- Hi, I'm Christy McDonald.

And here's what we have for you this week on one Detroit arts and culture, the Heidelberg project, Detroit's well known neighborhood art installation on changing with the times.

Plus celebrating the designs of Albert Kahn in Detroit and 125 years of his architectural firm going strong.

Then the head of the Kennedy center for the performing arts Debra Rutter, on the role of the arts across the country.

And we'll head to Marygrove to end with a musical performance for you.

It's all coming up right now on One Detroit.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Narrator 2] Support for this program provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

The Kresge Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

- The DTE foundation (upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV among the state's largest foundations, committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more.

- [Narrator 2] Business leaders for Michigan.

Dedicated to making Michigan a top 10 state for jobs, personal income and a healthy economy.

Nissan Foundation, Ally, the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb family foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) - Hi there, I'm Christy McDonald.

Happy to have you with me this week for One Detroit arts and culture.

I don't know about you, but these winter days make me miss concerts, live music, live theater events somewhere to go, being able to take in the arts as an experience together is something I've really missed since COVID.

So we created this weekly show to bring you performances we're missing and stories about our favorite arts organizations, how they're adapting and changing with the pandemic.

So coming up, we're heading out to the Heidelberg Project.

Tyree Guyton's neighborhood art installation is famous not only in Detroit, but around the world.

One Detroit's Will Glover, talks with Heidelberg President Jenenne Whitfield, about how it's changed over the last 30 years and what's to come in 2021.

Plus celebrating the design history of Albert Kahn and his architectural firm here in Detroit, that is going 125 years strong.

Then Sphinx founder, Aaron Dworkin brings his Arts Engines to One Detroit arts and culture with a conversation about the national arts scene with Kennedy center President Deborah Rutter.

And then sit back and relax and enjoy musical performance from Marygrove.

It is all coming up.

(upbeat music) - First things first, let's introduce people who may not be among the initiated when it comes to the Heidelberg Project.

So just give us a little bit of insight as to what the Heidelberg Project is, where it is and you know, how long it's been around.

- Sure.

So the Heidelberg Project in Detroit is this outdoor, funky, cool, colorful art environment that's located in the heart of an urban community on the East side of Detroit.

It has been believe it or not, we're in our 35th year.

It's hard to believe that Tyree Guyton has been caring for this art installation for the last 35 years, but that's the case.

And it is made up primarily a foam and recycled materials.

It used to cover a two block area, but as we go through the metamorphosis of the Heidelberg Project now, it is changing and we're focusing now Heidelberg more linear where it's one street and it goes straight down the street now and it meets at our headquarters.

So Heidelberg has always been just this amazing, colorful outdoor art environment that has intrigued the entire world.

- The Heidelberg is run completely by women, is that correct?

- It is now darling, I mean, for the most part, Tyree Guyton has always been supportive.

And I've worked with Heidelberg for 27 years.

And in one of our pieces of promotional materials Tyree said that when he was a boy, he always gave his money to the women in his family 'cause he know he could depend on them.

And I think that in some ways he's kinda carried that over into the organization and putting me in front to lead us through or to that next evolutionary place or state, which is Heidelberg 3.0.

And that is consisting of Heidelberg now as this arts district arts community.

And just it's I wouldn't say it's not necessarily an effort, it just so happens that we're all women.

So my staff consists of women, but we're all surrounding Tyree so it's a good thing, but yeah, it's all women.

- And I do have to point out the fact that it's never a big deal if it's no all male staff.

- No, it's not, is it?

- Like you said, it just happens to be all women and you're doing a great job.

One of the other things I wanted to talk about was the fact that the Heidelberg Project isn't just an arts destination and you kind of alluded to it just now when you were talking about the community space and the interaction with the community but it also helps economically.

Can you talk a little bit about that - Man, let's you know, there was a study done by Williams college and I believe it was 2011 when they did the first study.

And what they did was they took a fraction of our visitorship, which we boasted at that time 200,000 people annually.

They took a fraction of that being 50,000.

