By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The city of Detroit. Once synonymous with industry, and consequently, urban decline. What once looked, for years, to be a city perpetually in a hapless situation has been recently overcoming adversities and undergoing a remarkable reinvention I would say, to a great extent, thanks to doubling down on the vitality of arts and culture (something I couldn’t help but think city leadership in Chicago could take a moment to study). 

My children had a school break this past October. Some classmates went to places like New York, Costa Rica, even Europe! Instead, in the spirit of embracing what’s near, I opted to plan a three-night family visit to Detroit. The entire drive would be awash in colorful fall foliage, I was excited to experience a vibrant Midwestern city filled with creativity, innovation, and civic pride, getting just enough scenery along the way that it would feel like we spent some time in nature. During our trip, we got just a taste of Detroit’s revitalized downtown—its galleries, museums, restaurants, and charming independent shops—a cultural beating heart of dynamic artistic expressions developing the city.

We arrived in Detroit on a crisp autumn afternoon. Due to our own time constraints, we weren’t going to arrive until around 3:30 p.m. Our very first stop was The Shepherd, a new art center that opened only a few months earlier in 2024. Located in an 110-year-old Catholic church, once known as Good Shepherd and that closed in 2016, plans to breathe new life into the space as The Shepherd were announced in 2021 by Library Street Collective co-founders Anthony & JJ Curis. The Shepherd is at the heart of the Curis’ vision for a revitalization of Little Village on Detroit’s east side, and the pre-existing space offered room for exhibitions, performances, a library and educational spaces. An artist-focused b&b retreat in the church’s former rectory space, a park, and public sculpture offer something for everyone. Mothership Connection, a 26-foot tall outdoor sculpture by British-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové shares a name with Parliament Funkadelic’s iconic album of the same name from the 1970s. The towering work’s details show that varied materials and colors intentionally engage viewers in order to invite them aboard to consider the histories and contributions of enslaved Africans and others who helped build the country. Nearby, also on the grounds, is Charles McGee Legacy Park, in honor of the late Detroit artist who created art about the Black experience and the citizens of the city. There is even a skate park, designed by skateboarder Tony Hawk and the artist MacArthur Binion, whose own foundation, Modern Ancient Brown is onsite at the Shepherd. There is so much going on both inside and out of the main building there is a feeling that the creative energy on campus is bound to spill into the neighborhood. The day we visited, fall colors and sunny skies showed the parks in perfect light. Visitors lingered on benches, and it was easy to see how The Shepherd will be a gathering space for many people and events

throughout the year. 

After leaving The Shepherd as the sun started to set, we drove right into downtown so we could visit two galleries before they closed for the weekend. We arrived at The Belt, an alley with a lot going on on a Saturday night. Packed with people enjoying drinks around communal tables, taking a shortcut between streets or heading to the Standby restaurant and cocktail bar, The Belt is billed as a “culturally redefined alley” and is named for its location in a former downtown garment district. Installed along the walls of the alley were large-scale photographs by Genevieve Gaignard, part of Public Matter, The Belt’s fully accessible, outdoor exhibition platform. Previous exhibiting artists include Shepard Fairey, Nina Chanel Abney, Beverly Fishman, Daniel Arsham, and others. Happening upon The Belt is like saying the magic word to enter Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley and having a secret entrance appear. In keeping with the theme of being transported, in this case between Broadway and Library Street and Gratiot and Grand River, an opening in a brick wall offers a special window into the gallery we had come to see, Library Street Collective, the space responsible for this inviting destination. On view during our visit was an exhibition of round, large-scale paintings by Detroit artist James Benjamin Franklin. The highlighter-bright paint hues leave impressions on your retinas, adding to the stunning visual staying power of the works.

