[Music]
[Applause]
so I wanted to start off the
conversation by talking about this
beautiful piece of art that’s been
behind us all day long this was a mural
that was created in 2017 by artist Rick
Williams from Detroit and be Mike from
New Orleans they collaborated here in
Detroit for our annual mural festival
murals in the market that happens in
Eastern Market they found a young boy
from Detroit his name was actually I
don’t know his name but his mother’s
name yep his name is Evan his mother’s
name is shakarez add love and she’s an
amazing spoken word poet here in Detroit
and so the collaboration really made
something so special and beautiful I
think at this moment it may be our most
popular most photographed piece of art
that we’ve done in the market but the
thing is about this one piece of art
that I think is so special is it makes
you feel something right when you read
it and you see it it makes you feel
something special you feel inspired you
feel hopeful you feel like that there is
some kind of way to get out of a
situation or an experience that is might
bog you down or take you down and that’s
kind of the magic of public art public
art is a place where things walls and
museums and galleries they the walls get
broken down and barriers are taken down
and people can have their own democratic
kind of gallery that they can expose
themselves to and they can kind of go
and see the art in the and the the they
can see kind of like art in in a
different atmosphere than what’s been
traditionally put in front of us the
murals in Eastern Market and all around
Detroit have become a a backdrop for
graduation photos for wedding photos for
senior pictures they they become and
they start belonging to the community
and
leaving kind of our ownership inserts
starts to belong to everyone else
Detroit has such a rich history in
public art you know we have the spirit
of Detroit we have the murals the legacy
murals that were in Eastern Market the
vegetable in the high-low things that
you’ve seen your entire childhood and
growing up by spending all your time
there and of course the the most one of
the most magical murals that have ever
been created in the world which is the
diego rivera mural and the DIA which has
been countless it been inspired to
countless artists all over Detroit in
the world
so public artists is special it creates
moments for people but in Detroit
specifically we have a long history with
it it’s not something that just showed
up yesterday and pieces like this where
we have two artists of color
african-american artists specifically
come together and really kind of do
something that speaks to a third
community here in Detroit
and I want to say that that doesn’t come
on accident we are very very I’m gonna
use a word I’m gonna use it a lot or a
couple of words intentionally inclusive
it’s something that we believe in
something that I believe in and
something that I feel that people have
to think about as they curate hire as
they think about the groups and
organizations that they’re putting
together when we curate this festival we
take a look at everybody that we have
and we say how many women do we have how
many artists of color do we have how
many women of color do we have right and
so those are things that you know you
hears in so many conversations where
people are like I only really hire I
only select the most talented I only
really I only pick the ones that are
within my own personal community well
you know what that’s not what’s gonna
make great work not great work for
myself but great work from the
collective that’s there and so when you
sit and you think and you put these
people together and we look and we’re
like okay well we’ve got we need 50
artists
and right now at the table we’ve got 40
white men well you know what that’s not
gonna really inspire Detroit which is 90
percent african-american and that’s not
really going to change people’s
perception of I can do this and I can be
bigger and I can be better and so what
we did was is we’re like okay yes
there’s a lot of white men that are very
talented in Detroit and we love them and
we support them but let’s get out of our
comfort zone and let’s find some women
well they’re like well women don’t paint
murals there’s only a handful of them
it’s not a thing that they do well you
know what we went and we spoke to women
were like oh you paint a painting that’s
the size of a wall you can do this and
so we inspired this other generation of
artists to come out and paint that have
never done that before and what happened
was is these students and people and
young people from the city would come
and watch these artists paint and they
would be so inspired and they would say
like I have I can do this or I’ve never
even looked at this wall before but now
that I see you doing it it feels so
personal to me and I feel that I can
accomplish something like that and I
think that people take things like that
for granted in different environments
that they work in when you sit down I’m
sure there’s people here that have
companies or hire or or our curators or
putting different things together with
different groups of people you have to
sit and you have to look at your list
and you have to say am i just picking
this person because it’s easy and
comfortable and it’s the most qualified
will the most qualified to us sometimes
is not the right answer the most
qualified sometimes is somebody that can
bring you a cultural interpretation of
something that you don’t know yourself
we found that it in our environments
that when we bring these different kinds
of people in the same room different
ideas are sparked and different kinds of
techniques and expressions are shared
and they start then you start breaking
barriers and you start having different
conversations and what we’ve noticed
from the public art that we’ve created
in Eastern Market we didn’t create it
the artists have but we’ve curated it is
that it’s such a it’s such a variation
of so many different people and so many
different things
and so I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna ask
everyone that leaves here today that the
next time you try to make a new friend
the next time you want to hire that new
person the next time you’re really
looking at something in a big picture
you have to ask yourself am I am I
looking outside of my box
am I asking somebody to do something
that’s different
am I thinking about what my community
needs for me it’s not just what’s great
for my company or my organization or
what’s going on there but it’s really
what’s great for everything that’s
around me and you’re gonna see that
you’re gonna be able to inspire so many
people around you by being so inclusive
and having people participate in in what
you’re doing and where you’re going so
I’m gonna ask people to please be
intentionally inclusive you have to do
it on purpose you can’t do it by
accident and if you want to do something
on purpose you have to kind of go
outside of your box and kind of really
look at who’s there and what they’re
doing public art is amazing we
appreciate all the support we just
finished our festival so I’m still a
little high on what we just accomplished
the past 10 days we asked everybody to
go down to Eastern Market and see
everything and all of the big murals and
go take your wedding photos and go take
your graduation photos and come
celebrate art with us down there thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
[Applause]
