http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/09/11/22878614.aspx

Urban Neighborhood Initiative

5E Gallery: An outlet for the Detroit art and music communities whose mission is to increase public awareness of the visual arts, music and community through exhibitions and educational programs. 5egallery.org

American Indian Health and Family Services: A1HFS is a non-profit health center serving the Native American community of Southeastern Michigan. Their mission is to help ensure the survival of Native American families and individuals. www.aihfs.org

Catholic Worker Dayhouse: Community devoted to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry and forsaken. www.davhouse.org

Centro Obrero: Detroit Latino Workers Center: A center for workers, by workers – grassroots initiative to empower workers and communities to confront their adverse conditions. www.criticalmoment.org/issue20/labumbard

Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality: This coalition seeks to mobilize a powerful, visible local, national and international protest against brutality and institutional violence. They aim to unite and support those most directly affected by police brutality and to involve other sectors of society in that fight. www.detroitcoalition.org/about

Detroit Black Community Food Security Network & D-Town Farms: Nonprofit, grassroots, community organization whose aim is to change our thinking about food, where it comes from, and who controls it. D-Town Farms is a 2 acre model urban farm in Northwestern Detroit. detroitblackfoodsecurity.org

The Hub/Back Alley Bikes

Detroit Evolution: Vegan and Raw Food Classes, Healthy Local/Organic Catering, Yoga, Bodywork, Nutritional Counseling and Sustainable Lifestyle Training. A community-focused, healthy and incredibly tasty alternative for the people of Detroit. detroitevolution.com

Detroit Sierra Club: Environmental group whose purpose is to explore, protect and educate people about the natural world. michigan.sierraclub.org/index.html

Detroit Summer: A multi-racial, multi-generational collective working to transform themselves and their communities as they face problems with creativity and critical thinking, www.detroitsummer.org

Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival: They produce the annual Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival and facilitate programs to empower, educate, and entertain, www.dwcfilmfest.com

Digital Justice Coalition: DJC is comprised of people and organizations in Detroit who believe that communication is a fundamental human right. They are securing that right through activities that are grounded in the digital justice principles of: access, participation, common ownership, and healthy communities. alliedmediaconference.org/digital_justice

East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC): “…to protect and restore land, air, water, and diversity of life through Informed personal and public action. www.emeac.org

MECAWI

Freedom House: Freedom House is a temporary home for survivors of persecution from around the world seeking legal asylum in the U.S. & Canada. www.freedomhousedetroit.org/about-us.php

Friends of the Detroit River: This group envisions an ever improving quality of life for people, plants and animals in southeast Michigan and southwest Ontario through development of a balance of grass roots advocacy and staffed programs f that watches and protects the Detroit River. www.detroitriver.org

Growing Hope: Helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening and healthy food access. Growing Hope fosters learning, improves nutrition, encourages self-reliance, and promotes positive community futures. www.growinghope.net

Hannan House: Enhancing the quality of life for senior citizens in Metropolitan . Detroit by identifying their unmet physical, social and financial needs, maintaining facilities and creating programs that both address these needs and preserve the dignity of seniors. www.hannan.org

Hope Clinic: Hope Clinic provides compassionate and practical help to those in need. They offer medical care and dental care to the uninsured, plus a variety of social services to minister to the whole person. www.thehopeclinic.org

United Peace Relief

The Hub: A full-service bicycle shop servicing the Cass Corridor and greater Detroit. All profits from the shop support youth and educational programming provided by The Hub non-profit in the form of Back Alley Hikes programming, and outreach youth and educational partnerships in the community. thehubofdetroit.org

The Hush House: The Hush House offers leadership training, programs for homeless and low income families, space for community meetings and operates a community black world history museum. thehushhouse.org/id9.html

Jobs with Justice: JWJ engages workers and allies in campaigns to win justice in workplaces and in communities where working families live. www.semiwi.org

Matrix Theatre Company: New art and culture is created everyday..with people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. On the front lines of cultural change for years, Matrix changes lives and communities. http://www.matrixtheatre.org

Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI): A multinational, multi-racial coalition of Detroit area activists opposed to the US wars at home and abroad, racism, sexism, anti-LBGT bigotry and other forms of injustice. www.mecawi.org

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization: Union for low income people. Open to all. www.mwro.org

Matrix Theatre Company

Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs: A coalition of grassroots activists and organizations, union and religious leaders, farmers, politicians, and concerned citizens from across Michigan that formed in 2008 to fight for the passage of a Senate Bill to stop all mortgage foreclosures and evictions for two years. www.moratorium-mi.org

