As Detroit Flounders, Its Art Scene Flourishes

Detroit’s dismal financial situation has been a subject of minimal regard for many artists, who said that their city is far from the ghost town some might assume from the news. They point out that a rich cultural undercurrent has grown only stronger in recent years, with a rise in contemporary art. They say that the arts, in the end, may propel economic development in Detroit, as it has from Asheville, N.C., to Bilbao, Spain.

“I think we’ll have a little cloud for a while, but I don’t think it’s going to be long-lasting,” said George N’Namdi, the founder of the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art and a part of the city’s artistic life for decades. “We have too many forces working on art that supersede that.”

Artists have flocked to cheap rents and have converted shuttered storefronts and abandoned buildings into studio spaces and galleries as private money has poured into the local art scene. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation began a $19.25-million commitment to local arts projects last fall, the Kresge Foundation has awarded annual fellowships to artists since 2009, and Red Bull opened its first domestic House of Art, an emerging-artist incubator, here in May 2012.

Several suburban galleries have moved back to the city, and arts hubs are solidifying. A notable one is Midtown, home to the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, as well as galleries like the Butcher’s Daughter, Re:View, and the N’Namdi center. In Southwest, a white box called What Pipeline opened in April, down the street from community-focused spaces like 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, housed in a former police precinct. In Eastern Market, two new destinations, Inner State Gallery and Trinosophes, opened in the spring on busy Gratiot Avenue, blocks from the Red Bull House of Art.