Last year over 4,000 people joined over 200 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians and other performance artists to celebrate the inaugural launch of the People’s Arts Festival (PAF) at The Russell Industrial Center in Detroit. This year’s Festival planners expect that crowd to double – once again securing its claim to being the largest arts festival in the City of Detroit. The Second Annual People’s Arts Festival will be open to the public from 11:00 a.m. until midnight on Saturday, September 13, 2008.

featuring…
More Than 100 Visual Artists and Craftspeople
Over 40 Bands and Performers
Film and Fashion
Restaurants, Beverages and much much more…

Visit rccadetroit.org/paf08/ for more information.

The deadline to sign up is soon approaching… applications and information can found at rccadetroit.org on the left sidebar. We hope to see all you there on September 13th.

There’s a new drive-in movie theater in Detroit, and if you roll up in an SUV, you’ll pay top dollar.

The drive-in, located in the parking lot of the Russell Industrial Center (1600 Clay St., along I-75), was to hold its first showing Saturday night.

Here’s the price list:

• $2 for walkers or bike riders.

• $5 for cars

• $10 for SUVs.

“I’m doing it because they’re gas-guzzlers,” said Ed Gardiner, the drive-in’s organizer. “We’re green. Somebody’s got to take a stand.”

What if you’re driving a hybrid SUV? “We’ll give you the bicycle rate,” he said.

Taken from the Auto News Brief in July 6th’s Free Press

Detroityes.com has people talking…  Check it out

Celebrety Judge, Eric Novack (or is it Novak now?) was in the Detroit Free Press the other day…

“What we need to do is get the developers to address their square footage costs,” Eric Novak, head of commercial real estate and advertising at Boydel Development Group, said during Fusion’s Saturday session. With 10 loft developments downtown, Boydel has a 95% occupancy rate, Novak said, because of its rates, which he described as about $600 a month. Affordable housing is necessary not just for living space, but also for offices. Boydel is developing the 2.2-million-square-foot Russell Industrial Center into office, studio and gallery space for small businesses.

“It’s all economics,” Novak said. “It’s affordable space for people.”

Read the Rest of the Article…

(Photo courtesy of Stacy Ellis)

Stacey and Valdavia Ellis are getting ready to take off later this year by opening a store in the city, moving forward on a plan to create unique seats for automobiles and hiring three to five people.

The claim to fame of their Russell Industrial Center-based business, B Black Apparel, is a patented measuring system that allows the couple to create clothing that fits specific body types. For instance, Cindy Crawford and Tyra Banks may be about the same height and weight but they’re proportioned differently enough that some clothing would fit one well but not the other. B Black’s technology lets them create the clothing to either specifications.

Custom Denim!? That’s what’s up.

Read more about B. Black Apparel @ > Model D

(Photo courtesy of Stacy Ellis) 

Furniture and commercial buildings. Those are two things people usually don’t associate together but they are the bread and butter of Metropolitan Architecture Practice. The firm based in the Russell Industrial Center is a full service design and architecture firm but it makes its dough either designing commercial buildings or furniture.

“We lean on one or the other when one slows down,” says Roger Berent, principal of MAP.

Berent and Kyle Hulewat founded the firm a year ago after working together in another architecture firm. The Russell offered them a place to set up shop cheaply while providing a multitude of creative muses to draw from.

Great job fellas! Keep up the good work.

Read more @ > ModelD