by Duke

This is not strictly about music, but art in general. That and how two people hope to bring artists together to save a city.

The global economy may be on the rebound, but Detroit is still feeling the effects of the crash. Unemployment is sitting around 23% & the crime rate is high as it ever was. The collapse of the housing market (& the subsequent mass foreclosures) has left entire streets abandoned.

But there’s hope for America’s most notorious city.

Enter artist Gina Reichert and designer Mitch Cope, who bought a house there for $1900.00 USD. The Plan? Outfit the house to run off the grid (on wind and solar power), then turn it into a center for bringing together artists of all disciplines – not just music, but visual artists, architects, designers…

From CBC:

“As we work on the house, people come up to us and ask us what we’re doing, because it might be a little strange or odd, so we start talking and ask them what they do and if they would help,” Cope said.

“People get really interested in the idea of art. Everybody understands that art and creativity is something positive, even if they don’t know too much about art.

“People of the neighbourhood are very keen to get people back into houses, with the hope that it will discourage drug traffickers and help reduce crime levels,” he said.

Cope said he hopes to “develop a model for how you can change neighbourhoods, not just in Detroit but other neighbourhoods, by using artists, by using the skills of the neighbourhood.”

Neighbourhoods can shift and change with the creativity of artists, he said.

Cope plans to turn the first floor of the Power House into a neighbourhood art centre and to lure artists to size up the neighbourhood by providing a bedroom for visitors on the second floor.

As one commentor on the story says, “The good news: The houses are practically free! The bad news: They’re in Detroit…” But wouldn’t it be crazy if this thing worked, and Detroit was home to the biggest shift in energy and demographics in eighty years?

Be keeping an eye on this one.

Read the whole story at CBC.ca

Technorati Tags: cbc, detroit, gina reichert, mitch cope

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Music Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.