Detroit Art Week preparing for a 2025 return

Hey, everyone! Welcome back to Culture Canvas. 

Detroit Art Week is making a return next summer and its founders are already seeking city-based galleries, exhibition spaces and unconventional venues, such as cafes, shipping containers, or even living rooms, interested in taking part. 

The event, founded by Aleiya Lindsey Olu and, her husband, Amani Olu, celebrates the city’s contemporary art, design and culture. The 2025 festivities will mark the third year for DAW after a hiatus since 2019. Past programming has featured more than 250 participants from Detroit’s creative community like Playground Detroit, the Heidelberg Project, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Red Bull Arts Detroit.

The program is scheduled to run from July 16-20 and DAW is putting out a call for applications. The organizers are also accepted applications for events like cocktail parties, studio visits, panel discussions, performances and artists’ talks. The deadline to apply is Nov. 30 at midnight.

The DAW founders recently shared some details via email about why it’s time to bring the event back, what to expect and what they love about Detroit’s arts scene. 

“The heart and soul of Detroit Art Week is in our collaboration with cultural spaces, large and small,” the co-founders wrote to BridgeDetroit. “In this iteration, we want to strengthen and develop new collaborations with designers, musicians, restaurants and other unconventional venues.”

BridgeDetroit: Why did you decide 2025 was the right time to bring back Detroit Art Week? 

Aleiya and Amani: We initially aimed to bring DAW back as early as 2022, but we were focused on other projects, including growing our agency (Olu & Company), our personal design and music practices and Periodicals (Aleiya’s Core City magazine shop). Earlier this year, we found the opportunity to dedicate time to DAW. Since 2019, the art and culture scene in Detroit has expanded significantly, making 2025 the perfect time to relaunch.

BridgeDetroit: What do you envision this DAW to look like? How will it be different from the last two events?

Aleiya and Amani: We really want to focus on art and its many intersections—how visual art intersects with food, music, design, etc. We have seen the city’s cultural landscape ripening in these areas. Detroiters are leveraging their unique perspectives to launch projects that really enrich the community. Additionally, opening Periodicals, a public space, has given us a much stronger sense of what the community would like to see and experience. 

BridgeDetroit: Have the both of you seen a change in Detroit’s arts scene since the last art week in 2019? 

Aleiya and Amani: There has been a huge amount of growth since the last Detroit Art Week. Of course, Michigan Central Station and Little Village immediately come to mind. In general, we’ve seen a lot of Detroit-based artists of all disciplines expand their practices and gain a national and international presence. 

BridgeDetroit: Aleiya, as a Detroit native, why was it important to you to celebrate the city’s arts and culture? 

Aleiya: Every creative project I have embarked on has been inspired by Detroit and my experiences here, from my design practice to Periodicals. So much of my perspective has been shaped by the artists, designers and makers here, so it feels right to create a platform to celebrate those people and also make space for young voices to come forward. 

BridgeDetroit: Amani, what do you love about Detroit and its art scene?

Amani: I love the underground nature of the scene here, how tight-knit it is and its authenticity. I admire the diversity and innovation at the root of art practices and the drive to make work, even with the knowledge that commercial opportunities are somewhat limited.

BridgeDetroit: What are the biggest takeaways you hope guests have when they attend DAW next year? 

Aleiya and Amani: We want people to feel like DAW belongs to the city, that the people who live and work here co-created the festival and are represented. Most importantly, we want it to be fun and inspiring, to feel like a camp, the thing you look forward to all year and don’t stop talking about until the next year comes around. We also want this year to be rooted in multisensory experience, combining visual art with music, food and more. 

As always, have a great week! 

Cheers, 

Micah 

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313 Scene

• The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce wrapped up a survey on Labor Day, asking people in metro Detroit where they would want to see a centralized LGBTQ business district in Detroit. The chamber hopes to have the results by October.
• Less than 90 days after its launch, Detroit-based Sports Rap Radio has shut down. The station, which was leased for two years from Audacy, ran out of funding just before the college and professional football seasons started. (Detroit Metro Times) 
• The Detroit Institute of Arts is opening a new exhibit Sept. 22 called, “The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World.” The show will feature 230 works from the Middle East, Egypt, Central and South Asia and beyond to explore connections between art and cuisine from ancient times to the present day. “The Art of Dining” will be on display until Jan. 5, 2025. (Detroit Institute of Arts)

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What’s Going on in the D? 

• Detroit’s community festival Dally in the Alley returns Saturday in the Cass Corridor with a day full of food, vendors, and music. Some of the performances include Na Bonsai, Satomi the Red Fox, Jemmi Hazeman and The Honey Riders and Dancepack. 
• Collective Beats Rhymes Everything Detroit (BRED) is hosting the first Hip-Hop Theatre Festival Saturday at Hilberry Gateway on Wayne State University’s campus. The free show takes well-known hip-hop songs and turns them into plays. Reserve a spot on Eventbrite.
• Detroit photographer Elonte Davis is hosting an opening reception for his exhibit, “Undercurrents,” at 6 p.m. Saturday at Irwin House Gallery. The project showcases more than 20,000 everyday moments in Detroit captured by Davis over a five-year period through film, sound, spoken word and installations. The exhibit is part of nonprofit’s Design Core Detroit’s Month of Design. 

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