DETROIT, March 16, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A vacant storefront on Woodward Avenue downtown has blossomed into a non-profit space that will become a center of young Detroit's creative networks. It opens Saturday, March 19, with an art show titled "Detroit is Here."
Studio Couture Detroit will serve as a gallery, an incubator, a student-directed design studio and community arts center at 1433 Woodward in Detroit's central business district. Its mission is to use art and design methodologies to promote community building and urban renewal.
The space will create entrepreneurial opportunities and demonstrate the theory and practice of art and design through lectures, panel discussions and workshops. Funding is provided by Lawrence Tech.
The first event is the opening for the "Detroit is Here" art show, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. The show invited artists, designers and architects to explore ideas that rebrand Detroit and southeast Michigan through a positive filter. With Detroit becoming fashionable in recent mass-media portrayals, the intent of "Detroit is Here" is to recognize the city's immediacy and spirit.
Emphasis will be placed on works that extend beyond Detroit as solely an image for consumption and create opportunities for dialogue, community building and urban renewal.
Peter Beaugard, a co-director of the gallery, said "the show intends to create dialogue and awareness of creative networks in Detroit and frame the future focus of Studio Couture Detroit."
In addition to the gallery space, Studio Couture Detroit will also run a student-directed design studio by partnering students at the surrounding universities with local business.
Organizers will serve Faygo and Vernor's pop at the opening, and will hold a party around the corner at Café D'Mongo's Speakeasy, 1439 Griswold, after 9 p.m.
CONTACT: Peter Beaugard Blake Almstead info@studiocouturedetroit.org 1433 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 48226-2001 http://www.studiocouturedetroit.org