An Artist Playground (With a Business Twist)

We’re building something exciting—and we need your help! We’ve been working behind the scenes to plan our forthcoming art program. This is more than just an artist residency; it’s a space where Detroit artists can create sustainable careers doing what they love, build community, and foster creative collaboration.

Creating this program from scratch has been both challenging and exhilarating. Looking at what’s currently available for artists who want to learn business skills AND come together through their creative practice…is hard to come by! We see trainings that either focus on entrepreneurship (useful, but not tailored to artists’ creative and values-driven perspectives) or exclusively on creating art (great, but artists need back-end business skills to build thriving careers!).

At Kintsugi Village, we aim to break the “starving artist” stereotype by giving artists the tools to create confidently while mastering the business skills needed for exhibiting, licensing, and selling their work. Our arts program will provide studio space alongside weekly seminars and workshops to ensure participants develop the business skills they need to succeed as working artists.

(Pictured above is our Kintsugi Village gallery in the works!)

Our plans include building a ceramics studio, a darkroom, an art gallery and both communal and private studio spaces. We’re also developing a practical curriculum covering topics like accounting, writing artist statements, archiving work, and more. We’re fortunate to live in a city filled with vibrant creative talent! Let’s create a space where artists can thrive in Detroit rather than feeling they must leave for New York or LA.

We’re preparing for our January launch, but this program doesn’t exist without you! We need your feedback, ideas, and expertise to help us build something truly valuable. We’ve created a brief 2-3 minute survey to understand what our Detroit artist community needs most. At the end, you can join our mailing list to stay updated as we develop this program. Please share your feedback and help shape what this program will become!

Detroit Artists: Share Your Voice in Our Survey!