Time: Creative Solutions for a Depressed Economy

The Heidelberg Project
Detroit, MI 2012

Every few years news anchors, fanatics and twenty-somethings find a reason to fear and celebrate TIME or rather the ending of it. With the winding down of the Mayan Calendar and impending apocalypse everyone has been counting down the end of days. Time is a fickle dimension.  As human beings we always want more even though we know it is limited. We wish our jobs, families and other responsibilities would give us a moment to  just be. Many artists choose not to have families in order to preserve their time. Others choose to live a more spartan lifestyle in order to work part-time or freelance.The spike in unemployment over the past few years has afforded the U.S. one thing, time. 

Lee Plaza Hotel Room
Detroit, MI

For decades Detroit has been drowning in time. With high unemployment rates and urban flight buildings were left unoccupied and now stand like giant guardians over the city. In 1986 Tyree Guyton, a Detroit resident, returned from his service in the army to find the empty houses, empty streets and an empty economy. Guyton began to use his time to start The Heidelberg Project. The project began as polka-dots painted on abandoned houses and over 25 years has grown to take over streets and blocks of an area that looked "bombed out" upon Guyton's return. His efforts created an amazing public art installation and helped cement a community.

The Heidelberg Project
Detroit, MI

Guyton's effort have spawned other initiatives to take over dangerous areas and create something that supports it's neighbors. Urban gardening is one such endeavor that has exploded in the city. The Ferguson Academy for Young Women is Detroit was the subject of the 2009 documentary, "Grown in Detroit". The film introduces us to an alternative High School for pregnant teenagers. Part of their curriculum is learning agricultural skills not only to help support themselves but to take some of the financial burden off their families. Working on an urban farm is obviously not a monetarily supported job. Rather you reap what you sow. 

The economic landscape of Detroit is beginning to shift. Young creative types recognize that Detroit offers one luxury, time. For artists and entrepreneurs who want creative space it is a solution to the mounting cost of rental prices. For the larger community, Detroit's growing creative initiative could be a model for small, industrial cities affected by the recession that has left millions of Americans with something they always wanted more of.