Reflection Essay 8: Detroit Art Tour

The Detroit Art tour was a three-day tour across the City of Detroit, showing the existing arts for, sculptures, architecture, and even musical history in the city. The people of Detroit have tried to maintain their artistic culture, preserving some of the old pieces of art in the local museums where children and other people from outside the community can go and enjoy the beautiful scenarios made from art. Seeing the video made me appreciate how art can transform a place, not only in creating sceneries but also in engaging the local youths keeping them from engaging in illegal activities such as crime and other societal vices. Community leaders and artists have been greatly involved in transforming the city, erecting murals, sculptures, and graffiti in an attempt to make the city beautiful. It is amazing to see children being involved in art, with some making drawings, renovations, and others taking poetry lessons, and this makes me feel proud of the community. They have so much to live for despite the fact the city had been deserted. Art has given them a purpose in life and they feel that through it, they will let the world know that the city is not deserted.

Seeing the beauty of the city alone creates an urge to visit, and therefore, as to whether I would have liked to be on that trip, is definitely a yes. The Motown Museum holds so much history of Detroit, especially in music. The building was bought in 1959 by Berry Gordy, where he used the upper part of the house to live with his family, while the first floor housed Motown Records. Motown Records was associated with many artists including Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Martha Reeves, Smoky Robinson, and the Miracles, all of who recorded most of the music associated with Motown, which means that the records hold a significant history of Detroit music, and has been used to inspire potential artists. Overall, most of the scenes in the video are so thrilling, but the unfortunate thing is that a person needs to be there so that he or she can feel and relate to the immediate environment, and as well interact with the artists. Therefore, it would have been even a greater learning experience if I were in person.  

There are many artworks presented in the video which are amazing. However, Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals are some of the arts that I found impressive. The murals were completed at the beginning of 1932, and involve paintings that are directly related to the history of Detroit as well as its industrial development. The murals have been distributed across the four walls of the museum and illustrate a different aspect of Detroit’s development. In regard to the current architectural renovations in Detroit, River’s murals depict a new life, represented by nude women cradling a bountiful harvest, and a child growing in the bulb of a plant. The significance of these paintings is to illustrate the continued changes that the City of Detroit has passed through over the years, being abandoned and later renovated to signify a new era. These are some of the characteristics of Rivera’s painting that I found interesting. Looking at Rivera’s murals, he has done an incredible job in successfully addressing social issues such as city abandonment and reconstruction.  

References

ART TRIP: DETROIT. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/q4leoa9gKKY