Next door to LSC is Louis Buhl & Co., a project space with an exhibition in its front gallery and shelves and flatfiles in the back area. Gretchen at the gallery gave us a helpful tour of the space while talking about what it means to her to have grown up near Detroit and live in the city now as a young person, when just a generation ago very few people would have considered living and working downtown. The vibrancy and cultural currency of art in Detroit is a testament to what can draw and retain a young professional class in the city. Gretchen also gave us a great recommendation for where to find the best Detroit-style pizza.

On Sunday morning, it took us less than 10 minutes to drive from our hotel in Corktown to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier cultural institutions in the entire country. Situated on the outskirts of Midtown Detroit, the museum is an architectural masterpiece and houses an extensive collection of more than 65,000 works that span centuries and cultures. DIA made news more than a decade ago when its trove of priceless art was considered fair game for deaccessioning as a means of raising money to lift the beleaguered city out of bankruptcy and pay the pensions of city retirees. The near-miraculous, widely covered “Grand Bargain” with business leaders, private foundations and the state of Michigan —who collectively contributed $800 million to the underfunded plans in exchange for ensuring the museum’s collection, even works that were purchased with city funds, was spared from the auction block—means that you cannot view the works on view at the museum today without thinking what might have been: art lost from public view forever. My family spent almost the entire day at DIA. 

There was so much to see, just among the permanent collection’s highlights, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s magnificent The Wedding Dance from 1566, to the expansive paintings by contemporary African American artists.

And, of course, the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera, which recall Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel in scale of course, but they also tell a story of humanity in painterly detail on a cavernous surface. The murals are a national treasure depicting the history of the city’s industrial might and the backbreaking work of its citizens during the 1930s. 

An immersive, special exhibition by Detroit artist Tiff Massey, Tiff Massey: 7 Mile + Livernois, notably features contemporary installations by Massey in dialogue with DIA holdings by Donald Judd and Louise Nevelson. Massey’s own contemporary, monumental works summon Detroit’s hardworking spirit just as Rivera’s murals did a century ago. The exhibition ends May 11, 2025.

On Monday, we took the kids to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and enjoyed the interactive exhibits. Some notable highlights include the Rosa Parks Bus, presidential limousines, and yes, a Weiner Mobile. Spending time here continued my childrens’ first-hand engagement with various avenues for creativity on this trip, and the historic campus in Dearborn was especially beautiful in October. We enjoyed the change to let the kids run loose outside by the museum’s clock tower before departing.

Our final evening found us back downtown for dinner, and we ended up having Detroit-style pizza, as we had promised the kids. Everyone agreed that an art trip wasn’t so bad after all, and we enjoyed spending time in a city with so much energy and so much to do. It’s always nice to be someplace where people are glad you are there, and that felt especially true in Detroit. We will be back.

OUR FAMILY DETROIT ITINERARY

Note: Our travel days were based around a school schedule, which was less than ideal, but aren’t all school vacation times? We drove on Saturday, and the trip is 4 1/2 hours and heads into Eastern Standard time. We had to hustle to make it to some spaces that afternoon.as they did not reopen until Wednesday. For our DIA visit we had to go Sunday, since the museum was closed Monday and Tuesday. We unfortunately couldn’t fit in a much- anticipated stop at Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook House and Gardens because we ended up spending four hours at DIA–whoops–but it was time well spent and a good reason to return. Another seasonal note: the Henry Ford Museum was open, but Greenfield Village was closed.

SATURDAY

• The Shepherd, and downtown galleries Library Street Collective and Louis Buhl & Co.

• Coffee at Madcap Coffee Co., ice cream at mister dips, Bon Bon Bon Chocoltes in Parker’s Alley

• Dinner @ San Morello

• Drinks @ Shinola Hotel

SUNDAY

• Detroit Institute of Arts

• Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)

• Walk through The Belt alley

• Dinner @ Standby

MONDAY

• Breakfast at Astoria Pastry Shop in Greektown

• Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation

• Dinner @ Buddy’s for Detroit-style pizza downtown

TUESDAY

• University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor

• Twin Maple Orchard in Galien