Open Technology Initiative: OTI is committed to maximizing the potential of innovative, open technologies through studying their social and economic impacts -particularly for poor, rural, and other underserved constituencies. opentechinstitute.org

Palestine Cultural Office: A non-profit organization that provides support for and promotes greater awareness and understanding of issues concerning Palestinian people and culture. palestineculturaloffice.org

Pan African News Wire: The Pan-African News Wire is an international electronic press service designed to foster intelligent discussion on the affairs of African people throughout the continent and the world. panafricannews.blogspot.com

Real Media: A multi-media program that takes place in Southwest Detroit at various schools. www.youthfriendlysw.org

Rosa Parks Children/Youth Program: Located at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen on Detroit’s east side. Alterschool program offering art therapy, tutoring, teen support groups, Women’s Justice Circle, Peace Camp and Garden Club. www.cskdetroit.org/docs/newsletter.pdf

Ruth Ellis Center: Ruth Ellis Center is the only mission specific agency in the entire Midwest dedicated to LGBTQ, (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-attractional, Transgender and Questioning) youth. The Center provides residential and drop-in programs. www.ruthelliscenter.com/index.htm

Ruth Ellis Center and Detroit Summer

Trumbullplex: Radical housing collective and showspace founded in 1993 located at 4210 Trumbull Ave. Mission to create a positive environment for revolutionary change in which economic and social relationships are based on mutual aid and the absence of hierarchy. www.myspace.com/trumbullplex

United Peace Relief Detroit: Mobile emergency disaster relief in Detroit. www.myspace.com/uprdetroit

Urban Neighborhoods Initiative: Serves low income urban communities through both human and community development. www.unidetroit.org/indcx.php

Urban Network: A community space, where community members can participate in workshops, book discussions, movie screenings, and much more. The shop is entirely committed to putting the neighbor back into the ‘hood’. www.yusefshakur.org/urban-network

PLACES OF WORSHP
Central United Methodist: 23 East Adams, www.centralumchurch.com
King Solomon Baptist Church: 4638 4th St
Spirit of Hope Church: 1519 MLK, Jr. Dr. www.spiritofhopedetroit.org
Stillpoint Zen Temple: 4347 Trumbull Ave. www.stillpointzenbuddhisttemple.org
St. Peter’s Episcopal church: 1950 trumbull, Detroit stpeterscorktown.edomi.org
Greater Mt. Tabor Baptist Church: 7345 W Chicago, Detroit
The Muslim Center: 1605 West Davison, www.masjids.org/themuslimcenter
Isaac Agre Downtown Synagogue: 1457 Griswold. downtownsynagogue.org

Jim Duffy in his Grosse Pointe Apartment. Photo by Tim Thayer

James Pearson Duffy, longtime Detroit businessman, consummate patron of the arts, and champion of the Detroit arts scene, died on Tuesday at his home in Grosse Pointe at the age of 86. He was the only child of James F. and Helen Pearson Duffy.

Duffy’s patronage of Detroit artists is legendary. Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Director Graham W. J. Beal said of Duffy, “Jim was extraordinary in so many ways. If anyone can be said to have danced to a different drummer, it was Jim. His passion for art manifested itself all the time, and over a lifetime he collected avidly. He collected widely but gave special support to Detroit artists by relentless acquisition of their works—the best sort of support that can be given. His generosity to the DIA in gifts of works of art and funds puts him in the top ranks of DIA patrons.”

Born in Cleveland in 1923, Duffy graduated from Georgetown University in 1947 and while still in college began weekend jaunts to New York to learn about art. It was on these weekend trips and summer excursions to Europe that he developed what became a lifelong passion for the visual arts.

In 1947 when Duffy became an employee of the family-owned pipefitting and value supply business, Edward W. Duffy & Company, he took up residence in Detroit. Duffy assumed control of the company from his father in 1960, and it was at the company headquarters and warehouse on West Jefferson that many of Duffy’s commissioned works were later installed. The company motto soon became “We put art anywhere and everywhere we can.”

Duffy helped his parents collect 19th-century American and English paintings and decorative arts. He remembered with great fondness the conversations he had with his mother, Helen Pearson Duffy, about these works, but most especially their discussions of paintings he discovered and recommended that his parents purchase by School of Paris artists Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Georges Rouault, among others.