And what they wanted to determine is what is the impact, economic impact of the Heidelberg Project on both the city and the larger Wayne County region.

And what they determined in 2011 was that we contributed 3.2 million to the local city and something like 3.7 million to the Wayne County region.

Now that was in 2011, but because they were so in awe of the economic power behind the Heidelberg Project they left us on their website.

Meaning that if you go in and plug the numbers of 2020 today, if you still use that fraction of our visitorship you will see that, well, I'll say 2019 that's the last time we checked, you will see that today it's something like 7.5 million in terms of and what that translates into is that the people that are coming to see Heidelberg are also coming to see other places, they're spending more time in Detroit, they're spending money in restaurants.

Now keep in mind, this was all before COVID, right?

So you can see that the innovation that Tyree came up with here in the city of Detroit really had more of an impact than just art and creativity but it also affected our economy.

- One of the things that I saw that you guys recently got was an award as one of the leading culture destinations.

Tell me a little bit about that.

- Man, that was crazy.

That came right before the pandemic.

And what happened is, you know we were nominated for a best cultural activation and we were nominated on a worldwide scale.

We, our competitors was the, Oh my gosh I'm not gonna remember this, but there is a House of Blues or something like that in Toronto and then another cultural institution in South Africa.

And Heidelberg won and I actually flew to Berlin to accept the award in person.

And it was just, it gave us an opportunity in Berlin to come together with other cultural makers around the world who were doing things that were innovative and cutting edge.

So it was incredible.

But I have to admit that COVID put a damper on it because look, while I was in Berlin, I'm like I need to get home 'cause this is not good.

- Yeah, for sure.

- But it was amazing to have that kind of acknowledgement.

And you know, we've got awards racked up that people just would not believe - Obviously, it means a lot to you.

Can you just tell me a little bit about what it actually means to you personally?

- Sure, I will tell you in way the of the experiment that the artist performed with me.

He asked me if I'd help him and I said, "No cause I don't even understand what you're doing."

And so then he asked me if he could do a little experiment with me and I said, "Okay."

So he blindfolded me.

He gave me paint, crayons, paper, pencil, all of this, and I sat on the floor like a child blindfolded, and he said, "Now paint what you see?"

And what I painted after I finished, now I'm completely inhibited, I got no reference, I can't see so I just have fun.

And there's a very symbolic message in that.

And so that painting that I created, I framed and I hang it on my wall is with me all the time because it is a reminder that we must challenge ourselves to go to a place that is often uncomfortable in order to grow.

See if we're just complacent and settled in what we already know, then how do you innovate?

How do you challenge the status quo?

How do you go to the next level?

Heidelberg Project has taught me what it means to go beyond and to aspire to something that you didn't even know you could.

- And for people who want to help contribute be it financially or they just want to experience the Heidelberg Project, where can they go to do that?

- Oh, they can go visit our website.

We have a very, very active website and social media platform.

We're on all the channels, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and they can also just email information@heidelberg.org.

Everything is heidelberg.org.

That's where you find us, that's where you can get a contact with us.

And then we're right in the community.

So because we do have a lot of space you can also knock on our door.

- Detroit has an amazing design heritage and our skyline reflects it.

The Guardian building, the, Ren Cen, One Woodward Avenue, the Book Cadillac, and of course the Fisher building designed by Albert Kahn and considered by many as Detroit's largest art object.

Albert Kahn Associates Architecture Firm is still going strong in Detroit today and it celebrated 125 years back in October.

It's worth taking a step back to appreciate Albert Kahn's legacy in Detroit with a story from our documentary called, Detroit Designs the World.

(upbeat music) - In the teens, 20s and 30s the Germans were devising this form follows function, a concept of universal space exposing the frame of the building and developing that kind of an architectural expression.

And really, while they were philosophizing about it Albert Kahn was quietly building it.

- I give Albert Kahn almost as much credit as Henry Ford for the mass production of the automobile.

Because if there wasn't a building design like this one with wide open spaces that could allow for an assembly line to be making cars and buildings before this couldn't do that.

