Happy 2020 and thank you #Detroit for your continued support! Please join us for a closing Open House event for the DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY on Saturday, January 18th from 4-8pm.

DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY explores those distinct moments, memories and imaginings that define our great city. If you haven’t visited, please come check us out before the show closes. If you’ve been here or been part of of some of the recent programming – including the opening reception, artist talk with Darin Darby and Delores Slowinski, M.L. Liebler’s PoetryMusicArt Jam, John Sims Detroit Art Residency and the Sorrento Project, VidaAfroLatina’s film screening or Dancing by Day with Detroit Diaspora – we THANK YOU and invite you back for a closer look and an intimate afternoon with the artists. We’ll be here all day with Serengeti artisan teas and cocktails, powerful Detroit art (much of it for sale!), and more…

Featured artists include: Brian Nickson, Carolyn Thompson, Damon Chamblis, Darin Darby, Dolores Slowinski, James Charles, Morris, Jeni Wheeler, Jonathan Harris, Jon DeBoer, John Sims, Kathleen Rashid, Lance Johnson, Melissa Vize, Robert W. Clark III and Waleed Johnson with special contributions by Eric’s I’ve Been Framed, M.L. Liebler, and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN).

– Lastly, our FB Fundraiser is still on-going. Please help us to reach (or at least approach) our goal. Click HERE to learn more or donate!

<< Featured Image: “Detroitism” by Jon DeBoer from the DFH Exhibit >>

We look forward to celebrating with you on 1/18!

2019 was an awesome year of firsts, which started with our beloved Aretha and ends with the DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY Exhibit. Thank you to all who’ve been with us on this journey: Artists, enthusiasts, visitors, collaborators, neighbors, tourists, supporters, family members, construction workers, and the media (special shout out to the Detroit Metro Times!). See you for more rich programming throughout 2020!

We are a not-for-profit 501(c) 3. Your donations are welcome!
Thank You for your support.

As his residency comes to a close, Irwin House Artist-in-Residence, John Sims reflects on his time in Detroit in this heartfelt Metro Times piece with a message for us all….

Don’t forget the block

What I learned returning to my childhood
neighborhood for an artist residence

By John Sims

In early November 2019, the Irwin Gallery welcomed Detroit native, conceptual artist, writer and producer, John Sims, as its inaugural Artist-In-Residence. While working and residing on site, Sims has been developing a three-part multimedia project based on his childhood block on Detroit’s West Side. Entitled Sorrento: Portrait of a Detroit Block, the project is Sims’ deeply personal response to the decay and desolation of his home street – a reflection of many Detroit neighborhoods, and a microcosm of urban communities decimated by systemic abandonment and neglect throughout the country.

On Sunday, December 8, 2019, the gallery will host a farewell reception for SIms, who will be returning to Sarasota, FL, in the following days. The event gives the public an opportunity to meet the artist, socialize, take in the DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY exhibit, and see the work Sims has been creating on behalf of his Sorrento project.

Sorrento: Portrait of a Detroit Block  Presentation | Sunday, December 8, 2019, 4:00 – 6:00 pm. RSVP: irwinhousegallery@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/events/557429438373126/

Artist John Sims looks at his childhood neighborhood in ‘Sorrento: Portrait of a Detroit Block’

Last year, Detroit’s Irwin House Global Art Center & Gallery opened its doors earlier than originally planned following the death of Aretha Franklin, who grew up nearby, in order to mount an exhibition dedicated to her life. Artist John Sims, a curator for that first show, is wrapping up a stint as the gallery’s first artist-in-residence, which is also inspired by the neighborhood he grew up in — in this case, Sims’ west side neighborhood at Sorrento Avenue and West Chicago Street.

RELATED John Sims, a regular Renaissance man, returns to Detroit for lecture

The three-part multimedia project, which is described as “Sims’ deeply personal response to the decay and desolation of his home street,” includes a visually enhanced “VideoPoem” (the poem is included in M.L. Liebler’s Respect, also featured in this week’s issue), a print installation that mimics the experience of walking down the block, and a book.

Closing reception from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8; Irwin House Gallery; 2351 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; 313-932-7690; irwinhousegallery.com. Admission is free. On view through Jan. 5.

Posted By Lee DeVito  | Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 9:46 am
Read the original article HERE

Saturday, November 30, 2019 – Thanksgiving Weekend – The Irwin House Gallery was thrilled to welcome Detroit Diaspora for a day-party welcoming “natives, ex-pats, transplants, and those dispersed souls from the D as well as those visiting, and those who feel an undeniable, almost spiritual, desire to represent the D world wide.”

The evening featured sets from Detroit’s own Drake Phifer, Detroit via Brooklyn’s Marilyn Griffin, and Chi-town’s Duane E Powell as well as a special performance from Detroit via Chicago’s own @Angel-A. Food was provided by Kaleidoscope Catering.

