ANN ARBOR –
A new crowdfunding campaign is aimed at helping transform a vacant 3,200 square
foot building on the Detroit Community Schools campus into the Brightmoor Maker
Space, a place for youth and adults to build their creative making skills and
incubate business ideas.
The project
was launched on the Michigan-based crowdfunding platform Patronicity and is
backed by the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art &
Design and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Funds
collected for the Brightmoor Maker Space will be used to repair and update the
vacant building, purchase equipment and work tools, and develop community
resources and programs to support skills-building, creativity and
entrepreneurship.
The Stamps
School’s partnership with the MEDC follows an endorsement last fall from the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which awarded the Stamps School a
two-year $100,000 matching grant for the project as part of the prestigious
Knight Arts Challenge program in Detroit.
“This
funding will allow us to officially move forward with our plans to provide a
much-needed physical space that will expand the impact of our ongoing arts
programming in the Brightmoor community,” said Gunalan Nadarajan, dean of
the Stamps School.
Nadarajan
said that over the past five years, Stamps students, faculty and staff have
been working actively with the Brightmoor community, developing strong arts
programming with Detroit Community Schools (a K-12 charter school) and
community organizations such as Brightmoor Alliance and Neighbors Building
Brightmoor.
“Stamps
is committed to being a part of the re-imagining of Detroit that is underway
across the city, and fostering the role of creative making in that
revitalization,” Nadarajan said.
If the
Patronicity crowdfunding goal of $25,000 is met by July 10, the match from the
MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Places program would activate an initial $50,000
Knight Arts Challenge Grant to launch Brightmoor’s first year of active
programming.
“The
Brightmoor Maker Space will open all kinds of new doors to youth and adults in
the Brightmoor neighborhood that would not otherwise be accessible, and we’re
pleased to partner in this effort,” said MEDC Community Development
Director Katharine Czarnecki. “Public Spaces Community Places is a key
tool that the MEDC has to help community partners fill critical funding gaps
and bring projects to completion.”
Public
Spaces Community Places is a collaborative effort of the MEDC, the Michigan
Municipal League and Patronicity, where local residents can use crowdfunding to
be part of the development of strategic projects in their communities and
receive a matching grant from MEDC.
Every dollar
donated to the Patronicity campaign will essentially be quadrupled by the two
matching grants.
Patronicity Crowdfunding
Design Detroit Collaborations
Michigan Economic Development Corp.
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