So this was groundbreaking, not just in the fact that the assembly line was here, but that it was a building that could handle the assembly line and allow for the assembly line to mass produce the automobile.

And so it was Albert Kahn and Henry Ford together that really put the world on wheels.

(orchestral music) - [Narrator 3] Here's how they put them together at the Highland Park plant.

- [Narrator 4] I think he looked at the client's needs and the technology at the time and integrated that into a successful solution.

How can we build buildings that have a large floor plate lots of open space minimize the number of columns.

- [Narrator 3] A car comes off the end of the line every 10 seconds.

- Albert Kahn together with his brothers developed the system of the concrete construction of the automobile plants with a wide open floor plates and the concrete columns leaving the exterior walls to be completely open filled in with glass, which 1903 that was very, very radical.

And it allowed the auto industries to have these very large factories to hold the weight of many, many automobiles.

It set the pace for how we look at modern architecture.

People like Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, they all wanted to see what these new modern factories were like and then it very much influenced their own work.

- We see them then going back to Europe taking this tenants and developing it into modernism.

The idea of clean open floor plates, the idea of concrete construction or steel construction the idea of curtain walls.

This had already been done here in Michigan.

- [Narrator 5] The buildings that Kahn designed made a difference in the way that Henry Ford made cars.

- He also saw architecture in a way of craftsmanship and American craft.

And in fact designed the Fisher building.

- [Narrator 6] The Fisher building is one of the most jaw dropping buildings in all of Detroit and honestly, in all of the United States.

- [Narrator 7] The Fisher building sort of advanced the American tower.

They bring the artist into the process of construction of the building.

Many of the works of Khan include artwork and sculpture, great grill edges and handrails and guardrails bronze work.

And that certainly was something that Detroit contributed to.

- It literally is the beacon for this new center area.

We're only just about three miles from downtown but this was where General Motors built its empire.

Right across the street from the Fisher building we have that original General Motors headquarters and then the Fisher brothers built this absolute beauty right here in 1928.

- And many of Khan's options for the Fisher building were published at that time.

The Empire State building was built a couple of years after the Fisher building and very similar stepping form use of stone.

You can look at the detailing, you can look at the massing and we have sketches of several of the options that Albert Kahn devise for the Fisher building.

Is very similar to what was done with the Empire State building.

(upbeat music) - To find more about Detroit Designs The World just head to onedetroitpbs.org.

All right, turning now to musician and founder of the Sphinx organization, Aaron Dworkin he has a new interview series on Detroit Public television called Arts Engines.

And he sits down with Deborah Rutter.

She's the president of the Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts in DC.

And they talk about the expanding art scene across the country.

- This is obviously very special, because if you're an arts leader and obviously leading the preeminent institution in our country that is not only an arts organization and presenter, but also a memorial.

And so a very, very exciting, obviously we cannot ignore that we are still in the midst of this pandemic.

And I thought I would just start right off by saying how are things at the Kennedy Center?

And I've talked with a number of arts leaders.

Some are like, we've had to just shut everything down, some were like, we can't do what we always wanted to do and what we are really trained to do, so I thought I would just kind of ask you how are things and what are you able to do?

- Thanks so much for that question, I appreciate it.

You know, we were created actually in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower as president signed us into legislation as the national cultural center.

And I take that mandate really seriously that we are here to serve as the nations gathering place to represent all of America to America and also to the world and the world back to America.

But this responsibility as a national cultural center has been really important to me as I think about our priorities.

And while our 2000 performances have been closed down by and large that, but each year we have so many that to say that we've now done about a dozen maybe 15 live at the Kennedy Center since September.

Seems like a very large number by pandemic numbers but very small by the national cultural center numbers.

But what we've really been able to do is our live programming across the country, through our couch concerts and arts across America, which keeps that sort of national presence of the arts active every single day.

- What would say to artists out there who are, of course many of whom are struggling, but not just struggling in general because of these circumstances but also struggling to say, well, what even can I do?

Are there things that you've seen artists do, whether reinventing or re-imagining themselves or how they do their work that has made them more able to continue to practice their art even despite these circumstances.