Set against the backdrop of the DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY Exhibit – which highlights the city’s people, places, imaginings, and memories – Dancing By Day was a celebration of all Detroiters, and especially those of us who carry Detroit in our hearts around the globe and return home, faithfully, this time every year.

Happy Holiday Season from The Irwin House Gallery!

(Pictured above: Chicago Guest DJ, Duane E. Powell)

Below event photos courtesy of Drake Phifer

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2019 | 5 PM — Yes, we know it’s Noel Night; All the more reason to add this event to your festivities! As part of its BLACK WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA film series, VidaAfrolatina is presenting a film screening of Antonia – a moving story of four young women in Brazil, blessed with talent and striving to remake their turbulent lives. Following the screening, students from Rio de Janeiro — Jéssica Menezes, Gabriel Ferreira and Nathalia Costa — will lead a discussion about the film and parallels between the lives of African Americans and Afro-Brazilians.

VidaAfrolatina is hosting BLACK WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA film events tocelebrate the resilience, genius, beauty and power of women African descent, and to connect the African Diaspora in Detroit and in Latin America. VidaAfrolatina is an international women’s fund based in Detroit that supports Black women’s organizations in Latin America.

SUGGESTED DONATION $10 | TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Panelists: Jéssica Menezes, Gabriel Ferreira and Nathalia Costa in discussion

The Irwin House Global Art Center & Gallery welcomes Detroit native, conceptual artist, writer and producer, John Sims, as its inaugural Artist-In-Residence. While working and residing on site, Sims is developing a three-part multimedia project comprised of a VideoPoem, print installation, and book, based on his childhood block on Detroit’s West Side. Entitled Sorrento: Portrait of a Detroit Block, the project is Sims’ deeply personal response to the decay and desolation of his home street – a reflection of many Detroit neighborhoods, and a microcosm of urban communities decimated by systemic abandonment and neglect throughout the country.

Sims penned an essay about his 1980s recollections on the block and the pain of losing the physical anchors of childhood memories, in the context of downtown Detroit’s resurgence. The text led to the poem, D-City Blues, and an accompanying music video, which makes up the first part of the project. The poem was selected for inclusion in the newly released book edited by M.L. Liebler, RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press, 2019). The D-City Blues VideoPoem also fits within the DETROIT FUTURE HISTORY Exhibit, which explores local perspectives, memories, and imaginings for the future, and runs at the Irwin House Gallery through January 5, 2020.

In its entirety, Sims’ Sorrento work forms an exhibition project featuring the book, 30 portraiture plates, with 15 prints on each side of a corridor to mimic the feeling of walking down the block, along with the D-City Blues music VideoPoem, and video histories of the people who previously lived and remain on the block. While developing the project at the Irwin Gallery, the artist will engage the general public through three public programs during the course of his residency. The Sorrento project will be staged in Detroit and travel to other cities dealing with similar issues of gentrification and urban decay.

A Detroit native currently living in Sarasota, FL, John Sims creates both art and curatorial projects spanning the areas of installation, performance, text, music, film, and large-scale activism, informed by mathematics, design, racial politics, and sacred symbolism. He has lectured and exhibited widely including in Hungary, Spain, Israel and Argentina and most recently in Slovenia. In 2017, he made the National Coalition of Against Censorship’s list of Top Free Speech Offenders and Defenders, as a defender. Sims’ work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, The Guardian, The Root, ThinkProgress, Al Jazeera, Guernica, Art in America, Transition, Sculpture, Science News, Nature and Scientific American. He has written for CNN, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, Guernica Magazine, The Rumpus, and The Grio.

• Sorrento & Beyond: Artist Talk with John Sims: Saturday, November 16, 2019, 4:00 – 6:00 pm.
• Cocktail Reception and Film Screening, Saturday, November 23, 2019, 7:00 – 10:00 pm 
• Residency Closing Reception and Sorrento Project Presentation, Tuesday, December 3, 2019, 7:00 – 9:00 pmRSVP: irwinhousegallery@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/events/533515727472430/.

General hours are Thurs-Sun 12-6pm. Open by appointment other times. Irwin House Global Art Center & Gallery, 2351 W. Grand Blvd. (Between LaSalle & Linwood), Detroit, MI 48208. Ph: 313.932.7690 | http://irwinhousegallery.org IG: @irwinhousegallery | FB: /irwinhousegallery

Friday, November 8, 2019, we were thrilled and honored to celebrate the release of M.L. Liebler’s new book, RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music. The evening was led by the maestro and master poet himself, M.L. Liebler, and featured live music performed by The Coyote Monk Poetry band, along with a line-up of contributing poets to the book, including John Sims, our Artist-in-Residence.

This was the first such event for the Irwin House, but certainly won’t be the last…

Images courtesy of John Sims
Image courtesy of Writer L. Bush

Special thanks to M.L Liebler and John Sims for making the night fantastic!