Duffy had a talent for finding and appreciating the best that life had to offer. Determined to find only the finest paintings, he inquired at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about art dealers and was directed to the nearby Knoedler Gallery. Later he broadened his horizons as his interest in more contemporary art grew, patronizing New York galleries as well as Detroit venues such as the Willis Gallery, Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit Focus Gallery, Lemberg Gallery and David Klein Gallery.

Duffy was never content to simply be a patron. He wanted to support all efforts that elevated the arts. In 1954 Edgar P. Richardson, DIA director at the time, invited him to become a founding member of the Archives of American Art, then housed at the DIA. When W. Hawkins Ferry reinvigorated the DIA auxiliary Friends of Modern Art in 1964, Duffy was among its young leaders. He also began to frequent the Detroit Artists Market. His interests in the art of the moment were galvanized when Duffy met Sam Wagstaff, who had just arrived as the DIA’s first curator of contemporary art. Duffy began making significant contributions in support of art acquistions at the DIA, and through the years donated or supported the purchase of more than 1,500 objects.

In the 1970s Duffy discovered the work of artists living in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. Like Wagstaff before him, Duffy “crossed the street” to enter the homes and studios of artists in the cultural center after he was introduced to them during a visit to the Willis Gallery in 1972. Duffy later characterized the visit in a conversation with Mary Jane Jacob, former associate curator of modern art at the DIA, as “Just as mysterious and marvelous as I expected it to be.” Never content with half measures, Duffy purchased several works on that first visit, which set the pattern for his support of Detroit artists. Soon he was commissioning works for his warehouse, office, and apartment by many artists, but chief among them were Gordon Newton and Bob Sestok.

“To Jim it was all good; it was the good that mattered. He loved making a difference, making grand supportive gestures, helping, being part of the process,” reminisced onetime Detroit artist John Egner. For Duffy, though, the quest was a two-way street: discovering meaning in an artwork helped him discover a bit of each artist’s genius and at the same time allowed him to claim part of his humanity. In an interview with art critic and founding director of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Marsha Miro, Duffy let slip a comment that he would often keep a flashlight by his bed so he could inspect the artwork propped in a nearby chair. In the middle of the night Duffy would wake to consider the work, so keen was his need to understand an artist’s message.

Gilbert B. Silverman, another Detroit-based collector, curated an exhibition at the Detroit Focus Gallery that included a mix of work from well-known artists along with newcomers. Most surprising, though, was Silverman’s inclusion of photographs taken by Duffy that documented the city’s industrial architecture. Duffy gave great attention to details, especially when finding new meanings and beauty in Detroit’s changing neighborhoods.

In 1992, when Duffy sold his business and warehouse, he donated more than 1,000 pieces of art created by Cass Corridor artists to Wayne State University (WSU). His largess as a patron came to wider public attention in 2001 when cultural institutions—WSU, College for Creative Studies, and the DIA—joined forces to present four separate exhibitions of artwork championed by Duffy. Always anxious to discover the new, Duffy continued to support WSU and the DIA with large donations of artwork and significant gifts of money. According to Sharon L. Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts at WSU, “In acknowledgement of Jim Duffy’s generous gifts, Wayne State University announced on April 24, 2009 the naming of the second of its departments in the College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts. The James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History will enjoy an endowment of approximately $4.5 million to secure the future study and support of contemporary art and artists as they contribute to the education and training of our students.” The DIA Department of Contemporary Art was named the James Pearson Duffy Department of Contemporary Art in 2007.

As he supported Detroit institutions in life, Duffy leaves a bequest to the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Wall mural by Robert Sestok ca. 1975.
Edward Duffy and Company Warehouse, Detroit Michigan. Photo by Dirk Bakker.

Amy Debrunner is the newly appointed Managing Director of the Grosse Pointe Art Center.
Amy brings a wealth of experience by way of her work on historic preservation projects in Cincinnati, major fundraising for the Cincinnati Ballet and recently as Executive Director for Creative Aging.

A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in Interior Design and Art History, Amy moved to the Grosse Pointe area with her family two years ago. She has been very actively involved in her children’s education; she has four children ranging from elementary to high school level. In September 2008 Amy became the Project manager for the Grosse Pointe Public School System Historic Greenhouse Restoration project. Visit www.grossepointeartcenter.org

Like the artist herself, Gilda Snowden’s studio space is steeped in a rich history. Artists Jerome Ferretti and Aaron Timlin previously occupied the space, so it almost vibrates with creative energy.

