The power of art and design is on full display in Detroit this month for the city’s 16th annual Month of Design, a multidisciplinary festival celebrating all Detroit has to offer in the fields of art, craft, architecture, industrial design, and more. Most of the programming is free and open to the public.
All the local art heavyweights are taking part, including the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), the latter of which is hosting a talk with director Spike Lee on Sept. 9. “Detroit is grit and glamour and everything in between,” Design Core Detroit Executive Director Kiana Wenzell tells CULTURED. She’s been involved in Detroit Month of Design since the beginning, organizing an architectural walking tour for the inaugural edition before coming on board as the festival’s director in 2016.
People know Detroit for its history in manufacturing and industry, but it is also the only American city designated as a UNESCO City of Design. The theme for the festival this year is “Design Moves the Future,” looking ahead to how design can continue to shape a world seemingly in constant flux.
“Our mission is to establish Detroit as a globally recognized and respected creative capital,” Wenzell continues. “We’ve been really working on our story as the comeback city—reinvention, Detroit hustles harder, Detroit versus everybody, Detroit’s the design scene that nobody’s talking about!”
At the DIA, the museum is taking an unexpected look at Georgia O’Keeffe, moving beyond her famed flower paintings to her architectural canvases in “Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture.”
Other festival highlights include a chance to make furniture in a workshop with craftsman Tony Printz and a solo show at I.M. Weiss Gallery showcasing the work of local designer Tony Whitfield.
You can also hop on board the On Air Off Grid Music Tour, a roving party bus from Solar Party that will tour Detroit’s musical landmarks including Hastings Street, where blues and jazz flourished in the early-20th century, and Jack White’s Third Man Records.
“They’re hoping to take the music industry off-grid,” Wenzell says. “They have these solar robots that you can use to power a concert in a field. They’re actually going to be providing the sound for our opening event.”
And there’s the open house of the Cadillac Arts Centre, an adaptive reuse project that opened in May, housing artist studios and nonprofits. Work by the center’s resident ceramic studio Pewabic Pottery, founded by artist Mary Chase Perry in 1903 as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, can be found decorating buildings around the city.
Perhaps the most timely project is “Between Your Love and Mine,” a series of outdoor architectural installations organized by Stefan Novaković and the Library Street Collective. At a time when tensions over trade agreements between the two nations are on the rise, the project showcases work from both Canadian and U.S. designers along the Detroit River, which marks the international border.
“It’s like a love letter,” Wenzell says. “And this issue is so important when we talk about design. Products move across the border before they hit the showroom or the dealership. That’s kind of what this installation is standing for.”
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