Detroit

The New York Times article by Stuart Elliott, a former writer for the Detroit Free Press, is making it’s way around to Detroit’s cultural purveyors. The article details Time Inc’s contest to attract young creatives to Detroit.

IT may not be the advertising version of “Mission: Impossible,” but it is certainly a challenging, if not daunting, task: produce a campaign to encourage young and creative people to consider Detroit as a place to live and work.

Judging by his lead, Stuart Elliott isn’t buying into Detroit as a beacon for creative aspiring artists. Here’s the gist of the contest:

The initiative to help change what may be the most dire urban image in America is being sponsored by the Time Inc. unit of Time Warner as part of a yearlong project, Assignment Detroit, that involves reporters and editors from Essence, Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated, Time and related Web sites. Several advertising agencies with offices in the Detroit area were asked to develop campaigns; five agreed to take part. Their work is to appear in the Dec. 7 issue of Fortune, due Nov. 23, as well as on three Web sites: cnnmoney.com, fortune.com and time.com. (The value of the ad pages that Time Inc. is devoting to the contest in Fortune is estimated at $400,000.)

On the contrary, what cool, creative, progressive 18 year- old isn’t intrigued by a placed like Detroit?

It’s funky, rebellious and inevitably some part of their favorite music was made there. Detroit beckons the adventurous, the rebels, the out-of-the box types. It always has – it has something to do with a tough guy reputation.

By all means, it’s very cool that Time Inc is making an effort to get their hands dirty in the D, by investing in the image of the community, when they are struggling to keep reporters, fact checkers, and printers employed. And, the ad agencies that are struggling to keep the doors open probably appreciate the business and challenge to do something proactive in their own backyards, with account money from car companies down.

Yet, the approach seems to be backward, or at least disconnected. It’s about more than getting people to consider Detroit, it’s about learning to work with opportunity, or lack thereof. Generally, in society, artists have sought out places that no one else considered relevant. Hello Soho. But being a pioneer comes with tax — what I heard someone in Detroit once jokingly describe as a ghetto tax. Like, know your history. Come prepared.

The city has long attracted a certain band of outsiders to move in. In Detroit, an outsider is someone who wasn’t hired in by the car industry. See the Cass Corridor art scene of the 1960s for reference.

More recently these dreamy drifters and visionaries have been a diverse set of adventure seekers. A Japanese DJ who was willing to clean houses in exchange for a place to live. A recent LA college-grad who hopes to learn something about the indie music biz. A DC graphic designer who also dabbles in house music. A U of M doctoral candidate who is studying urban living. A poet who wrestle with a subtext of grit. A rock legend who chooses to live privately. A soul singer who opts to get more mansion for her money in Grosse Pointe. The daughter of a French diplomat looking for an urban thrill. A New Yorker who has visions of managing the next big thing.

I had my creative pioneering experiences, living at 2030 Grand River Ave. You won’t find this building; it’s was demolished a couple years ago. My rent was less than $200. It was a gigantic loft with large, looming windows that welcomed the event of sunrise. In many ways, at 22, I had it made. But it also came with a rat population, heat that wasn’t activated until mid-January,and ultimate slum lords who stole my security deposit. I used to write with gloves on, tears freezing, my breath fogging up the computer screen. I learned big-city sensibility — like taking all my change out of the car to avoid luring a window smash, and to always park under a light that worked, and be alert on an empty street. Happy to say, I emerged unscathed. By the time I moved out, I knew many of the local homeless population by name. That was the 90s. It’s a new day in Detroit, with plenty of condos and cheap homes, but beware of a place that sounds too good to be true. The sleazy landlords are still there, too.

While all of this provided great character building, young creatives need foundation to grow on, in exchange for living the artist’s way. That’s the hard part. That’s what the advertising won’t be honest about.

Let’s get the record straight. There’s more than one kind of person who falls under the definition of the creative type — and not all creative type are built to do great things. This is the difference between the working artist and the almost-there’s. There are plenty of people who call themselves artists, who boast about their small successes and dream, but can’t quite seem to keep it together, held-back by drugs, booze, or laziness, a lifestyle that’s easier to maintain in a town where the cost of living is considerably less. But they’re still trying. And still promising. And many of them call Detroit home. And if you aren’t savvy enough to see the difference, this energy can be very deflating.

There’s the grown-up, stage two artists — dancers, actors and stars who’ve returned home to raise a family and hob-knob in the local scene, taking on creative careers in education and community building to sustain themselves, wistful for the dream that evades them, or content with the fulfillment giving back brings them.

