The People’s Arts Festival Celebrates Its Fourth Year of Bringing Art to Detroit’s Central City

The People’s Art Festival (PAF), the largest free arts festival in the City of Detroit, will celebrate its Fourth Anniversary this year with an expanded roster of artists, performers, filmmakers and musicians.

The PAF is the public face of the Russell Center for Creative Arts, a non-profit group established to oversee the festival and pursue charitable endeavors to benefit inner city Detroit art students. As in years past, it will be held at the Russell Industrial Center, 1600 Clay Avenue in Detroit. “The Russell” is a nearly century-old industrial complex directly north of downtown. Designed by the legendary Albert Kahn, it was built to answer the production needs of the Detroit’s early automobile industry; was used as a center for building airplanes in World War II; and later became the hub of Detroit’s printing industry.

But as automobile production became global and printing was revolutionized by technologies that idled skilled workers from stereotypers and lithographers to typesetters and keyliners, the 2.2 million square feet of the seven building Russell campus were threatened by disuse and apathy, mirroring the fate of so many of the Motor City’s crumbling temples to industrialization.

Indeed, “The Russell” might, like so many of Detroit’s production/warehouse complexes, might have fallen at the hands of vandals, arsonists or time, becoming one more entry on the rolls of delinquent taxes and abandoned properties if – beginning almost a decade ago – it had not been repurposed as a home to artists’ studios after its 2003 purchase by Dennis Kefallinos’ Boydell Development Company.

Recognized today as the creative hub of Detroit’s artistic renaissance “The Russell” is home to over 125 commercial tenants representing a full spectrum of creative activity from architects, painters, clothing designers, glass blowers, wood craftsman and metal sculptors to graphic designers, photographers, musicians, filmmakers and art galleries.

The original People’s Arts Festival was a natural outgrowth of the “Open Studio” night Russell artists held several times a year. The initial idea was simple – let Russell tenants move their work outside, ask a few bands to play for free, show a few films and see who came. The response surprised even the PAF’s founders.

Four of the original founders are still engaged with the PAF: Mark Arminski, a globally renowned poster artist and painter whose work is considered classic by collectors and galleries around the world; Ed Gardiner, an artist, writer, actor, filmmaker, producer and director, widely considered to be the most important figure in Detroit’s independent film community; Ryan Mathews, an internationally best selling author, fine artist and acclaimed futurist, speaker and business consultant; and Chris Mihailovich, the Russell Industrial Center’s operations and property manager.

“To be honest we really didn’t know what we were creating four years ago,” Mathews said. “Our intention was to build a little more excitement around the work of The Russell artists and to stage a one day event that would be fun for the tenants, the bands and our friends. We could not have predicted how hungry the metropolitan Detroit community was for an arts festival that was – in fact – centered on showcasing real art.”

“After our first year it was clear that there was a real demand for what we had created,” Arminski added. “We were able to showcase the work of 150 artists – many of whom had never exhibited before. We had a great mix of established and young musicians and – maybe most importantly from our point of view – the tenants developed a much stronger sense of belonging to a community, a community of artists who openly share their art and artistry with each other.”

Arminski, Gardiner and Mathews all credit Mihailovich and property owner Dennis Kefallinos with making that first year a success. Russell management had to make a significant investment in the form of sanitation facilities, outdoor electric access, added security, publicity efforts and labor hours to make the first PAF a reality. “We didn’t know if our investment would ‘pay off’ in a business sense,” Mihailovich said. “But we did know that it seemed like the right thing to do – for the tenants, the immediate community, the City of Detroit, and I guess you can say the entire metropolitan area. It would have been the right thing to do if it hadn’t proved as popular as it has.”

In 2008 the PAF began to take on a life of its own with artists and bands lining up early to participate. “It’s a unique festival,” Gardiner noted. “It kind of has the feel of something you might have experienced in the ‘60s or ‘70s – very authentic, very fun.”

In 2009 – based on the success of the first two years – the festival organizers decided to extend the event to two days. “It gave the artists an opportunity to sell more,” Arminski said, “and it gave us the opportunity to showcase more music.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Mathews recalls. “We had to weigh all of the complexities of adding a second day against what we believed was a ever-increasing level of public interest. Turned out we made the right call.”

In 2009 about 15,000 metro Detroiters poured into The Russell to attend the PAF. “Many of these folks hadn’t been near this neighborhood in years,” Gardiner said. “This is the social benefit of the PAF – showing people from the suburbs that the City of Detroit is still alive, still has exciting things to offer and is a safe place to bring your children. And that, in my mind, by itself is a good enough reason to keep doing this.”

The Fourth Annual People’s Arts Festival will be held August 28 and 29 this year.