ANN ARBOR – A new crowdfunding campaign is aimed at helping transform a vacant 3,200 square foot building on the Detroit Community Schools campus into the Brightmoor Maker Space, a place for youth and adults to build their creative making skills and incubate business ideas.
The project was launched on the Michigan-based crowdfunding platform Patronicity and is backed by the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Funds collected for the Brightmoor Maker Space will be used to repair and update the vacant building, purchase equipment and work tools, and develop community resources and programs to support skills-building, creativity and entrepreneurship.
The Stamps School’s partnership with the MEDC follows an endorsement last fall from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which awarded the Stamps School a two-year $100,000 matching grant for the project as part of the prestigious Knight Arts Challenge program in Detroit.
“This funding will allow us to officially move forward with our plans to provide a much-needed physical space that will expand the impact of our ongoing arts programming in the Brightmoor community,” said Gunalan Nadarajan, dean of the Stamps School.
Nadarajan said that over the past five years, Stamps students, faculty and staff have been working actively with the Brightmoor community, developing strong arts programming with Detroit Community Schools (a K-12 charter school) and community organizations such as Brightmoor Alliance and Neighbors Building Brightmoor.
“Stamps is committed to being a part of the re-imagining of Detroit that is underway across the city, and fostering the role of creative making in that revitalization,” Nadarajan said.
If the Patronicity crowdfunding goal of $25,000 is met by July 10, the match from the MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Places program would activate an initial $50,000 Knight Arts Challenge Grant to launch Brightmoor’s first year of active programming.
“The Brightmoor Maker Space will open all kinds of new doors to youth and adults in the Brightmoor neighborhood that would not otherwise be accessible, and we’re pleased to partner in this effort,” said MEDC Community Development Director Katharine Czarnecki. “Public Spaces Community Places is a key tool that the MEDC has to help community partners fill critical funding gaps and bring projects to completion.”
Public Spaces Community Places is a collaborative effort of the MEDC, the Michigan Municipal League and Patronicity, where local residents can use crowdfunding to be part of the development of strategic projects in their communities and receive a matching grant from MEDC.
Every dollar donated to the Patronicity campaign will essentially be quadrupled by the two matching grants.
Brightmoor Patronicity Crowdfunding
U-M Stamps School of Art & Design Detroit Collaborations
Michigan Economic Development Corp.
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Author: Staff Writer
Source: MITechNews.Com
Date: 6/10/2015
