It’s amazing to think Hostel Detroit, the city’s first hostel in 15 years, has only been open since April. The busy home-away-from-home for adventurous international, national and regional travelers on a budget has already become a potent symbol of Detroit’s entrepreneurial, welcoming spirit and its strong sense of community. The hostel (an early 20th century […]

There’s a small art and design show on view at the Detroit Creative Corridor Center’s new Accelerator Studio gallery that’s well worth a look. Featuring the work of five local artists, “Detroit: Creative Concept” commemorates the July 12 grand opening of the studio/gallery space, which is located in the College for Creative Studies’ Taubman Center. […]

You’ll find no flowers when you visit the Susanne Hilberry Gallery to see “In Bloom,” the four-person show on view there until August 6. Not real ones, anyway. There’s a Styrofoam box full of artificial flowers, watered fruitlessly by a half-hearted burble. And there’s an abundant sense of growing and blooming in much of the […]

Founded in 1903, the Detroit ceramic design studio Pewabic Pottery earned national acclaim throughout much of the 20th century for its distinctive tiles, vessels, jewelry and architectural ornamentation, which can be seen all over metro-Detroit. (You’ll find it elsewhere in the country, too, including Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and Nebraska’s State Capitol building.) Notable local examples […]

The first piece you’ll see when you check out “Homeland,” the show on view at the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art until August 20, is Jother Woods’ astonishing, 52-foot long installation “Plantation House.” The dense miniature world, full of buildings, vehicles, avenues and landscaping constructed mostly from found materials, is a testament to the imagination and […]

The eye that delights in detail will have a field day with “Brandished,” a two-person show on view at Re:View Contemporary. Featuring work by recent Cranbrook Academy of Art graduates Wes Taylor and Chitra Gopalakrishnan, “Brandished” presents digital prints, drawings and screen prints that explore the contrasting subjects of simplicity and complexity, challenging you with […]

The Concert of Colors, the annual music festival celebrating the rich cultural diversity of metro-Detroit, takes places this weekend in Midtown. The 19th year of the festival finds the addition of two new participating venues — the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Scarab Club will join the Detroit Institute of […]

There’s just one day left to view “Prime Candidates,” the fascinating show currently up at 2739 Edwin in Hamtramck. Curator and gallery owner Steve Panton considers the work on display part of Detroit’s “dirtgeist,” a movement he associates with trash (plastic bags, especially) and nature. In it, participating local artists Scotty Slade and Andrew Thompson, […]

I was glad I took time this Independence Day to explore Hamtramck Disneyland. That’s the informal name of a legendary folk art installation that covers a residential backyard and two small garages, reaching, improbably, at least two stories into the air. What better way to celebrate the holiday than a stop in Michigan’s most ethnically […]

Spending time with Olayame Dabls’ public art is in some ways essential to understanding Detroit’s recent history. In his hands, the rusted, discarded and broken bones of industry cohere into beautiful, monumental forms that address the racism, deindustrialization and abandonment that have wreaked such havoc on the city and its residents. Colored (and somehow safeguarded) […]