We are Culture Creators, a nonprofit arts collective, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help bring a "reimagined mercado" with a mini market and arts enclave to two long-vacant lots in Southwest Detroit.
If the organization hits its $50,000 fundraising goal through the Patronicity campaign, the project will win a matching grant through the Michigan Economic Development Corp.'s Public Spaces Community Places program, a collaborative effort of the MEDC, the Michigan Municipal League, and Patronicity that launched in 2014.
The funding will help We are Culture Creators purchase the lots and create a neighborhood gathering spaced dubbed La Esquina ("the corner") Mini Mercado and Cultural Enclave.
As planned, the project will transform the vacant lots at Bagley Street and Scotten Avenue into a vibrant corner to host farmers and artisans markets, provide an outdoor event space with a mobile stage and seating and create an outdoor kitchen with water and electrical hookups. A mural dedicated to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is also planned for the side of We are Culture Creators' house, which faces the lots. The goal is to create a space that will bring commerce, art, culture and community together in a safe and accessible way, the organization said.
"We want to reimagine the old Mercado that used to exist," said Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides, who goes by his artist name "Reyes." He co-founded the nonprofit with Elizabeth Stone.
The Ford Resource Engagement Center, which operates from the old Mexicantown Mercado site about five or six blocks down Bagley, is really good in providing community and educational space, Reyes, 40, said, "but it's not set up as a space of commerce,"
"I've heard ... there used to be a fountain in the center of the Mercado. It's become a legend of where did the fountain go? Is it in someone's backyard?" Reyes said.
"Our goal would be to see an image of it and recreate it."
We are Culture Creators has a formal agreement with the owner of the lots that's enabling it to use them as it raises the money to purchase them and do a build-out, he said. It hopes to do a soft launch of La Esquina on Dia de los Muertos, which begins on Oct. 31, with six local artists creating alters in the outdoor space.
"We're trying to figure out ways people can do some of these activities outside," Reyes said.
"We're reaching out for ... funding to expand what we're doing there next season."
The arts collective and label provides arts/entrepreneurship education for young men of color in the city of Detroit from a site next to the lots since 2013. It works with young, aspiring artists to help them facilitate a music career. It also operates Culture Creators Productions LLC, a for-profit that assists professional artists age 21 and older in gaining access to performance opportunities and contracts and curates events with local artists.
We are Culture Creators is operating on a budget of just over $100,000 this year, with support from organizations including Kresge Foundation, Skillman Foundation, CultureSource and The Lewis Prize for Music.
"Public placemaking led by an engaged community of creative people results in well-loved places for all to enjoy," MEDC Senior Vice President of Community Development Michele Wildman said in a release.
"We are pleased to bring the La Esquina project to life and provide resources for this effort through our Public Spaces Community Places program."
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Detroit nonprofit to bring arts enclave, mini mercado to vacant Southwest Detroit lots - Crain's Detroit Business
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