![]() ![]() Wright Museum of African American History, has already managed to charm some of the city’s creative heavy-hitters into her corner. ![]() I’m going to talk to the people for whom things are run.”ĭespite the freshness of her tenure, Riley, a longtime patron of the Detroit Institute of Arts as well as the Charles H. I’m not just going to talk to people who are running things. “I treated this new assignment the same way. I told the Free Press I wouldn’t write a column for one month, because I needed to see what the landscape was,” she says. To that end, one of Riley’s first moves was to hold a series of town-hall meetings across the city this summer, where she asked artists and other residents to lay out their creative wish-lists: What kinds of art and culture do they want to see in their communities? (One neighborhood on her radar: Russell Woods, which has a rich historical and musical history and counts Diana Ross and the Supremes as former residents.) “I arrived in Detroit in 2000. “Mike Duggan hired me to be a force and a change agent, to make sure people know they have somebody at City Hall who will fight for what they need,” she says. “I said, ‘I would very much like to work in the arts,’ and he said, ‘Well, I really need an arts and culture director.’ ”Īccording to Riley, her position with the city isn’t much different from the esteemed seat she held as a city columnist: She’ll act as a devoted, impassioned advocate for Detroit - with a narrower focus, of course. “We talked about a lot of jobs I could do that I didn’t want to do,” recalls Riley, who says she volunteered to take a buyout from the Free Press in an effort to save the jobs of fellow employees. It was in March, during an informal lunch with Mayor Duggan, that the way was paved for Riley’s second act. “My goal is to show creative communities that the city is going to make sure they can thrive.” “We have not had someone to connect the city with artists and art programs in a long time,” she says. This includes finding grants, attracting talent, and simply advocating for artists. In her role, Riley is expected to work with artists, cultural organizations, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs to promote and develop the city’s creative communities. “With her connections with the community and her vision, I think she is going to help put Detroit on the map nationally from an arts and culture perspective.” “Rochelle has incredible energy and a real passion for this work,” Duggan says. In May, Mayor Mike Duggan appointed Riley, an award-winning journalist best-known for her 18 years as a Detroit Free Press columnist, to the role, which acts as a liaison between City Hall and Detroit’s diverse, ever-increasing multitude of prominent arts organizations. The situation Riley is referring to is her new job as the city’s first director of arts and culture. ![]()
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