EVERY BIG THING NEEDs SPACE TO GROW
Letter from the Founder
In 2015 I moved to Detroit from New Zealand in the belief that the city of Detroit has the potential to be the Arts Center of the USA, if not the World. Having purchased a factory space in Highland Park, 333 Midland, my partners and I set about creating a community of artists with gallery exhibitions and community events. Nearly every week, I get inquiries from artists in Michigan, as well as artists moving here from around the USA, looking for studio space. But our artists like it here at 333! We have perhaps one studio change hands every year. Our business is successful and sustainable, and I see it as a model for a larger project — BIG Art. Detroit will fall short of realizing its potential in the arts without more affordable studio space for artists. Without reasonably priced spaces to work, artists will struggle to create the potent, substantial work Detroit is known for. If many more studios do not come onto the market, rental rates will increase beyond that which most artists can afford, and Detroit’s potential could be lost.
– Robert Onnes |