News

Don’t call it a comeback! Business is thriving in the Motor City, and these businesses are definite proof. Discover more job opportunities in Detroit and other parts of Michigan at MITalent.org!

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Although the bulk of today’s headlines about Detroit tend to focus on the city’s financial dramas, there’s another story coming out of the Motor City, and it’s not an unrelated one: the rising art scene. While the city’s 2013 bankruptcy filing has put the future of venerable organizations like the Detroit Institute of Arts into an uncertain place, neighborhoods like the Sugar Hill Historic District—home to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, and the artist residences at 71 Garfield—are keeping Detroit’s creative spirit alive.

Like New York City’s SoHo or Miami’s Wynwood, it’s Detroit’s ever-growing brigade of artists who are helping to maintain the city’s reputation as a hotbed of cultural activity. Here’s a look at "20 Detroit Artists You Should Know."

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Detroit's billionaires may capture the headlines, but they are only part of the story of Detroit's future. This is a city of doers making outsized impacts with limited resources. Meet eight small organizations that make the city a better place to live.

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Detroit was built on the backs of Henry Ford and his automotive brethren. But this time, when Detroit rises, it may well be built by young women.

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As I drove back from Detroit on Sunday, I couldn't help being a bit overwhelmed as I processed nearly a week's worth of experiences from the Detroit Design Festival, DLECTRICITY, and the first Urban Innovation Exchange (UIX) hosted by UIX Detroit and Claire Nelson, director at UIX.

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I moved to Pittsburgh from a city with enough hype to last 200 years, even if nothing truly great happens there for as much time. I am talking about New York—lauded in songs and on shopping bags, T-Shirts, movies and assorted souvenirs made in China. I’ve attended concerts in other countries where the performer asks: “is Brooklyn in the house,” and the answer is always, invariably: yes.

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After day one of the Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange in Boston, I've toured the Innovation District, networked with many colleagues from the Philadelphia region, and taken in much of the beauty of the downtown core. Cranes hang high in the air as markers of a continual development boom and the price of real estate continues to skyrocket. 

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What’s your best idea to make cities more successful? [The Knight Foundation has started] a journey to answer that question and uncover new thinking from civic innovators of all kinds everywhere. We call it the Knight Cities Challenge, and Knight Foundation is investing $5 million to move these ideas forward.

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In Detroit's version of New York City's meatpacking district, the meat is still being packed. And local business owners—in addition to a growing number of residents—say that's the key to one of the economic bright spots in this depressed city that is working its way through bankruptcy court.

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Since completion of the 2008 Eastern Market Strategic Plan more than $40 million has been invested in infrastructure and shed improvements, new Tuesday and Sunday Markets have launched and a score of new businesses have opened.

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If you're from Detroit, you learn to get used to people talking about your beloved city as if it's in a post-apocalyptic dystopian movie. But the misconception still stings, especially when it comes from The New York Times.

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In a city that’s been marred by destruction, photographer Dave Jordano finds resilience. The faces and environments that he captures in Detroit — his place of birth — have endured countless hits to the economy, industry and population. But the communal living, public gardens, lively murals and alternative methods of earning income that Jordano photographs show not what has been destroyed, but what has survived and has been created anew. As opposed to the often muted tones of crumbling buildings and boarded up houses, Jordano’s colorful depiction of Detroit attests to the dynamic city that fosters growth and creativity.“Detroiter’s wear their pride for the city they live in much like an honored badge of courage,” Jordano says in his artist statement, “defying all odds, openly admitting that if you can survive here, you can survive just about anywhere.” 


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Facing the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, Detroit has adopted diverse solutions to give itself a facelift. The city is tackling blight and dilapidated homes with help from technology like smartphone apps and online crowdsourcing, and offering incentives to attract new residents. Special correspondent Christy McDonald of Detroit Public Television investigates Detroit’s progress.

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Fifty-eight winning arts projects will divide $2.48 million in the second year of the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge program, the Knight Foundation announced.

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The epiphany came when Jonathan Lewald was enjoying a projected light installation at the nighttime arts festival Dlectricity.

“Detroit’s coming back, baby,” he turned and yelled to no one in particular, his face flecked with dancing reflections. “This is what we do!”

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