1/24/22: One Detroit - Albert Kahn, Heidelberg Project, Pandemic Performances, African Drumming

Originally aired on January 25, 2021

This Week on One Detroit, Arts & Culture:

First, One Detroit welcomes its new host of One Detroit Arts & Culture, Satori Shakoor.

Remembering the Legacy Architect Albert Kahn Left in Detroit

As part of Detroit Public Television’s documentary “Detroit Designs the World,” we transport back to the Detroit before it became the auto capitol of the world to look at the radical design decisions architect Albert Kahn (1869-1942) took when crafting some of Detroit’s most famous buildings. Whether it was the Highland Park Ford plant in 1910 or the Fisher Building in 1928, Kahn revolutionized the architecture industry with his large, sweeping designs with lots of open space and his use of ornate artistry like sculptures and bronze work. Detroit Experience Factory Founder and Executive Director Jeanette Pierce, Michigan Historic Preservation Officer Brian Conway, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research Director Gregory Wittkopp, and President and CEO of Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. Alan Cobb discuss the lasting legacy Kahn left in the motor city.

Heidelberg 3.0: How a Three-Decade Old Arts Project is Surviving COVID

Heidelberg Project President Jenenne Whitfield described the 36-year-old art project created in east Detroit by artist Tyree Guyton as outdoor, funky, colorful and cool, and that’s exactly what you’ll see walking through the artworks made up of primarily recycled and used materials. The project isn’t just environmentally conscious though, but a positive economic impact on the city and region too. As of 2019, Whitfield said the Heidelberg project had indirectly contributed roughly $7.5 million in additional revenue. As the project continues to grapple with COVID’s consequences, One Detroit’s Will Glover sat down with Whitfield to talk about how the all-woman organization has fared during the pandemic and their plans for Heidelberg 3.0: an arts district and community.

Art for Life’s Sake: Discussing Art’s Importance During the Pandemic with Deborah Rutter

As we re-imagined how to continue to interact the arts, artists and cultural events with the precipice of COVID, Arts Engines Host and professor of Arts Leadership and Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan Aaron Dworkin sits down with John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Deborah Rutter to talk about the ways the Kennedy Center, the nation’s cultural center, has pivoted, with its Couch Concerts and Arts Across America livestreams, to still provide artistic programming during the pandemic. Rutter shares her suggestions for how artists can continue to promote themselves and their work during tumultuous times, as well as her opinions on the responsibility of arts organizations to foster relationships with diverse audiences in their local community.

Detroit Performs: Live From Marygrove – African Drumming with Ayinde Fondren

Instructor and activist Ayinde Ananda-Fondren closes out the episode with the invigorating sounds of African drumming during a Detroit Performs: Live From Marygrove performance.