so I wanted to start off the
conversation by talking about this
beautiful piece of art that’s been
behind us all day long this was a mural
that was created in 2017 by artist Rick
Williams from Detroit and be Mike from
New Orleans they collaborated here in
Detroit for our annual mural festival
murals in the market that happens in
Eastern Market they found a young boy
from Detroit his name was actually I
don’t know his name but his mother’s
name yep his name is Evan his mother’s
name is shakarez add love and she’s an
amazing spoken word poet here in Detroit
and so the collaboration really made
something so special and beautiful I
think at this moment it may be our most
popular most photographed piece of art
that we’ve done in the market but the
thing is about this one piece of art
that I think is so special is it makes
you feel something right when you read
it and you see it it makes you feel
something special you feel inspired you
feel hopeful you feel like that there is
some kind of way to get out of a
situation or an experience that is might
bog you down or take you down and that’s
kind of the magic of public art public
art is a place where things walls and
museums and galleries they the walls get
broken down and barriers are taken down
and people can have their own democratic
kind of gallery that they can expose
themselves to and they can kind of go
and see the art in the and the the they
can see kind of like art in in a
different atmosphere than what’s been
traditionally put in front of us the
murals in Eastern Market and all around
Detroit have become a a backdrop for
graduation photos for wedding photos for
senior pictures they they become and
they start belonging to the community
and
leaving kind of our ownership inserts
starts to belong to everyone else
Detroit has such a rich history in
public art you know we have the spirit
of Detroit we have the murals the legacy
murals that were in Eastern Market the
vegetable in the high-low things that
you’ve seen your entire childhood and
growing up by spending all your time
there and of course the the most one of
the most magical murals that have ever
been created in the world which is the
diego rivera mural and the DIA which has
been countless it been inspired to
countless artists all over Detroit in
the world
so public artists is special it creates
moments for people but in Detroit
specifically we have a long history with
it it’s not something that just showed
up yesterday and pieces like this where
we have two artists of color
african-american artists specifically
come together and really kind of do
something that speaks to a third
community here in Detroit
and I want to say that that doesn’t come
on accident we are very very I’m gonna
use a word I’m gonna use it a lot or a
couple of words intentionally inclusive
it’s something that we believe in
something that I believe in and
something that I feel that people have
to think about as they curate hire as
they think about the groups and
organizations that they’re putting
together when we curate this festival we
take a look at everybody that we have
and we say how many women do we have how
many artists of color do we have how
many women of color do we have right and
so those are things that you know you
hears in so many conversations where
people are like I only really hire I
only select the most talented I only
really I only pick the ones that are
within my own personal community well
you know what that’s not what’s gonna
make great work not great work for
myself but great work from the
collective that’s there and so when you
sit and you think and you put these
people together and we look and we’re
like okay well we’ve got we need 50
artists
and right now at the table we’ve got 40
white men well you know what that’s not
gonna really inspire Detroit which is 90
percent african-american and that’s not
really going to change people’s
perception of I can do this and I can be
bigger and I can be better and so what
we did was is we’re like okay yes
there’s a lot of white men that are very
talented in Detroit and we love them and
we support them but let’s get out of our
comfort zone and let’s find some women
well they’re like well women don’t paint
murals there’s only a handful of them
it’s not a thing that they do well you
know what we went and we spoke to women
were like oh you paint a painting that’s
the size of a wall you can do this and
so we inspired this other generation of
artists to come out and paint that have
never done that before and what happened
was is these students and people and
young people from the city would come
and watch these artists paint and they
would be so inspired and they would say
like I have I can do this or I’ve never
even looked at this wall before but now
that I see you doing it it feels so
personal to me and I feel that I can
accomplish something like that and I
think that people take things like that
for granted in different environments
that they work in when you sit down I’m
sure there’s people here that have
companies or hire or or our curators or
putting different things together with
different groups of people you have to
sit and you have to look at your list
and you have to say am i just picking
this person because it’s easy and
comfortable and it’s the most qualified
will the most qualified to us sometimes
is not the right answer the most
qualified sometimes is somebody that can
bring you a cultural interpretation of
something that you don’t know yourself
we found that it in our environments
that when we bring these different kinds
of people in the same room different
ideas are sparked and different kinds of
techniques and expressions are shared
and they start then you start breaking
barriers and you start having different
conversations and what we’ve noticed
from the public art that we’ve created
in Eastern Market we didn’t create it
the artists have but we’ve curated it is
that it’s such a it’s such a variation
of so many different people and so many
different things
and so I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna ask
everyone that leaves here today that the
next time you try to make a new friend
the next time you want to hire that new
person the next time you’re really
looking at something in a big picture
you have to ask yourself am I am I
looking outside of my box
am I asking somebody to do something
that’s different
am I thinking about what my community
needs for me it’s not just what’s great
for my company or my organization or
what’s going on there but it’s really
what’s great for everything that’s
around me and you’re gonna see that
you’re gonna be able to inspire so many
people around you by being so inclusive
and having people participate in in what
you’re doing and where you’re going so
I’m gonna ask people to please be
intentionally inclusive you have to do
it on purpose you can’t do it by
accident and if you want to do something
on purpose you have to kind of go
outside of your box and kind of really
look at who’s there and what they’re
doing public art is amazing we
appreciate all the support we just
finished our festival so I’m still a
little high on what we just accomplished
the past 10 days we asked everybody to
go down to Eastern Market and see
everything and all of the big murals and
go take your wedding photos and go take
your graduation photos and come
celebrate art with us down there thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
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