Last month, Detroit’s design community once again took over the city for Detroit Month of Design (DMOD). The Gilbert Family Foundation was proud to return as an anchor partner of the month-long celebration, with lead sponsorship once again for its signature night, Eastern Market After Dark (EMAD). Detroit holds the distinction of being the only UNESCO-designated City of Design in the United States.

Presented in partnership with Design Core Detroit, our support this year helped power not just EMAD, but six neighborhood-based organizations that hosted their own Detroit Month of Design events across the city, plus capacity-building support for Design Core’s data and technology infrastructure.

Eastern Market After Dark: The Heart of the Festival

EMAD remained the headline night of Detroit Month of Design — free, all-ages, and open to the whole city. For one night, Shed 2 became the creative and design heart of the festival, with the energy spilling out across the district: Murals in the Market routes, a Slow Roll bike tour, a riverfront activation along the Dequindre Cut, and Eastern Market’s year-round tenants staying open late to welcome the crowds. It was a fitting stage. Eastern Market has anchored Detroit’s makers and merchants for more than 130 years, and for one night each fall, that same ground becomes a nighttime destination for artists, designers, and neighbors.

“What stood out to me about EMAD this year was the sense of pride and unity,” said Kiana Wenzell, Co-Executive Director of Design Core Detroit. “Thousands of people being in community, laughing and enjoying each other’s company in the city that we love — that is a beautiful thing. Eastern Market After Dark is an event where everyone belongs. Everyone wants to be valued and validated, and EMAD is one of those events where we are because you are. And people love that because they can see themselves in the mirror that the city is reflecting on them. People from all walks of life participate and benefit.”

Investing in Neighborhoods

“It’s amazing how Detroit Month of Design and Eastern Market After Dark have grown this year. Month of Design included over 100 events across the city this year, bringing energy into new neighborhoods and venues, and expanding the types of organizations, businesses and experiences featured in the festival,” said Akua Hill, Director of Arts & Culture, Gilbert Family Foundation. In addition to EMAD, which Hill said was “our biggest yet,” she also mentioned how important it was to support the six nonprofits that participated in the festival. “It’s a clear reflection of the depth and breadth of Detroit’s growing creative economy. That’s what makes EMAD and DMOD so special: the visibility they generate for the city’s creative entrepreneurs, and the community connections they cultivate.”

As Hill mentioned, our grant to Design Core Detroit also supported six neighborhood-based organizations that produced their own hyper-local events during Month of Design. Each organization received a stipend along with project management, technical assistance, and training in accessibility, storytelling, and marketing.

Two of this year’s six are current Gilbert Family Foundation grantees. Slow Stitch/Neighborhood Arts School, a first-time GFF grantee, used the support to advance its Reside Teaching Artist Fellowship and the renovation of its new neighborhood hub. Canfield Consortium staged an event in collaboration with the CONTAINER program.

Month of Design’s calendar this year was also threaded through with some of our other partners hosting events connected to our broader portfolio: from CONTAINER artist Taylor Childs’ events, Fashion Through the Lens of Fibers and Dress Poetics, to Casting the Net: Zahra Almajidi Solo Exhibition presented by PLAYGROUND Detroit, to Emerging Together, staged in partnership with grantee Mirrored Glass. Two fundraising events during the month — a documentary premiere benefiting Mint Artists Guild and the RED: Children’s Art Museum and Gallery, and a soirée supporting the Joe Louis Greenway Partnership and Detroit Riverfront Conservancy — rounded out an incredible experience that reached well beyond any single night.

Why We Keep Showing Up

Our support for Design Core Detroit and Eastern Market After Dark is part of a larger commitment: creating access to the arts for all Detroiters, and building career pathways for the artists and designers who shape the city’s culture. That work also includes our endowed scholarship at College for Creative Studies and our lead support for Pensole Lewis College Detroit, the nation’s only HBCU dedicated to design education.

This is all part of our joint $500 million, 10-year commitment with Rocket Community Fund to build opportunity for Detroiters.

As Detroit Month of Design marks another year of bringing designers, artists, and residents together, we’re proud to have helped make Eastern Market After Dark, and the neighborhood events surrounding it, possible. Until next September!