Last year, Dior Leggette wasn’t sure if a creative career was in the cards for her.
The Detroit muralist and designer worked day jobs at Sneaker Villa and Foot Locker for the past 10 years, while designing custom sneakers for people like former Detroit Piston Andre Drummond. The experiences were great, Leggette said, but they weren’t opening up many opportunities to showcase her creativity on a larger scale.
That is, until her friend and art curator Dion Walcott told her about Art of the Mix, an artist competition his creative agency Martk’d hosted last fall. It allowed 10 local artists, including Leggette, to show off their custom sneaker concepts or live canvas visuals. She won the competition and her shoe design will now be used for a fall sneaker release with Reebok.
“I was on the verge of–I don’t want to say giving up on my dream–but I was gonna detour and just go another route,” she told BridgeDetroit. “But when I was in that room…it was like God said, ‘Hey, I know what you’re thinking about doing, but this is where you’re supposed to be.’”
Giving Black and brown artists creative opportunities was the catalyst behind Walcott launching Martk’d in 2013, which uses art as a community engagement tool to connect, empower and provide accessible partnerships and programs for communities.
An extension of that mission is the Art and Belonging Martkt Walcott opened last September in Midtown. Sandwiched between Empire Kitchen and Cocktails and a Citizens Bank on Woodward, the art gallery can be easy to miss. But once inside, the airy space gives way to a collection of colorful paintings, like a car driving down Jefferson with the Renaissance Center in the background and Michael Jackson in the “Billie Jean” music video.
Walcott, who’s originally from Trinidad and Tobago, said having a space near downtown was important to him as a Caribbean entrepreneur.
“I feel like downtown Detroit is a brand, and not everyone gets an opportunity to be in the brand of Detroit,” he said. “Also, just being able to showcase that you know we can do special things downtown being a Caribbean. It was important for me to be able to be a fixture, a face for the community.”
US Census data does not break down Detroit’s immigrant population by country of origin, but the city’s foreign-born population was at 6.6% as of 2024. According to an April report from economic development nonprofit Global Detroit, 10.7% of the population in metro Detroit are immigrants, with 18.4% serving as business owners.
The report shows that immigrants are critical drivers of the small business economy and are well-represented among the region’s business owners, despite their small population, stated Global Detroit.
Walcott said he opened Art and Belonging because he noticed Black people are often large media and economic consumers, but he didn’t see many of them in manager and executive roles.
“That’s what was part of the drive for me to be able to create my own space, where I can control what can be on the walls,” he said. “I can help artists have an opportunity and I can also do the business development. Now, the motivation is creating new and unique public spaces for creatives to like to conjugate in and be able to build relationships and be showcased and celebrated.”
Integrating sneaker culture with Caribbean culture
Walcott’s career journey brought him to Detroit began almost five years ago when he became the director of partnerships at Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, a hub for Detroit creatives interested in getting into the footwear and clothing industry.
Before that, he lived in New York City and Toronto, working at education tech company Yellowbrick and founding the initiative Toronto Loves Kicks, an event series revolving around sneaker culture.
“I’ve been in the arts and culture space for over 15 years, doing partnerships, working with young creators to help them get career opportunities and putting on sneakers and art exhibitions,” Walcott said.
The Rivertown resident left his job at PLC last year to focus on the gallery full-time.
Art and Belonging’s grand opening featured a showcase of artists that participated in Art of the Mix, along with an appearance by former NBA player Allen Iverson.
Since then, the gallery helped launch the speaker series Third Space Sessions with the organization The Otherside, which helps create branding for artists and companies. Guests included New York entrepreneur and fashion designer April Walker, Toronto DJ Starting From Scratch and Detroit creative strategist Amber Sanders.
Art and Belonging also hosted the sneaker competition Art on Sneakers with Reebok and Design Core Detroit, the Black History Month exhibition “Still in Motion. Built on Rhythm,” and “Frequency,” an exhibition featuring artists from Detroit and Toronto in May.
Walcott said he finds artists to highlight through open artist calls, social media and word of mouth. He also has artists reaching out to him who want to rent the gallery for their solo exhibitions.
“We work with artists closely to make sure that they’re in a good position to be able to put on their own show,” Walcott said.
Walcott also coordinates events internationally. In May 2025, Martk’d held one artist competition in Trinidad and Tobago and another in Toronto on July 26 called Routes and Roots. He’s planning a similar event in Detroit for September, just in time for Art and Belonging’s one-year anniversary. Planning is still in the early stages, but the event will have a Caribbean theme, Walcott said.
He added that sometimes the Caribbean community in Detroit feels invisible, so he wants to uplift Caribbean culture through the gallery.
“The goal for us is to be able to showcase Caribbean culture, educate people on Caribbean culture, while also merging the two cultures (Caribbean and Detroit) together, which are very similar,” he said. “Both are embedded in music, both cultures are resilient. There’s more similarities than not. We’re in a position where we can use art and culture to tell the story of how the two can connect.”
Finding a place to belong
Tyrone Jack is another emerging artist whose work has been featured at Art and Belonging. He was part of the joint Detroit and Toronto exhibition alongside artists Jamal Beasy, Jennifer Maples and Zuri Dean.
The display was Jack’s first show.
“He (Walcott) saw some of my paintings on Instagram, and he asked me to be in the show,” Jack said. “I sold an original piece and 10 prints.”
For the past 20 years, Jack has been a digital sculptor at General Motors Co. But at the beginning of the year, he decided to pursue his passion for painting.
“When we’re all dead and gone, my paintings will still be hanging out somewhere on somebody’s wall,” he said. “That really made me think about legacy and what will happen when my great-great-grandkids are here.”
Jack enjoys painting film and pop culture references, like recreating a scene from the 2021 Western, “The Harder They Fall,” a portrait of Kendrick Lamar performing, or Tupac wearing a red bandanna and Detroit Red Wings jersey, spitting at a camera outside of a Manhattan courthouse in 1994.
In the six short months Jack has been focusing on his art, Walcott has been a supportive player, answering any questions he might have about the art scene. He’s also connected with other artists at the Detroit artist meetup, The Breakfast Club.
Jack recently finished a commissioned piece and will appear in an exhibition next month.
“A bunch of different people are coming from different perspectives and giving me information, so it’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “Things seem to be going pretty smooth this year.”
Leggette, who also goes by her artist name Kameko, said many opportunities have opened up for her since winning the sneaker design competition. Earlier this year, she designed a t-shirt for the Detroit Pistons in honor of 313 Day. In addition, Leggette designed two pairs of shoes for a client’s wedding and has been working on designing clothes and accessories.
Legette is grateful that spaces like Art and Belonging exist because they show that opportunities in the creative field are possible.
“It’s amazing that he (Walcott) named the gallery Art and Belonging,” she said. “That’s really what it feels like. I’ve met some amazing people in the process, other artists. That’s probably my favorite thing about it all is seeing how many people are like me because there weren’t too many when I was growing up.”