Local partnerships elevate Detroit’s artists and increase access to the arts for residents
Images by Photographer + Visual/Art Director Lo Braden
Detroit’s grit and creativity are on full display through a powerful collaboration between the Gilbert Family Foundation, The LOVE Building, and WDET. At its core is the CONTAINER initiative, a $250,000 program spotlighting 12 Detroit-based artists each season across music, fashion, fine arts, and food. Participants gain performance showcases, storytelling platforms via WDET podcasts and vignettes, community networking convenings, and a unique mobile venue—the CONTAINERtour—bringing art directly into neighborhoods from August through October.
Meanwhile, broader support efforts include:
Seed & Bloom Detroit: A $1.5 M investment empowering 10 BIPOC artists with $150 K grants over three years to cultivate sustainable art-based businesses.
CCS Scholarship Expansion: Doubling scholarship funding to $2 M, offering full-tuition and summer workshop support for Detroit students.
Culture Pass Detroit: Removing financial barriers for arts engagement—expanding from 300 families in 2024 to 800 in 2025, now including six major cultural institutions.
These initiatives reflect the foundation’s vision of a sustainable, inclusive cultural ecosystem—one where local artists thrive and the entire city reaps the social and economic rewards.