Latest news with #RochelleRiley
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
City of Detroit's arts and culture office hosts student gallery for its headquarters opening
About fifty works of colorful and thematic student art lined the walls and tables of Detroit's Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship's new headquarters during its opening at the Butzel Family Recreation Center, 7737 Kercheval Ave., on Friday, May 16. Lacey Holmes, ACE's project manager for arts initiatives, said ACE solicited submissions from schools, art teachers and community organizations throughout Detroit. 'What you're seeing is some of the brilliance that's happening in schools across the city,' ACE Director Rochelle Riley said about the gallery. The Kresge Foundation and the Hudson-Webber Foundation sponsored the city gallery and work with ACE to engage the city's next generation of artists, Riley said. The gallery's youngest student artist Ema Aguilar Moreno, 10, attends Achieve Charter Academy. She said her art was inspired by hard workers who stay up from sunrise to sunset. The gallery's oldest students included seniors in high school. Detroit School of Arts senior Cy Proctor had two pieces in the show. One piece meshes robots and machines with Japanese culture, while his other 'less-calculated' piece depicts an octopus, he said. Detroit School of Arts junior Kamren Barnett said his piece conveys 'oneness' and 'tapping into creation,' as the man in his painting touches the milky way. 'This was a whole experience trying to find the best way possible to express myself,' Barnett said. 'I am trying to convey there is no difference between us and creation itself.' Riley said the department aims to show Detroit's youth the importance of art and encourage them to pursue dreams, including careers as poets, historians or Broadway performers. 'Everything we do is to show our children the things they can do and be,' Riley said. 'What they must understand is that art is business, and we're going to make sure that people understand that the creative arts industry is an industry. It is not a hobby.' Artists Dana Hansen and Zirrea Brown plan to study art in college. Hansen, a senior at Detroit School of Arts, plans to major in painting at Wayne State University next year. Hansen said her art teacher picked out which pieces to submit to the gallery and that her three pieces were a part of her Advanced Placement Art portfolio with a 'hair' theme. More: Theaters, arts organizations across Michigan facing crisis after Trump's NEA cuts More: Detroit's College for Creative Studies to mark 100th student exhibition Brown, a junior at Cass Tech High School, said her dream schools include Georgia's Savannah College of Art and Design and Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Brown said she created her piece in the show for an art class assignment with a vampire theme. 'I wanted to make sure that you looked at some of the artists who came out tonight because their work is being recognized,' Riley said to the families and ACE supporters at the opening ceremony in a sparkling cider toast to the artists. 'Remember their names so when they are rich and famous, you should say, 'I knew them when…'' ACE's newest project will provide 43 artists mural space in nine different Detroit allies, Riley said. 'We're taking these really torn up allies that are behind people's houses in nine neighborhoods and turning them into these beautiful outdoor museums with art, new concrete, new sewer work,' Riley said. 'It's almost like having special parks and plazas right behind your house.' Outside of the mural project and art gallery, ACE awards 'creative stars' who have given at least 25 years of service to the Detroit arts. Previous ACE honoree Debra White-Hunt, artistic director and co-founder of Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy, attended the ACE headquarters launch. 'We do as much as we can (with ACE). Arts are who we are,' White-Hunt said. Dance shoes decorated by Detroit-Windsor Academy students were among art displayed in the gallery. White-Hunt said her students decorated shoes because of a display of painted shoes in the studio. ACE began in 2019. It currently has a three-person staff, and its previous location was in the Marygrove Conservancy. Its third annual ACE Honors Ceremony will take place on Friday, May 23, at the Bedrock Tower. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit students display artwork in City's ACE headquarter launch
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
City of Detroit arts and culture office to host performing arts summit this weekend
Detroit's City Office of Arts, Culture, and Entrepreneurship (Detroit ACE) will hold its first citywide performing arts summit on Saturday, March 1. The 10 a.m. event is open to the public and will take place at Detroit School of Arts, 123 Selden St. 'While Detroit looks to New York, Austin, Berlin, and Miami for inspiration, those cities are looking right back at us – watching, learning, and admiring,' said Detroit ACE director Rochelle Riley. 'Twelve cities have reached out to Detroit's arts and culture office because they like what they're seeing in Detroit. Now, we need Detroit to love what is happening here. 'We see ourselves as the Motor City, but for over a century, we've been the Music City, too – driving sound, shaping culture, setting the pace. We don't just follow trends; we create them. It's time that Detroit embraces its full power – owning not just what we build, but the music, soul, and energy that move the world.' The event will begin with the Detroit School of Arts Concert Choir's rendition of 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' and feature remarks and presentations from Riley and Detroit arts leaders about the state of the arts in the region and the available future. More: Detroit Public Theatre's 'Confederates' examines struggles of Black women in America More: Detroit Opera's joyful 'Rinaldo' a whimsical, wonderful delight: Review 'Detroit – like other cities are doing – must create a more collaborative strategy to include our creative economy in every overall economy plan,' said Riley. 'No discussion about economic development should happen without the arts sector included, because art is business. Every musician is a small business. Every actor is a small business. Every dancer is a small business. Every filmmaker is a small business. They collaborate to be great. 'It's time that Detroit help our creatives put their businesses above the jobs they have to take to keep their businesses afloat. We want our government, our corporations, our supporters to have the courage to step up and treat our creative workforce like the powerful group of career creators they are. But we also need creators to step up. If we start treating our creative industry like the revenue generator it can be, oh, the places we'll go and the success we'll have.' The summit is free and will be live-streamed on the City of Detroit's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit arts and culture office to host performing arts summit