To focus on a single work of Snowden’s art is like trying to choose from hundreds of Pinocchios as they came to life, vying for attention. This visually delicious space contains decades-worth of the artist’s works. It’s a big space divided into sub-spaces. There’s one area where pots of wax heat for encaustics, another where she works on paper. The sponge-tipped paintbrushes and spray paint Snowden prefers are from artprimo.com, a graffiti artist materials website. There are works from her famous “Tornado series” done during the ‘90s. The “Cass Corridor Artists” whom she admired and later exhibited with influenced a series of assemblage pieces. Close by, there’s a current series of abstract flowers.

She is one of the winners of the 2009 Kresge Artist Fellow, interim Chair of the Fine Art Department at the College for Creative Studies, and has an exhibit of 29 paintings up at the new Henry Ford Health Center. Yet to Snowden, it’s just another year.

I settled down on a loveseat splattered with dried paint, feeling deeply privileged to have the opportunity to be with this legendary artist in her sacred space, in the midst of her creations. The following represents moments from three hours spent listening to the unfolding of the life and work of this remarkable woman.

Coming from a long line of physicians on her father’s side, Snowden learned to value education at an early age. She attended Cass Tech,

From left to right Gildas father and brothers) John
Thomas Snowden (the artist’s father); Richard
Snowden; Lonnie Snowden.

but it was not until well into her studies did she discover that the school did in fact have the Art and Science program she had requested. A counselor had misspoke and told her such a program did not exist. As a result, Snowden ended up in the Home Economics Department and began to make “something out of nothing” in more ways than one.

 Like everything in her life she undertakes, she went at it giving 150 percent. The artist discovered the Merchant Apparel Building (which ironically later became the Broadway Gallery) and stocked up on yardage and patterns to create outfits nightly that she wore to school the next day. Working on the best Singer sewing machine money could buy, she sewed her own clothing, including a wool coat throughout high school.

Painting

Snowden discovered her love for art while attending Wayne State University. Struck by a Van Gogh painting, she became inspired. Her first painting classes with artist John Egner caused her to recognize her abilities and helped her see that “just putting paint on the canvas seemed simple and kind of fun.”

After four years at Wayne, Snowden graduated with a degree in Advertising. She remembers another pivotal moment in her career, when she applied as an intern at the J. Walter Thompson Agency. While showing her portfolio to a Mr. Brennen, he pointed out that her techniques were obsolete. “Those were used in the ‘50s,” he told her, and took her into a room filled with fine art. “This is creative,” he said, “and what you should be doing.” Snowden’s response was to throw away her portfolio and never look back.

She enrolled in Wayne State’s MFA program. Receiving a professional scholarship, Snowden majored in painting. Soon she began hanging out at Alvin’s with the other “Cass Corridor” artists, many nights sleeping on the floor of her studio. It was at Alvin’s she met her husband, William Boswell. Boswell was a bartender at the time.

Snowden’s accomplishments and contributions are endless.
Snowden has work at the DIA in their permanent collection and is represented by dealers Sherry Washington and Dell Pryor. Current projects include working on a series of small sculptures for a fund-raiser at the National Conference of Artists, Michigan Chapter. At the end of October, she will travel to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha to jury an Artist in Residency show.

The artist in her studio.

The artist begins her day by making breakfast for her daughter then heading to teach and tend to administrative duties at CCS or to hit the studio for 12 or so hours. She always has several series of work going simultaneously and doesn’t miss a night creating a daily agenda on the computer before she retires around 1:30 am. The agenda is pages long, and includes long- and short-term goals, lists and more lists of projects, phone calls to make, emails to send, and appointments.

A long-time advocate for artists, Snowden is motivated by a deep desire to represent Michigan arts and artists in a positive light. She wants the world to see that even though Detroit has gotten some bad press lately, a strong base of creative people exists in the city. Snowden rarely misses an exhibition opening of students, or fellow artists, frequently videotaping to document the event. Her videos are archived on Utube. She regularly shares on Facebook, always with a relevant post relating to the arts. She sees her videos and technology as “way to link the arts together globally,” likening it to a “broadly linked quilt.” Her current show at the Henry Ford Health Center is not to be missed.

Snowden’s father would be proud. She says he was never disappointed by her decision to become an artist; he told her, “Anybody can be a dentist, not just anybody can be an artist.” What he wanted for Snowden was “to be the best.” And on that wish she certainly came through, not only for him and but for the entire city of Detroit.

