Press Release

Exhibition: Why – Why we make creative work, from the people who make it.
17 November – 26 January
Opening Reception Saturday 17 November, 6-9pm
Work : Detroit Gallery, 3663 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201
Regular Hours: 10am – 5pm Tuesday – Saturday
http://www.art-design.umich.edu/workdetroit/
Exhibition Website: http://www.whyproject.blogspot.com

What compels artists and designers to create, often in the face of staggering obstacles? Where does that drive come from? Why do we do what we do?

On November 17, 2007 find out “Why,” as artist and designers from Detroit and faculty from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design offer their individual diverse responses to questions about the source of their creative work. The resulting variety of perspectives in work and in words offers an educational and insightful exploration of the origins of creativity. A selection of work from each artist/designer is supplemented by the transcribed text of his/her responses to the question “why”, as well as a video of all the responses. For viewers, the show features an interactive component that allows visitors to record their responses to this central question about the nature of creativity.

As a complement to this exhibition, some of the responses by artists and viewers may also be developed as a series of shorts that will run on PLAY TV (Michigan Television and the Michigan Channel) and also be available on playgallery.org.

Featured exhibitors include: Shiva Ahmadi, Lynne Avadenka, David Barr, Adnan Charara, Jim Cogswell, Larry Cressman, Topher Crowder, DMC, Denise Fanning, Beverly Fishman, Phoebe Gloeckner, Adrian Hatfield, Sadashi Inuzuka, Charles McGee, Anne Mondro, Janie Paul, Ted Ramsay, Kathy Rashid, Stephen Schudlich, Sintex, Gilda Snowden, Nick Tobier, Ed West, and Elizabeth Youngblood.

About Work : Detroit
With the establishment of the UM Detroit Center in the cultural center of Detroit, the University of Michigan has returned to its roots and renewed its commitment to the people and the city of Detroit. To further cultivate this engagement with the community, the School of Art & Design is bringing together the creative communities of Detroit and Ann Arbor with a new shared space for creative work and dialogue — Work : Detroit, the School of Art & Design’s newest gallery.

Through its exhibitions and related programming, this first of its kind gallery promises to serve as an intersection for the convergence of people and creative work from Detroit to Ann Arbor and beyond. It is in this fertile terrain that ideas collide and new perspectives to help us all face a rapidly changing future bloom.

a cultural nerve center where people, places, and creative work intersect