Exhibition:

Intersection UM/Detroit

22 September – 2 November 2007
Opening Reception Saturday 22 September, 6-9pm
Work : Detroit Gallery, 3663 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 5pm
Reception Desk 313 593-0527

A new gallery comes to Midtown Detroit – UM School of Art & Design launches Work : Detroit with inaugural exhibition

On September 22, 2007 the creative communities of Detroit and Ann Arbor will have a new shared space for creative work and dialogue — Work : Detroit, the School of Art & Design’s newest gallery at the UM Detroit Center in the heart of Detroit’s cultural community. Work : Detroit celebrates this opening with Intersection, an inaugural exhibition that directly embraces the gallery’s mission to provide “a cultural nerve center where people, places, and creative work intersect.” A site-specific and collaborative show, Intersection, brings together UM School of Art & Design faculty and Detroit’s arts community to share their responses to the gallery’s physical location at the intersection of Woodward & Martin Luther King/Mack.

From this single point, participating artists and designers have generated a rich and diverse field of responses, drawing from each participant’s experience, methodology, and creative process. Some works document the life of this intersection from audio interviews with those possessing intimate knowledge of its history to photographs then and now of the its changing architectural face – even people’s trash tell a tale to the diligent observer. Other works draw on the site’s history, from a computer-based audio-visual investigation describing the northward flow of Detroit’s population from 1701 to 1967, to the more lighthearted, animated adventures of Judge Woodward, the architect behind Detroit’s street plan. The show even spreads out onto the street corner itself with outdoor sculptural installations paying tribute to native peoples who once inhabited Detroit, a mural installation on the building’s windows, and an interactive performance with the public at a moveable bus stop.

This first vital convergence of people and ideas from Detroit and Ann Arbor showcases the works of: Alana Bartol, Lowell Boileau, Jim Cogswell, Miroslav Cukovic, Pat Duff, Tirtza Even, Anne Fracassa, Mary Heinen, Scott Hocking, Jack Johnson, Deb King, Emily Linn, Jacque Liu, Andy Malone, Thylias Moss, Ansted Moss, Dan Price, Jocelyn Rainey, Ted Ramsay, Senghor Reid, Stephanie Rowden, John Sauve, Stephen Schudlich, Gary Schwartz, Hannah Smotrich, Rachel Timlin, Nick Tobier, Vito Valdez, Ron Watters, and Marilyn Zimmerman.

Intersection opens Saturday, September 22, with a reception to meet the artists open to the public from 6pm to 9pm. At 7:30pm there will be a brief dedication ceremony. The Detroit-based collective Paris ’68 will be providing a sonic environment for the event.