Letter from the Editor — Questions

Is art education important? How do teachers encourage creativity? What are the building blocks for a well-rounded person? Do schools teach emotional intelligence? Can standardized test models kill creativity? What tools do student’s need to manage information in the information age? Why do we cut art classes first?  Isn’t there a Renaissance-man or Renaissance-woman ideal? [...]

Letter from the Editor — The Artist’s Home

It’s Gallery Week! I hope you are as excited as I am about Detroit’s Gallery Week. This is where all of the major galleries (and some museums) in Detroit open their doors and really push themselves to impress their visitors. Galleries provide you with easy access (and pampering) to walk through their space and explore their individual aesthetics. [...]

Letter from the Editor . . . “Mmmm, bacon”

“Mmmm . . . bacon,” Homer Simpson.  Did you know that if you add bacon to any food – seriously any food– it tastes better: a sandwich (check), a salad (check, check), a water chestnut (check), or an ice cream sandwich (I haven’t tried this, but probably check)?  Detroit Restaurant Week returned this past Friday [...]

Letter from the Editor — What’s Happening?

“A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit,” Carrie Bradshaw. To all of my macho friends, I am sorry for that reference . . . I’ve watched Sex in the City (my wife made me do it!). I also watch Tim Gunn’s “Make it Work” think tank Project Runway (no one made me do it). [...]

Letter from New Editor

Detroit is lucky. Its founders valued art. Its founders prepared the cultural soil well, so that ideas flourish here. Music grows here. Theatre grows here. Fine Art grows here. So informed visitors can come here on any given day and pick a bouquet of cultural events that will enrich them for the rest of their [...]

Salt in the Water

When someone tried to break into our house last year, Cedric and I were both told, independently of one another, to buy a shotgun.  “It is a sure way to scare people off,” conveyed co-workers and friends.  Vigilante justice: it is part of the Do It Yourself (DIY) narrative in Detroit, albeit DIY is often [...]

L. Brooks Patterson and the Love of Sprawl by Andy H.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a K-12 education kick, reading as much research and commentary on hot issues in school reform like teacher evaluation and tenure, charter schools, school choice, and testing.  This week my obsession has been sprawl:  what causes it, and ways to address it.  In [...]

Charters, testing, and teacher evaluation by Andy H.

Race, Poverty & Public Schools by Andy H.

I noted a couple of weeks ago on Motown to TreeTown that I would be following up with more posts on Ed Glaeser’s Triumph of the City, which I finished reading in Austin while I was attending South by Southwest. Throughout the book, Glaeser emphasizes education as one of the crucial determinants of urban [...]

A neighborly conversation:

Aaron Timlin on the left and Brandon Walley on the right

A neighborly conversation:
Today’s topic, a Robocop statue in Detroit w/ Aaron Timlin and Brandon Walley

We here at thedetroiter.com would like to create a new segment that promotes discussion about great debates that come up in the art scene here in Detroit. We want [...]