Encaustic Painting in Gilda’s studio

Marcus Belgrave, Photo by John M. Galloway/Special to The Detroit News

Master jazz trumpet player Marcus Belgrave — who has enthralled audiences world-wide with his musical virtuosity and mentored scores of aspiring young musicians — has been named the 2009 Kresge Eminent Artist by The Kresge Foundation.

The award and $50,000 prize recognizes Belgrave’s lifelong musical achievements and his personal and professional contributions to music performance and education in Metropolitan Detroit. The foundation, through its Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative, annually supports the Kresge Eminent Artist Award, Kresge Artist Fellowships, and Kresge Arts Support grants. The Eminent Artist Award is administered by the College for Creative Studies.

Reflecting on his decades-long career, the 73-year-old Belgrave says, “I was designed to be a musician. It gave me a good personality, because I was always around people who made you humble. Music also gave me much character. And I was able to open many doors through music.”

His selection as this year’s Kresge Eminent Artist is “the ultimate appreciation,” he continues. “The award is a culmination of a period of my life and shows me that the work I’ve been doing has been appreciated. Most of the young people I’ve touched are now quite famous. I told them the same thing my father told me: Music will take you places you could never imagine. And that has happened.”

Marcus with wife and vocalist Joan Belgrave,
Photo by Jean-Claude Quenum

Inspired at a young age by Louis Armstrong, Belgrave grew up in a poor, but musically talented, family living in the steel-mill town of Chester, Pennsylvania. He cut his teeth on the jazz circuit touring with Ray Charles in the late 1950s, and embraced the Motown sound when he moved to Detroit in 1963 to begin recording with Berry Gordy Jr., founder of Motown Records, at the Hitsville U.S.A. recording studio on West Grand Boulevard. Over the years, Belgrave has played with the top names in jazz and many legendary entertainers, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and Aretha Franklin.

In the mid-70s, Belgrave established the Jazz Development Workshop in Detroit and began working with youngsters to develop their musical talent. A dedicated educator and mentor, he has taught jazz classes and lessons at elementary, middle, and high schools in the city and at a dozen colleges nationwide. He also serves as an international jazz ambassador, traveling all over the world to share the music he loves. In 1997, for example, he and five other Michigan jazz masters made a six-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East, funded as a cultural exchange effort by the U.S. Agency for International Development, a federal agency providing economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.

From 2000 to 2007, Belgrave took an eight-piece band on the road to 50 American cities where they performed “Tribute to Louis Armstrong,” in observance of the world-renown trumpet player’s 100th birthday. The next year, in 2008, the city of Detroit named him its Jazz Master Laureate, one of the many honors, awards, and tributes he has received in his lifetime.

“Through his dedication and virtuosity as a jazz trumpeter and teacher, Marcus Belgrave has fanned the flames of musical greatness in Detroit and sown the seeds for successive generations of talented musicians,” says Rip Rapson, president of the Kresge Foundation. “We are proud to claim him as a Detroiter and to salute him as an artist of the highest order.”

Marcus Belgrave in the 70’s, Photo by Leni Sinclair

The foundation will publish a monograph to commemorate Marcus Belgrave’s work and distribute it to organizations, institutions, and libraries in the region.

The Kresge Eminent Artist Award recognizes an exceptional artist in the visual, performing, or literary arts for his or her professional achievements and contributions to the cultural community, and encourages that individual’s pursuit of a chosen art form as well as an ongoing commitment to Metropolitan Detroit. The award is unrestricted and is given annually to one artist who has lived and worked in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb Counties for a significant number of years. The first-ever Kresge Eminent Artist Award was presented last year to Detroit visual artist Charles McGee.

“Marcus Belgrave, Detroit’s premier jazz trumpeter, is a natural choice as the first performing artist to receive the Kresge Eminent Artist Award,” says Richard L. Rogers, president of the College for Creative Studies. “Marcus’ exceptional career and ongoing commitment to our community deserves significant recognition and sets an example to all aspiring musicians. Visual artists, writers and performers like Marcus serve as potent forces in bringing change to Detroit and are exactly the kind of people that Kresge Arts in Detroit was developed to recognize.”

Nominations for the award are made by the Kresge Arts in Detroit Advisory Council, a 19-member volunteer group of leaders in the Metropolitan Detroit cultural community who provide external oversight to Kresge Arts in Detroit. The award recipient is selected by an independent review panel composed of well-respected, knowledgeable artists and arts professionals from the Detroit area.

