Like many utopia projects before, Detroit has become a site where entrepreneurs, investors and artists have projected their desire to build a more perfect space. The artists involved have been invited to design projects that will include installation, community collaboration, workshops and live performances. This project seeks to serve several populations including the art community at large, which POPPS Packing/Emporium is located. Popps was initially developed to provide a supportive foundation for the art community as a venue that afforded emerging artists a place to create and exhibit new work. This neighborhood serves a diverse community comprised a Polish, Bengali, African-Americans and mixed- raced residents with 33% living below the a poverty line. Popps believes that the arts play a role in materially and conceptually enhancing the existence of people at all levels of society. Their “approach includes a philosophical reinterpretation of blight, not as an affliction, but a starting point that provides raw materials and inspiration for performances, traditional and nontraditional installations, and architectural interventions within the surrounding neighborhood. The opportunity to engage with raw spaces and join the conversation about emotional, artistic and economic recovery in a post-‐industrial landscape”.
