McEwen Headlines Detroit House Opera Project
Assistant Professor of Architecture Mitch McEwen is transforming a derelict house in southwest Detroit to a neighborhood opera house, utilizing her $10,000 Knight Arts Challenge to fund the project. The Knight Foundation covered McEwen’s plans in their Knight Blog, highlighting McEwen’s focus on community engagement and her goals to bring art and performance to vacant space.
The house, which McEwen purchased from the city, is 2,000 square feet with two levels and a basement. McEwen is working in collaboration with Marcelo Lopez Dinardi, her partner at New York firm, A(n), and the artist group HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN? They are gutting the interior, removing a level of the house and side wall to make an open theater space that will serve as a platform for Detroit storytelling. The project aims to integrate with the city on a local level and is collaborating with Detroit artists to advise and direct the staging of original works that integrate stories from the neighborhood.
McEwen was featured on Fox News’ “Rebuild Detroit” series for her work on House Opera.
“How can we take what is often positioned as a type of blight, or something that is a drain on the city, and turn it into opportunity?” said McEwen. “I look at a typical house as an infrastructure for supporting the amazing culture that’s already here in the city.”
Visit the Knight Blog to read the full story and learn more about McEwen’s project.
Watch the featured Fox News video on McEwen Studio: http://mcewenstudio.com/web/press/
