Studio Couture opened its doors Saturday night with a celebratory bash, 200-plus revelers, a show titled "Detroit is Here" and an afterparty at Cafe D'Mongos Speakeasy in downtown Detroit.
The nonprofit gallery and design incubator, located at 1433 Woodward Ave., is the brainchild of two Lawrence Tech lecturers and Detroit transplants who met while pursuing master's degrees at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Co-founder Blake Almstead, who also moonlights as the creative director at Compuware, says he noticed the once-empty storefront space while walking to work.
"Not being from this area, and not really seeing anything ever in these storefronts, it was never depressing to me. People would walk by and say, this is so sad, all these stores are empty, but I thought it was really cool. This could be a bakery, this could be a gallery ... I was probably overly optimistic," Almstead says.
More than just a gallery, Studio Couture offers workspace for
designers, community arts space and a student-led design clinic within
its walls.
"Above all, the biggest thing for me was to fill a vacant space in Detroit. And then have creative space that could be transformative, in a sense -- a real community gathering space."
"Detroit is Here," which allowed designers, artists and architects to try to rebrand the city and region through a positive filter, runs through April 3. They'll next showcase the work of LTU's BFA candidate class of 2011, which opens April 15.
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Source: Blake Almstead, co-director, Studio Couture
Writer: Ashley C. Woods
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