Are there any things you've seen that have really worked or would be of impact for those who might be watching?

- What I will tell you one of the things that we have seen that's made such a huge difference in our own community it's about artists giving back using their strengths, their skills to say thank you.

And so we've had musicians who have gone to healthcare environments, to nursing homes, to the national institutes of health, to offer sort of pop-up surprise concerts that we're surprised for the recipients.

They weren't a surprise for the organizers, of course but it's been really wonderful.

And the appreciation, the connection has been really, really powerful.

And I think we've seen that in big and small ways across the country, but I think it's those small ways that's really, really important and so affirming because it happens on a one-on-one basis.

You don't need to be on CNN and getting credit for singing outside of a hospital to go to your own clinic nearby and giving back to those frontline workers, those essential workers who need and deserve that recognition.

It's also so affirming for the artists themselves, isn't it?

I think that for us to be able to connect on a human level in that way has been really wonderful.

- Is there a sense that, you know sometimes people will debate or they'll argue or talk about, well, art is, kind of just this thing, it's black tie, it's opera and then you have other people who go, "Well, that's not me that's not really art."

But it seems obviously you're overseeing such a breadth of programming.

How important is that for institutions that aren't in the nation's arts center to think about that and to think about their relationship with various cultures in their community.

- Well, I think if you were to do a random survey of audience members of a wide variety of art forums and the artists of that same wide variety, whether it is opera or dance or hip hop or contemporary music, or folk guitar or a children's choir, the artists, as well as the audience ultimately will use words that can be summarized in saying art for life's sake, not art for art's sake, art for life sake.

And I think throughout this pandemic, we've really come to understand that that we need art because it nourishes ourselves.

It is not a distraction.

Yes, it's also a distraction maybe, it is not entertainment, yes, it is also entertainment.

It is fundamentally art for life's sake.

It's for our soul, it is for our wellbeing, it is for our mental health, it is for our brain health.

As we've come to understand music is great for brain health as well.

So it is something that we should be thinking very hard about as we look into the future is to understand that this is not an add on any more than going to a restaurant or buying a new outfit for an occasion is an add on, it is a part of how we live our lives and fulfill ourselves as human beings.

- And for more on Aaron's show and podcast Arts Engines, head to our website at onedetroitpbs.org.

And that is where you will find all things, arts and culture in Michigan and beyond.

That's gonna do it for us this week.

But we are going to leave you with a performance.

We filmed this at Marygrove in Detroit, and it's part of Detroit public television in partnership with the Marygrove Conservancy to bring us music performances, while we have the distance at home.

This is focusing on Matt Watroba, performing his song, "Could you love me" Enjoy it and I'll see you next time.

Take care.

♪ Could you love me if I don't look like you ♪ ♪ Is it deeper, is it stronger ♪ Something hidden something true ♪ ♪ If I stay a little longer will I see myself in you ♪ ♪ Could you love me if I don't look like you ♪ ♪ Could you love me if I don't think like you ♪ ♪ Is it deeper, is it stronger ♪ Something hidden something true ♪ ♪ If I stay a little longer will I see myself in you ♪ ♪ Could you love me if I don't think like you ♪ ♪ This lives of burning candle and it would be a shame ♪ ♪ If we ignore the difference ♪ Between the smoke and the flame ♪ ♪ Could you love me if I don't pray like you ♪ ♪ Is it deeper, is it stronger ♪ Something hidden something true ♪ ♪ If I stay a little longer will I see myself in you ♪ ♪ Could you love me if I don't pray like you ♪ - You can find more (upbeat music) - [Narrator 8] at onedetroitpbs.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our One Detroit newsletter.

- From Delta faucets (upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Narrator 2] Support for this program provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

The Kresge Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

- The DTE foundation (upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV among the state's largest foundations, committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more.

- [Narrator 2] Business leaders for Michigan.

Dedicated to making Michigan a top 10 state for jobs, personal income and a healthy economy, Nissan foundation, Ally the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb family foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)