The 2009 review panel included Ian Ding, assistant principal percussionist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and founding member of New Music Detroit; Aku Kadogo, Wayne State University faculty member and director of the Black Theatre Program; Anne Parsons, president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Lynn Crawford, founder and editor of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit journal; and George Tysh, poet and faculty member at The Roeper School.

Colin Hubbell

In 2008, the Detroit community lost a great advocate, Colin Hubbell, after a heroic battle with cancer. In an effort to remember Colin’s spirit and passion for Detroit, Colin’s friends and family established the Colin Hubbell Fund to continue the work Colin did every day to support and promote the renewal of Detroit.

The Colin Hubbell Fund is housed as a project of the University Cultural Center Association (UCCA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. UCCA, established to serve Detroit’s Midtown area in 1976, has over 60 members representing the area’s cultural, academic, medical and service institutions, corporations, businesses and community organizations.

Funds are raised through individual donations and through periodic fundraising events. Currently, the fund has more than $30,000 available for Hubbell Fund projects. Donations to the Hubbell Fund can be accepted by the University Cultural Center Association (UCCA) at any time.

Join us for a 18-mile bike tour of Belle Isle, Downtown, Midtown and New Center, with a 5-mile family ride option and post-ride lunch provided. Proceeds benefit the Colin Hubbell Fund. Registration: 8:30am at registration at the Scott Fountain on Belle Isle
9:00am Bike Decorating
10:00am Ride Begins
11:00am Bike Rodeo following family ride
Cost: $20 for 18-mile ride, $10 for 5-mile ride, $50 family rate
Contact: colinhubbellbikeride@gmail.com
Benefitting: Colin Hubbell fund
Sponsored by: Wheelhouse Detroit

Colin Hubbell Fund Neighborhood Mini-grants

Small businesses are the foundation of successful urban centers, building density and walkable, thriving communities. The Colin Hubbell Fund will support small business and promote investment in the City of Detroit.

The Fund will support entrepreneurs with seed money to grow and expand the small business community and Detroit’s creative class. A mentoring component to the grant program assists grantees with advice on marketing, financing and other business resources. Grants will also be available to nonprofit community organizations to build stronger neighborhoods and more sustainable communities.

The Fund is guided by Colin’s wife, Patricia Hubbell and an advisory committee of family, friends & civic leaders committed to continuing Colin’s legacy of community development in Detroit.

All grants will be restricted to organizations and/or individuals within the City of Detroit, with an emphasis on the Midtown area. The Hubbel Fund Committee intends to release requests for proposals at least twice a year for two separate programs: (1) Neighborhood Mini-Grants and (2) Small Business Suport for Entrepreneurs.

The fund is accepting donations on an ongoing basis. Checks should be made out to the UCCA with “Colin Hubbell Fund” written on the memo line. Please mail to the UCCA.

University Cultural Center Association
4735 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
(313) 577-508

“Movement is already a great festival and a successful brand,” said Craig, “it is an honor to be involved with Movement in this new capacity. I look forward to working with the team from Paxahau to take the artistic vision for the festival to a new level.”

In his new role Craig will be involved in various creative aspects of Movement including artist bookings and the festival’s brand image. He will also serve as an ambassador for the Movement festival as he travels the globe performing for throngs of electronic music enthusiasts.

Carl Craig

“Detroit is such a wonderful music town,” Craig continued. “With Movement we have such a great opportunity to remind people from around the world and those that are right here in our own backyard that electronic music in Detroit is very powerful and that our annual festival is the best stage for showcasing the most talented artists of this musical genre.”

The annual Memorial Day Weekend festival has gone through several reincarnations since its beginning in 2000. Paxahau earned the right in 2006 to produce the festival. Since then they have been credited with bringing financial stability to the once fledgling festival and developing a festival atmosphere that appeals to fans because of the high standard of production quality they demand and their ability to book major local and international artists year after year.

Paxahau representatives were elated when Craig agreed to become creative director and believe his involvement will strengthen the future of the Movement festival in Detroit.

“We were extremely excited when Carl agreed to come on board as our new creative director,” said Jason Huvaere, president of Paxahau. “He has a complete understanding of the history of Techno Music in Detroit. He understands its impact around the world because he lives it every day.

“Carl is a musical visionary whose ambassadorship is unparalleled. He will be able to capture the desires electronic music fans have for Movement and help us to incorporate them into future festivals.”

Movement 2009
Movement After Parties At The Majestic</strong>