DIRECT MESSAGE: Detroit Is an Art City Worth Paying Attention To

There are cities you visit to see art, and cities where art changes the way you see the city. Detroit is the latter.

I spent three days there on an art trip organized by Mia Nielsen, former Director of Art Toronto and now founder of Nielsen & Co. With Mia as our guide, we moved between galleries, private artist studios, museums, artist-run spaces and some extraordinary architecture, getting an insider's view of a city with one of the most compelling art scenes in the U.S. right now.

What struck me wasn't any single exhibition or institution. It was how deeply connected the art feels to Detroit itself.

There is a confidence to the creative scene here. It doesn't feel overly polished or manufactured for an audience. Artists are working inside former industrial buildings, apartments and neighbourhood spaces. Galleries are thinking beyond the traditional white cube. Historic architecture is being reconsidered rather than erased. Everywhere, there is this tension between what was, what remains and what comes next.

And visually? Detroit is incredible.

START DOWNTOWN

Our first stop was Library Street Collective, followed by a walk through The Belt, an alley transformed through contemporary public art. It was a good introduction to Detroit because you immediately understand that art here isn't necessarily contained within institutions.

From there, downtown becomes part of the experience: incredible architecture, restored historic buildings and the Book Tower, where we stayed at ROOST.

That evening, we visited the studio of Mary-Ann Monforton. And this is where travelling for art gets interesting for me. Seeing finished work in a gallery is one thing; being in the environment where an artist actually makes it gives you an entirely different relationship to the work.

GO BEYOND THE MUSEUMS

The next morning started at the Fisher Building before heading to MOCAD, Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art. Then came one of my favourite parts of the trip: a studio visit with painter James Benjamin Franklin.

If you're interested in collecting, studio visits are invaluable. You see experiments, unfinished work and ideas that may never make it onto a gallery wall. More importantly, you begin to understand the thinking behind the work.

From there, Detroit kept getting more interesting.

Unit 1 is a site-specific installation by Danish artist Anders Herwald-Ruhwald set inside an apartment, a project that began in 2008. We explored Little Village, including Lantern and I.M. Weiss Gallery, before heading to The Shepherd, where we had VIP early access to see the work by Mickalene Thomas.

These aren't simply places I'd recommend because they're "cool." Together, they show how elastic an art space can be — museum, gallery, apartment, studio, neighbourhood

THE ART IS IN THE CITY

Our final day took us to another artist studio, this time Jamea Richmond-Edwards, followed by Buffalo Prescott, a studio building in Hamtramck, and then the Heidelberg Project.

Started by artist Tyree Guyton in 1986, Heidelberg turns a neighbourhood into the work itself. Houses, discarded objects, colour and the street become part of a sprawling outdoor art environment.

By this point, something about Detroit had clicked for me.

The most interesting way to experience its art scene isn't to create a checklist of museums. It's to move through the city. Look at the buildings. Go into the smaller spaces. Visit the studios when you can. Pay attention to the neighbourhoods surrounding the work.

WHAT I'M TAKING HOME

As I become more serious about collecting, I'm realizing that I don't only want to know what I like. I want to understand why I'm drawn to it.

Trips like this help.

They expose you to artists before you know their names. They get you outside the algorithm and away from seeing the same work repeatedly. They remind you that collecting should involve curiosity — and that sometimes the most interesting discovery happens when you walk into a space without knowing exactly what you're going to find.

A few names and places now firmly on my radar: James Benjamin Franklin, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Library Street Collective, MOCAD, The Shepherd and Unit 1.

And Detroit itself.

If contemporary art is something you travel for, put this city on your list.

DM NOTE: Detroit rewards access and a little planning. Having someone like Mia curate the experience opened doors we wouldn't have found on our own. But whether you're travelling with an art advisor or doing it yourself, give the city a weekend, make appointments for studio visits where possible, and leave enough room to follow something you didn't plan for. That's usually where it gets interesting