Then there’s the artist who is outwardly successful, that everyone constantly hits up for money, connections and opportunity. Chances are these artists do a good portion of their business elsewhere, while they make their work at home. They are there, but they worked their ass off to arrive.

Then there’s the artist who is simply trying their best, waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to come, waiting for someone to keep a promise, waiting for someone to notice.

The trouble is with the premise of this campaign is that there needs to be long-term vision to keep the motivated artist in Detroit, who are not simply there to be close to family, who want to live and make ends meet, who want to make great work, and who want to reach an audience.

In Michigan, there are no large group of patrons that support a viable artist scene, and with a declining tax base, that’s not going in the coming months, when people are just trying to keep the light on. There are no special tax breaks for artists to live in Michigan. And there certainly aren’t enough coffee shops for artists to work second jobs. Art supplies, new business endeavors, and food cost money.

For an incentive like this to work, it’s got to come from the inside out, and from the outside in. Detroit has to want people, too. Yes, an artist can make great work in Detroit, but it’s very difficult to sell it there.

Detroit may be temporarily thrilled by the attention, but by culture, the Midwest is slower to change, and in fact will look at you as if you’re crazy when you do something different. It takes an ambassador to carry it off. People don’t want to be told how to live. Can we blame them?

Despite its growing reputation as an urban farm, Detroit is an insider town. It’s a small town that acts as big city, and the core remains intact. It takes credibility to make headway with the local vanguard. That’s why local rock stars are frequently called upon to make a new idea fly. Yet, most of them live in the suburbs as well. If the accomplished creative types who live in the suburbs don’t want to invest in town, then why would outsiders? Are we talking Detroit? Are we talking Michigan? Or, are we talking in abstract about a community that is disconnected?

This has long been the case in a city plagued by segregation, the ills of racism and greed. There are lots of bad people who’ve done their dirt in Detroit, like the slumlords and drug suppliers and scamming agencies who don’t live there, and made it harder for the people who do. These issues need to be confronted head on, and not disregarded. It’s about appreciating the value of those in our community, and being honest about who’s doing what and how.

Are we ready to thrust these burdens on the young? Artists might start out as idealistic, but they need some reality to build on as real life sets in. It’s not easy.

It’s about more than an image — it’s about creating long-term efforts with realistic premises. Detroit isn’t going to change overnight, and there has to be some kind of investment with vision to responsibly encourage artists to set up shop.

It would be nice to see a few grants tied in with this incentive for artists to expand opportunities, or to find existing businesses, events and entrepreneurs and to pair them with pioneers from the outside greater world. Like, will Kid Rock hire you to design for the Made in Detroit label? Will Amazon open a branch of their online book company in Detroit? Are there tax breaks for small businesses to move Detroit? And how are artists who aren’t making any money going to pay to park their cars in overprice lots in a city where it’s nearly impossible to live without one? Who’s going to hand out maps to suburban grocery stores, or hip you to E&L Supermercado?

Detroit needs to do the work to go along with this campaign, if it really wants artists to invade from afar, outside in.

Detroit is not an easy city to move to. At first it’s campy, disconcerting in its derelict. And then it seems regular. It’s the kind of place, to truly appreciate the quality of life, you must know somebody, and that’s where the entry to the creative spirits swing open, and that after you’ve paid your dues, put your time in, and you look around and see the quality of the work being done that’s when you know you’ve arrived.

It’s where you’ll meet the toughest artists around, and if you’re patient, you’ll learn from them, and teach them, too.

It’s where things work only if you don’t settle for half-ass. Because it’s easy to come to Detroit and get by on nothing, and act like something. Half-ass is easy when you don’t have any personal goals, when it’s easy to think that after awhile there’s no one paying attention. And when you think you know better. Detroit certainly won’t give you your dreams. However, if you’re looking for a place where you can be quiet, and think, and explore, and stretch out you will find that. With all that space, there’s plenty of room to work.

Here’s how I would sell Detroit to artists:

Detroit is where things are made. Detroit, and it’s nearby Midwestern cities, are where things have long been created. When there isn’t much going on, it affords the opportunity to dream, to work, to create, and if you’re not paying land taxes or the ridiculous high car insurance, it’s much less expensive to live in Detroit. Detroit won’t teach you how to make it anywhere. But it will make you.

Maybe you’re not a Detroit artist. But perhaps, you’re an artist for Detroit.
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