What do you get when you mix an architect, a photographer, a deep freeze, and the leading foreclosure rate in the nation? A web project called Ice House Detroit. Gregory Holm (aforementioned photographer) has teamed up with Matthew Radune (the architect in question) to document an architectural installation they’ve undertaken in the city of Detroit, a quickly fading urban center with approximately 80,000 abandoned houses. Their focus is social change: in exchange for the use of an abandoned house for the Ice House Detroit art project, the pair raised enough money on Kickstarter to pay back taxes on a different foreclosed house, allowing a local family to move in. And oh, the pictures.

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Photographer James Griffioen left a comfy life as a securities lawyer in San Francisco to take pictures and raise his family in what many consider the most dangerous city in America thanks to a staggering rate of 1,220 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people. He now calls Detroit home sweet home.

Griffioen has since spent his days walking the streets of his disintegrating hometown photographing the houses that others have long left behind. In the absence of their owners, architectural structures are slowly taken over by green matter. He calls the series of photographs Feral Houses; feral meaning “reversion to a wild state” and belonging to the dead. There is nothing sinister about these images though. Instead they remind us of the indomitable power of nature — living proof of Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us.

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We just read that 18 visual artists received a boost in the form of $450,000 in grant money from the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation. As the Detroit Free Press reported, “Advocates say the fellowships could have a galvanizing effect on the local arts scene — boosting public perception of an overlooked community, inspiring artists to create more ambitious work and offering them an incentive to remain here rather than leave for New York or elsewhere.” Plus, next year the grants will recognize non-visual artists.

Does this spell a mass exodus from Brooklyn, the current unofficial borough-of-choice for struggling artists, toward a land free of gentrification and trust-funders? Let’s take a look at the evidence. Read More »

Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is a DJ, blogger, and emissary for Detroit’s vibrant hip-hop scene. His website, Renaissance Soul Detroit, evolved from a tribute to the late, great producer J. Dilla into the city’s online hub for urban music. To celebrate our first Daily Dose contest‘s focus on the Motor City, K offered to take us on a virtual tour of his favorite hometown artists.

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Welcome to our first Daily Dose contest! Wanna skip all the good stuff? Fine. Just jump down to the comments and let us know:

What’s your favorite thing about Detroit?

[UPDATE: The contest is now closed — many thanks to all who participated! The winner will be announced in tomorrow's Daily Dose.]

The winner will score a D-town prize pack: a signed copy of Finale‘s yet-to-be-released debut album, A Pipe Dream and a Promise; Black Milk‘s latest LP, TRONIC, on vinyl; eLZhi‘s acclaimed 2008 album, The Preface; and a signed, limited-edition copy of artist Jamar Nicholas’ Interdependent Media coloring book.

Make sure you enter a working email address when you post a comment — it’ll remain invisible, and we’ll only use it to contact the winner, who’ll be selected at random and announced in next Tuesday’s Daily Dose.

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